I was sewing along happily but noticed a hum despite no pressure on the controller. It sure sounded like a sewing machine motor hum. I thought, perhaps, it might be the fluorescent (shoot I should have left fluorescent misspelled for someone I know) lights. I turned them off. There are four in the sewing loft.
I still heard the hum.
I leaned way into the Necchi. It most certainly was the motor. Drat. I unplugged it and picked up the foot controller. It was hot. Very hot. Extremely hot. Too hot to handle. Double drat.
I did not want to mess with fixing a foot controller. I wanted to sew. Triple Drat.
I found a Singer button foot controller, removed it's wires and took the "new" controller off of the Necchi. It had cooled by this time.
As soon as I looked at it I understood the problem. The connection was not, well, disconnecting despite my removing my foot COMPLETELY from the controller each time I stopped sewing. The dang thing is crap; poorly made. I was unable to make any correction or adjustment.
The Singer foot controller works well. It is a bit stiff. Maybe I will fix that sometime but not now. I want to sew.
Comma review: The Oxford, or serial, comma is used before the conjunction in a series. "I can repair Singers, Necchis, and Kenmores. In addition, I can describe these repairs in such a way that readers are mesmerized and entertained."
ReplyDeletePlease, no comma between the final adjective in a series and the modified noun.
Betty T
Thank you for correcting me. I have fixed it. Once upon a time I thought I would like to be an English teacher. Instead I became a nurse. Likely a good thing.
DeleteWe (my husband and I) just took apart one of those same stupid controllers last weekend for a similar problem. I won't be buying another one of them. We had it taken apart and placed next to an old foot controller from a 1950s New Home machine and the difference was astounding.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I want to thank you for your blog. It has been incredibly helpful to me. I started collecting vintage machines about six months ago. My most challenging (and fun!) repair thus far has been a Rocketeer that was frozen solid and missing some pieces when I bought it for $10. It is now cleaned up and has all its parts and is one of my favorite machines.
Right now we are working on a Necchi BF that I bought on Craigslist locally. It had belonged to a professional seamstress, but I don't think she ever cleaned the machine or took it in for service! I opened it up and there was the equivalent of a small furry animal inside. The machine did not want to move. It is now cleaned out and oiled and my husband and I are planning to rewire it this weekend. I'd eventually like to do most of this work myself, but for the moment, he knows more than I do so he is helping me.
So glad someone understand English - even though I'm Welsh! :0)
ReplyDelete