Sunday, November 13, 2011

Singer 301

This is my new 301.   I shined up the bed a little bit and it glistens.  I don't think this machine was used much.  There are no scratches on the bed at all.  I haven't had a chance to work on her yet.  I had intended to today but Sally came over with her machines and we played with those.

Her go to machine was sluggish she said.  We cleaned and lubed it and it worked ok, but there was a clack every time the cam follower dropped into the vally on the zz cam.  It drove me nuts.  We tried to figure it out but she claimed that it was sewing  better and "I think it clacked like that before" so we went on to another machine. 

The New Home (probably 1990s?)  had been given to her a couple of years ago. It would stitch for one or two stitches then not advance the fabric at all.   It was very clean and DRY  (sort of like something I say about an incision when I am charting at work).   We got out the tri flow and the hair dryer.   We figured  it had to be the feed dogs and found that the feed dogs were stuck down.  More heat and lubrication and we finally got it stitching.  It makes a very nice stitch. 
I used my new knowledge gained from my Ray White class.  I left the tools in the tool box and oiled, applied heat and moved the parts in question.  Ray talked about tracing backward from the problem area.  It works.  Feed dogs, he said, have more adjustments than any other part of the sewing machine.   I was about to re set the feed dog height when I looked again and discovered that, indeed, it would help to have the needle plate on.  Sally had suggested it about ten minutes earlier.  Despite my ignorance and her deferring to me, the "certified" technician, we finally figured it all out.  What fun.

Then I gave her the five dollar Singer 27 VS I had bought on Wednesday.  I had freed it up (LW is my friend) She needed a machine to go in her treadle cabinet.  This machine should work.  It doesn't have the large, spoked wheel, but I bet she can make it treadle.  Besides, she will have a blast getting all that grime off and shining up the machine.   Yes, I am trying to get her hooked.

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