Oh, Brother!

A neighbor called on Saturday.

"Do you work on machines, too?"

"Yes, I do."

"My Little Brother is in desperate need."

"Bring it over.  I would be happy to look at it."

She arrived in a few hours with the machine.

"What's wrong with it?"

"The tension is all off and feel this?"  As she turned the hand wheel.  It was a bit stiff in one part of the revolution, relatively speaking.  It sure didn't turn feel like any of the machines I am used to.

I looked it over and found some screws that looked as if they held the clamshell body together. 

Then I popped the race cover off and removed the hook with about ten pounds of lint.

"I didn't know you could do that."

Then I removed the needle plate and found about ten more pounds of lint. 

"That's a nice little screw driver"

"It's all about the tools, J.  All about the tools."

She left on her errand when I told her I would VERY CAREFULLY try to take it apart. 

It was dirty and needed oil.  I cleaned it and gingerly put it back together.  I hate putting metal screws into plastic fittings.  I worry about strippage (if there isn't such a word, there should be)

As you can figure out by now, there was nothing wrong with the tension.  The stitches all worked fine and I called her to report as much 90 minutes later.  To her credit, the needle I removed from the machine seemed did not feel as if it had a burr.  But who knows?  I did not wind a new bobbin to see how well it works.  I only checked that it worked. 

If she ever calls again to ask me to fix this machine, I will tell her that I prefer not to.  It is just too risky getting those screws seated just right.  Sure it is light weight but if I had to sew on this machine I would hate sewing.

I happily went back to my Singer 15-91 with its nifty new light switch.