The other night when I was sewing my grey floral dress, my 401A started making a horrible noise.  :[  I know it is simply due to a lack of recent maintenance.  I do make sure the lint is cleaned out regularly, but it hasn't been properly oiled in years.  Oops.

The last time I had it oiled, it was done by a man who was older than dirt back then.  I'm not even sure he is still alive let alone still in business.  And, I was worried about being without my machine for any length of time since I've been feeling the desire to sew more often lately.

Then I thought, what the hell is this nonsense?  I've built houses!!!  :D

So, I went online and found a copy of the Singer 401 manual.  I'm sure I have the original somewhere, but it's likely still at mom's.  It told me I needed a brush, a screwdriver, Singer oil and Singer lubricant.  I had the first two, so I went to Joann and bought a bottle of Singer oil from the sewing machine business that operates inside their store.  They didn't have the lubricant for the gears, so I'll have to order that online.  The bottle looks positively vintage, no?

The manual was beyond easy to follow.  It has pictures with cute little oil droplets.  :D  You really can't go wrong.

The noise was still there, so I figured it was the lubricant that was really the issue.  I was able to scrape a small amount from the side of the gears and place it inside the teeth.  That fixed the noise...but I'll order the lubricant so I can treat all the gears properly.

I feel so proud of myself!  And, I saved myself the service fee.