What is sewing machine oil? Well, it’s actually a type of oil just like your vegetable oil, specially made to keep your sewing machine’s functioning consistent. You can address the oil as the heavenly-water of your machine that gives it a new life after every application. However, as a concern fashionista you must have a sound knowledge of its types, proper application, and reasons for using it. You may read our another write up best sewing machine oil: genius selections.
Otherwise, you may gum up the machine any time out of your unconsciousness regarding any of the fact. Hence, today this article introduces you to these three things in detail. We hope you won’t miss any of the segments for your own sake.
What is Sewing Machine Oil
You already know about sewing machine oil. Now you will get a brief idea on it. Let’s know.
Kinds of Sewing Machine Oil
Although there might be numerous types of it yet three types of sewing machine oil are the mostly used all over the world: natural, mineral, and synthetic. Let’s learn each of the types in detail.
Natural
Natural oil is basically a natural alternative to sewing machine oil, which is produced out of ester oil, jojoba, and silicone. The vital fact to keep in mind regarding this type is that it may not function as efficiently as that of the other two. Moreover, this oil can defile your machine if its ingredients aren’t mixed correctly.
Mineral
Mineral sewing machine oil is produced using petrochemicals or the left over of petroleum. This kind of oil is watery white, odorless and most importantly- the most efficient. Therefore, most of the sewing machine oils are produced out of petroleum ingredients.
Synthetic
This kind of oil is a synthetic substitution for mineral oils. It is usually safe for being used on the painted, rubber, and plastic surface. However, this kind of oil is much more costly than mineral one.
Note: Always use the oil that is made especially for being used with sewing machine. Never use cooking or motor oil because the ingredients of these oils can cause malfunction to your machine’s parts and ultimately gum up the machine.
How to Oil my Machine?
It is often seen that many of the users don’t even know how to oil their sewing machine in a proper way and as a result the machine breaks down now and then. Hence, here you will have a step by step guideline that shows you the correct path of oiling your machine.
Step 1:
At the beginning, make sure that the machine’s engine is switched off. Then, proceed to clean the machine thoroughly. To do so, at first withdraw the throat plate as this is the place where most of the dust and debris are stored. For the easy and successful removal of the plate, you can go through the instructional manual that you have got with the machine.
There are some machines that require you to unscrew the plate using a screwdriver while some other machines feature a simple plate that you can remove simply sliding off.
Step 2:
Take a nylon brush and collect the stored dust. Slowly go in between all the crannies and nooks. If the machine contains a bobbin case, you should take it out to clean properly. Keep going inside and be sure that you have cleaned the in-between of the feed-dogs.
Here, the most vital fact to keep in mind that you should never use compressed canned air. The air will spread the dust and debris further inside.
Step 3:
When you are done with cleaning, now it’s time to oil the machine. To oil it correctly, you should use your left hand to rotate the hand-wheel slowly and observe where the friction originates. This is the part you are to oil.
However, at first drop a whit of the oil on these moving parts. Once the required amount of oil is applied, turn the hand-wheel back-and-forth several times so that the oil can reach every part of the machine proportionately.
Step 4:
In the end, use a piece of fabric to get the excess oil absorbed so that the leftover cannot cause stain to your sewing fabric. Then, install the throat plate and you are done. After the installation, it is better to remove the dust from the upper part with a brush or piece of cloth.
Note: If you are fed up with oiling the machine repeatedly then it means your machine is consuming dust and debris in more amounts. To prevent the machine from consuming those, use a protective case to leave the machine covered with it when you aren’t using it.
Why to oil your sewing machine?
Even though most sewing machine users oil their machine on a regular basis yet most of them are unaware of the fact- why to oil the machine. Although it’s not that much mandatory to learn yet it’s interesting. Thereby, here follow a simple explanation regarding the cause of oiling your sewing machine. Let’s explore!
To reduce friction
You might be aware of the fact that your sewing machine contains numerous metal parts inside and each of these is connected to one another. So, whenever you operate the machine, the metal parts come closer to one another thus create friction.
The more the friction is created, the more the chance is of the parts being eroded very soon. The erosion of any of the parts can cause major malfunction to your machine.
Here begins the responsibility of sewing machine oil. The oil keeps the parts slippery and so when these touch one another, they touch through the oil, not directly. Eventually, friction is created minimally thus erosion of the parts is very less.
To prevent irritating noise
Have you ever observed how harsh sound is created by dry cough and how it causes pain to your throat?
Just like dry coughing, anoil-less dry sewing machine doesn’t only cause harm to your machine but also produces harsh noises.
Preventing the noise is possible only through the miniaturization of the machine that is done well by sewing machine oil.
Final words
To sum up, to define what is sewing machine oil, it can be said that it is the catalyst that keeps the performance of your machine. Without this, your machine can never perform consistently that can ultimately impact your projects’ outcomes adversely. Therefore, in the end, we highly recommend you to oil your sewing machine regularly. And most importantly make sure that the oil you use is 100% authentic.