Sewing machine stuff

 
Don't forget to enter my giveaway by leaving a comment on the giveaway post. You have until midnight, Sunday the 16th.

So, my son put a plug on the machine and the motor ran when the foot pedal was pressed. But, nothing else moved. He couldn't even budge the flywheel. The first thing I thought of was that there's no oil in this thing! I looked under the machine and you can see no trace of there ever having been any grease there. Usually, when oil 'dries out' there is dusty residue. But here there was nothing. It really looked like this machine had never been used. We placed oil in a bunch of holes under and around the machine. 

Mechanism, underside of machine

My son took apart the flywheel area and we put oil in there, too. After putting it together, he managed to loosen up the whole thing. And, yay, the needle was going up and down! So, I put a piece of paper in and nada. The feed dogs wouldn't stay up! There is a dial to turn for different levels of the feed dogs and when I turned it back and forth, the feed dogs came up, but when starting the machine, they wouldn't move back up after moving down. 

feed dogs dial

 
So, I thought, great, I'll try freemotion! I took off the presser foot and stuck a piece of fabric in, started the machine, and promptly broke the needle because I pulled to hard! If I have any left to right threading needles in the house, I wouldn't have any idea where to find them. So, I have to wait until I can find a nearby place that sells them and then call a repair guy to figure out the feed dog problem. Oh, when I broke the needle, the little wire piece right above the needle that holds the thread down, also broke!

I also have a Featherweight and a regular Singer machine, but don't know where the extra needles are for those, or if those needles would even fit this machine.  

My Bernina 1630 is in need of servicing, but I keep putting it off because the dealer is so inaccessible. Due to making many of the streets downtown into pedestrian malls or off limits to private cars, you can't drive up to the store anymore. They would also be able to repair this 'new' machine. I'm going to find out if they'll pick up and deliver. They didn't used to, but, you never know. Otherwise, I'll need to find out if there's anyone else in Jerusalem that will service Berninas.
 
In the meantime, I want to let you know that Etty, of the Quilting Corner blog, is running a giveaway for the blog's 200th post. Etty takes time to manage this blog for one of the quilting groups I belong to, showing work of the different members. Go directly to the giveaway post and enter to win some vintage quilting books from the 80's. You have until Monday the 24th to enter.

Enjoy!

Debbie

Sewing machine found in garbage

 
Recently my husband was passing one of the familiar local huge garbage bins and spied a box on the side that looked like the shape of a sewing machine case. 

He decided to check it out and, sure enough, there was a real sewing machine in there. It looks barely used, but it is old because it is made from the heavy metal (steel? iron?) that the older machines were made of.  The thing is really heavy.

The Hebrew letters on the right side say "Totzeret Yisrael" - product of Israel. On the front it says "MARDIX Super IV-M". We couldn't find anything about it on google. I haven't looked for a serial number yet or anything to indicate a year. There's no manual.

I haven't tried it out yet because while the wires and foot pedal are there and there is one bobbin case, one bobbin and one presser foot, the plug end of the wire was taken off and I'm still waiting for my husband to put a new one on.

Enjoy!

Debbie