Intro

This post features my Kenmore 385.18221. Similar Kenmore models are the 385.16221, 385.16227, 385.16765; the Janome 11574 is a rebadged 18221. (All of the 385 series Kenmores were made by Janome for Sears.)

For reference:

If you have one for the 18221 specifically, feel free to send it my way. They’re very similar though.

Reuniting & Relubing

I sewed on this machine very intensely from 2008-2011. When I was finally reunited with it in 2021, it was very extremely dusty and had suffered some additional dings here and there during a cross-country road trip. When I tentatively twisted the handwheel it simply felt “unhappy.”

I read up on how to re-lube a sewing machine after such an extended period of non-use. The tl;dr is that you want to use sewing machine oil for fast moving metal-on-metal parts and some kind of grease for slow moving metal-on-metal parts. Of course, sewing machines these days have plenty of plastic-on-metal parts. For these you need to use a plastic safe lube - silicone is a popular one - because petroleum based products can degrade plastics (and rubbers). This was my first time doing a sewing machine (partial) servicing but I think it went ok. I took all the casing off, cleaned out all the built up fuzz, and oiled or greased whatever seemed like needed refreshing. While I had it apart I washed all the plastic panels and gently sanded down all the dings and damage with a magic eraser. This worked almost better than I’d hoped for restoring it to a white condition.

Note the multiple photos of the position of the one really hard to see screw, where the screwdriver is passing a spring to reach into the depths of the machine. I couldn’t get the front cover off because this mofo was lurking deep in the guts of the machine. I hunted around the interwebs for an old repair manual with an exploded diagram (see: screw “D”) to confirm my suspicions then removed the lurking screw. A screwdriver with a magnet on its end is pretty much critical to getting the thing back in. Aside from that, pretty smooth sailing. It’s always easier to put something back together again when you take pics along the way. :)

The Kenmore 18221 is a fantastic machine. I’m really thankful to the friend who let me store it at their place so I didn’t have to give it away when I fell on hard times. Now that things are better I looked for a new machine and there is nothing like this in the market anymore. I got a few fancier Jukis but this one is still my favorite. ^^;

One last thing I did was replace the dim incandescent bulb with a led one.