Magic

I honestly don't know how it happened.  All I can figure is that these machines are pretty forgiving, or else some OSMG spirit took pity on me and fixed the timing on this machine in the middle of the night.  I did not re-time it after making sure the needle wasn't hitting anything.  Sunday morning, since it sounded good I decided to try stitching and this is what I got.  WOOO HOOO.  I was very happy.  I did not photograph the bottom but it is fine.  The thread is a bit oily from flushing the bobbin case and hook.

These 306s have a bobbin case that is secured with a position finger.  It is tricky, but you have to get the position finger just so to allow the thread to"escape"  At first I thought that was the problem with my bottom tension being too tight.  It wasn't.  It was just gooey in there and flushing it out with the alcohol and the tri flow must have been the magic cure.  That is all I can figure.

  I spent some time cleaning her up.  The crinkle finish is a challenge and after a bit I could not decide if I was removing dirt or paint.  Y ou know, that beige finish is deceiving.  I quit.  She needed a dust cover so I ripped an old sheet up intending to sew together a drawstring bag.

What the heck, try the 3 stitch ZZ cam.  And it worked.  For a while.  Then the fabric would not track and the presser bar got lazy. AGAIN.  All this happened while I was talking to my sister on speaker phone.  Gotta go, Alice, got a machine in crisis.

I took the whole presser bar assembly apart.  I don't recommend it if avoidable.  The culprit was some goo on the part that rests in the groove in the back of the machine where the lever rises and falls.

This part was a bear to remove and a grizzly bear to re-install.  Finally it just slid in.  Again, MAGIC.

I also realized that the feed dogs were not fastened tightly.  I had tightened them once, but having never removed them in the first place I did not know how tight they should be.   They were VERY loose.  Thank Rain for encouraging me to get the Brownell bits (http://vssmb.blogspot.com/) Itightened them up and got the machine all back together again, and VOILA.

GORGEOUS STITCHES.  I finished the bag and closed her all up.

NEXT, the 301A in progress.

Singer 306W

Betsy came over and we took some photos of machines we need to list on eBay.  This 306 was next to  the 306K we are listing.

I decided to try to get it stitching.

As I recall, I bought this machine last year and then passed it along to Betsy for what I paid for it.  It had a terrible thread nest and I felt rather badly that I had not checked to see if the thing went all the way around.  Still, she managed to get the thread nest out but it  would not stitch without breaking the thread.  I took it back from her and vowed to work on it and get it stitching.  Today seemed like as good a day as any.

I got out the tri-flow and the hair dryer and managed to get it freed up.  I spent hours cleaning and tri-flowing and blow drying the sucker.   It was so gummed up the presser foot bar would "glide" down rather than fall into place.  When I finally decided to try to stitch with it, I could not.  The bottom tension is just too tight, even though the thread pulls freely from the bobbin case.  I decided that it has to be the hook.  It probably is just so gooey and gummed up.  I tried to take the hook off, I couldn't but I did manage to muck up the timing quite nicely in my endeavors.  Finally at 10:00 PM  I was able to get it so the needle and hook did not hit each other.  Tomorrow, if I don't put it away I will try to re-time and see if I can get it stitching.

I don't really like these machines.  They all clatter  when stitching. The 206 X 13 needle is not as readily available and more expensive.  BUT this machine can be converted to a treadle.  So if you want a zig zag to treadle, this is the machine .  Perhaps, if I can get it stitching I will try it out in the treadle base and see how that works.