A Princess!

I got a new machine come in on Thursday! It is very heavy and one of the Japanese zig zag machines. This one goes under the name 'Princess' and is a pretty two tone brown. It was supposed to be in working order so I was rather looking forward to playing with it. The only complication was, I hadn't been playing with it five minutes when the zig-zag knob dropped off in my hand! I figured the screw just needed tightening so I replaced the knob and put the machine away until Saturday.

 Saturday morning was lovely, we had rain and a thunderstorm and going to work was lovely!

 Anyhow, back to the Princess. She was moderately dirty under the feed and around the race but not excessively so. I gave every moving part a good lubrication and then set about investigating the knob situation. Basically it was as I thought, the screw needed tightening to keep it on the shaft. However when I came to adjust the stitch length I discovered that the stitch length knob had suffered a similar fate. Once these were all tightened though she was ready to go.

underneath

under the cover on top

under the side-door

So know for the picture of the actual machine.

It has a big plastic cover, which isn't cracked, unusually.

Unfortunately the image of the width lever has dropped off, although that doesn't affect function, obviously!

When sewing it has a very quiet and smooth action, I really like it!  The zig-zag width is adjusted by moving the lever, which is spring loaded and then tightening the knob to the right of the lever.  If you don't tighten the knob, creating patterns by moving the width lever is very easy.  It makes a fairly decent stitch too.  I suspect it would be nicer if I spent more time playing with the tension but I'm not about to do that!  It did stitch through two layers of fleece without a pause or skipped stitch though.

from the right side

from the wrong side

I wish I could justify owning this machine......but I really don't need it!

Instruction manuals

Here are some of the instruction manuals I've had for a while.

Husqvarna 6230 continued

Anyone who has been following this blog since my first post may remember that it concerned a Husqvarna 6230.  

At the time I raised concerns about the cracks in the cams, which were quite substantial.  When I came to sew with it I found that the machine was swapping which stitch it did on which setting, a sure sign you have cam issues.  When the cam stack was removed the two cracked black cams literally dropped to pieces.  It would appear that the plastic shrank and cracked because when reassembled the cams won't fit around the shaft they are supposed to.

Not a healthy cam!

If anyone is considering buying one of these machines, make sure the gears and cams are all intact, plastic is dodgy!!

More Janomes!

I have had two Janomes to work on within the space of three days and apparently there is another machine of unknown make coming soon too.  The first, Janome XL-II was donated without a pedal but fortunately I had a spare.  I have to confess that I fell head over heels in love with this machine at first sight.  I love the colour scheme, the long (fold-up) flat-bed, the window for ease of bobbin changing and just about everything else about it.  I didn't realise until after I had started taking the machine apart that all the feet were hidden under the top.  Unfortunately it is also missing the standard foot and the shank that the feet clip onto.  Inside the machine is mind boggling!  There are lots and lots of parts all layered on top of eachother.  I didn't have my camera with me when I took the machine apart so sadly there are no photos of the insides at the moment.  Very sadly in the process of servicing the machine I discovered that the bobbin gear is badly cracked so I'm not sure I'll be able to sell it.  I did do some stitching with it today, it feels a little sticky which I'm not sure it's supposed to but it makes a reasonable stitch.

Front view

This machine has a lot of stitches, some I haven't even seen before!

Press the button once you get this handy chart...

...press the button twice and all the accessories appear!

The second Janome is very similar to the one I had timing issues with a few weeks ago.  Fortunately this one is absolutely fine in that department.  Interestingly when I received it, it had a jammed feed mechanism.  I first noticed that the reverse wasn't working and in trying to find out what was wrong with it discovered that it wasn't feeding at all.  I ended up pulling a similar machine out and looking at how everything should work and then looking at what wasn't in my current machine.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me then either so no pictures.  Eventually the application of plenty of lubricant and force had the reverse lever springing backwards and forwards and the machine feeding nicely.  This machine also came with a flat bed which is handy, they often don't.  For $40- someone will have a nice machine!

Front view, all clean and shiny!

Back view, I remembered not to smudge the writing with metho!

I'll leave you with this lovely picture from the garden yesterday morning.  It's an Autumn Snowflake, a bit early but maybe it is saying we won't have any more hot weather!