Mrs Finch

After cleaning & putting on a few parts -- he stitches nicely right away! The foot is from a Brother 'cause that's what I had.

ThayerRags

I sent you a PM with more information about how we operate our shop, and that’s because the context is getting really far away from “the machine I fiddled with today”. Some of what I put in the PM doesn’t need to be on a public forum, but I will say here that ironing by hand and button replacement are a couple of things that you might want to add to your shop services, if you think there’s enough demand, and most of all, if you want to do it.

Another thing that you might want to consider (that I forgot to put in my PM) is if you don’t want to establish your own retail/services facility to meet the public, you might consider contracting your vintage sewing machine services with a retail fabric or quilt shop already in business, and do your work in a private setting.

How are you at putting new handles in sledge hammers?

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

LOL There are no sewing machine repairs or fabric shops in the area I'm looking at. I don't know if nothing could make it there or what. Thanks for the PM. I appreciate all the help and ideas I can get. Maybe we need to start a topic on it. I think I could go for a forum with topics about the business end of things. I think a good part of fiddling with a machine has to do with re-homing that machine, too.

Oh and speaking of repairs. I pulled down a bunch of Japanese zzers that have been lurking to see why they are only lurking. Most have stuck knobs or missing a part - with all those parts machines you would think I had a bobbin winder to match... And one with a dis-assembled bobbin winder and it isn't a normal one so I'll have to figure that out with out Wilbur... There is one machine I have no idea how it works... I usually have no problem. This one is a puzzle. If this forum would post lots of pictures for me I would do a new thread. I've about given up on making new threads since I can only post about 4 or 5 pics before the boards shuts me down. The Kroil comes tomorrow so I am ready to test it out. Wilbur has been drooling to start clean up on a Housekeeper by Delux. I've been sitting on my hands so I don't do it before he can help me clean it and oil it.

SteveH

worked on this machine with my DD (it's hers) all weekend actually...
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But here you can see where I developed the process I use for keeping track of sewing machine parts
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But to keep the post "on subject" I also finished making this handle for the Kenmore Handcrank. Thanks to a member of the Yahoo Kenmore group who was able to send me pictures of what it should look like. This is the machine that had a broken in half bed and was considered "a parts machine". Now it is back to 100% operation.
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oldsewnsew

Crankshaft and crank handle! Whats the 6 banger go to? Land Cruiser?

SteveH

4.0L Jeep Cherokee

miriam

Does that Jeep run like a sewing machine???

SteveH

it will when we are done

Cecilia S.

Will it ride over pop canz? :-)

Mrs. SewNSew

Ugh. The machine that I worked on today was a Kenmore 10400. It's a cute little 3/4 size Kenmore in cream and grey(?) with a pop up extended bed and an on board accessory tray. It seemed to be a decent bet among many that have been failures lately. I am sure I could sell this one. It's "cute" and it has a metal camstack inside so a few extra handy stitches. I sure wish I had the nice rose decor case that came with them originally.

I started cleaning it up yesterday. It looks like the machine was in a wood shop and accumulated sawdust and then someone greased it heavily with an thick orangish clay-like grease. Therefore we have have a lot of cleaning. The spool pin was orginally set in a plastic sleeve that is now broken but I arranged a repair with a screw in spool pin, washer and bolt. The tension device was missing parts but I was able to find enough pieces in my spares to make a new tension device close to the original.

The feed dog drop handle was locked but with Kroil and heat is now moving. I still need to find the hang up as the dogs aren't dropping yet.

I was hopeful to solve that little mystery and clean the accessory tray and begin to tweak the stitching, but now I've found minute cracks throughout the bobbin winder assembly. *sigh. A quick peek at eBay shows I could buy a replacement for 18-20 dollars. This is the second bobbin winder with cracks and breaking within a week. It's some sort of cheap pot metal, but the replacements are not so cheap!