Hi Colleen, Thanks for your advice! I've oiled the machine in all the holes, but when i turned it over, I couldn't see any holes for me to oil? I've had a look and usually the first stitch works, and then afterwards, it all just goes crazy. the thread snaps, sometimes the thread under the material gets all bunched up. Sometimes it even decides to do a few stitches! But the bottom of the material never looks right. I've tried moving the dog pedal (? is that what it's called? the little razor things) but I can't decide which is 'up'. I'm wondering if that's just adding to my problems. Either way, the thread keeps on snapping regardless of what I do, whether there are stitches or not. I tried playing around with the tension but it doesn't really seem to do much? When I turned it over, I had a look at what was going on, and it seemed the thread would just get tangled in the bobbin, which then caused it to snap. But I'm at a loss as to *why* it's snapping. RE the vintage singer forum, if it helps, I'm in Australia. There's a label on the engine that says it's made in Victoria, by "Warren Playton" but I've tried googling that name too, and it's come up with nothing. Thanks for your advice! I'll give the tension thing another go after lunch.

Try playing with the tension.....upper and lower and see if it helps..try different stitch sizes...does it look like the cone thread has burrs on it? Did you try a different cone? That is what I would start trying...I've used cone on my Featherweight using a cone stand and it worked for me. Good luck

Thank you Dawn. I can do that :) Wasn't sure if they need to be uploaded or something. http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/Daniel_20-13/My%20Old%20Sewing%20Machine/101_1985.jpg http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/Daniel_20-13/My%20Old%20Sewing%20Machine/101_1987.jpg http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/Daniel_20-13/My%20Old%20Sewing%20Machine/101_1990.jpg http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/Daniel_20-13/My%20Old%20Sewing%20Machine/101_1992.jpg http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/Daniel_20-13/My%20Old%20Sewing%20Machine/101_2004.jpg

Thanks for the info unclebill. Actually the 50+ year old cord appears to be OK. It's been coiled and hung up on the back of the machine so it doesn't get stepped on or dragged around on the floor. As for the concrete floor, I'm in the process of finishing out that corner of the basement by firring and drywalling the walls and installing a suspended ceiling, and it will soon have sheet vinyl flooring under the machine and the chair where she sits to sew. I would think that vinyl flooring would insulate her from the concrete floor pretty well in case the GFCI didn't do it's job for any reason. I was tied up this morning with another new probelm involving wiring. Yesterday I opened the dryer receptacle box to make sure the box and metal conduit running down from the sill joist is grounded, and surprise, surprise it wasn't. Whoever wired my house must have been going by a 1910 vintage code book or something. Anyway, this morning I cut a piece of #10 bare wire and pigtailed the ground wire to the box. When I flipped the double 30A breaker back on I heard a sound like a muffled "whump" over at the dryer. I quickly turned off the breaker and rechecked everything in the box and found nothing wrong. So I closed up the box, plugged in the dryer and turned it on. The dryer works fine just as before and there is no smell, smoke, or anything to indicate an overheated wire or something like that. I ran the dryer for a while and nothing unusual happened. I have no clue what made that noise but I guess I'll just ignore it unless it happens again. There was quite a bit of concrete dust in the bottom of the box which came from the hole I drilled in the wall to fasten the box to the wall more securely with another 2-1/2" Tapcon screw. I don't see how that screw or the dust could have affected the wiring or the receptacle but it and the pigtail for the ground wire are the only things different from the way it was before I opened it up.