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sakon76 ([personal profile] sakon76) wrote2012-04-30 11:31 pm

I Lack The Correct Word

German is a wonderful language. It has word constructs like "fahrvergnügen" and "schadenfreude." And I suspect it has a word which I do not know that means "I hate being right."

Earlier this evening, I started running the gathering stitches on the last tier of green tulle. And while I verified by touch that coming off the spool the Gutermann thread has some lumps, I was going slowly enough and using a large enough needle that it shouldn't have been as bad as it was. After the fourth thread snap in twelve yards, I unthreaded Lilo (the machine), turned her by hand, and listened.

*clink*

The needle's side is hitting against the bobbin race (I think that's the right term for the part). Polishing it, in fact. Which means the needle bar needs to be shifted forward, which is beyond my capability.

F*ck.

So I unplugged it, and pulled the Singer 401A up out of the desk. The 401A which I bought in case Lilo stopped working.

Yeah, that feeling of "I hate it when I'm right."

I cleaned and oiled the 401A, following the bit of its manual I'd printed out. I had no grease for the gears, but everything else got done. Including removing the lint under the feed dogs. The machine dates to 1957 and I seriously do not think the lint has been cleared out once since the day it first walked out of the store! It was packed. Solid. So me and the tweezers and the seam ripper and a long sturdy needle had a good time of it.

And now it runs. Quite smoothly, in fact.

*looks at time* Dammit, so much for plans for an early bedtime tonight.

[identity profile] xianghua.livejournal.com 2012-05-01 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
I want to know if there's a word in German for 'the sewing machine gods hate me'. My Janome is driving me nuts. How did you learn to do all this fixy stuff for yours? I can't figure out how to fix this one.

[identity profile] sakon76.livejournal.com 2012-05-01 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
In this case I was 80% just following the instructions in the manual. But beyond that there are plenty of resources online for fixing vintage sewing machines. I'm on two mailing lists - Vintage Singers (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vintagesingers/), which is dedicated to Singers, and We Fix It (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wefixit/), which is far less brand specific. There are also groups like Treadle On (http://www.treadleon.net/), which focuses on treadle machines, and ISMACS (http://www.ismacs.net/home.html), which focuses far more on collecting than on repairing, but still has some very useful stuff. And, of course, there are hundreds of blogs and YouTube entries dedicated to repairing and using sewing machines.

Basically, start by googling your sewing machine and seeing what comes up. Because whatever problems you're having, it's almost certain that someone else on the internet has had them too, and maybe has posted their solutions.

[identity profile] xianghua.livejournal.com 2012-05-01 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
THank you, thank you, thank you. :D (The current problem si that something is misaligned or something and the thread gets all loopy and tangled on the underside of the fabric- it's not machine specific but I don't know how to fix it...)

[identity profile] sakon76.livejournal.com 2012-05-01 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Tension problems are the first thing that comes to mind. Is the machine threaded correctly? Are the upper thread tension disks putting tension on the thread? Or, more likely the cause, is the bobbin threaded correctly? I would double-check any diagrams in your manual just to be sure it's not something like spooling off the bobbin in the wrong direction or something. Or just not going through the bobbin tensioner, maybe.

[identity profile] ghilledhu.livejournal.com 2012-05-02 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that sounds like tension or bobbin issues. That's usually what causes those snarls.

[identity profile] flybystardancer.livejournal.com 2012-05-01 08:25 am (UTC)(link)
Ugh, machines not working right... And I'm even less able to fix them! Hope the skirt goes quickly for you!