The Best Laid Plans......

I got to try the Janome from the last post this afternoon.  It didn't work out quite as planned.  I threaded the machine up and put some material under the foot before turning it on (side note, if you haven't tried a machine before, always put material under it before turning it on, if you have a pedal problem and it sews instantly you won't end up with a thread-lock made in hell).  I put my foot down and the machine started sewing, it was then I noticed the light wasn't on so I took my foot off and reached for the light switch.  The light went on no problems, so unfortunately did the machine, the only thing was my foot wasn't on the pedal.  I learnt the hard way, always plug your machines in so you have easy access to the connection, if using an extension cord make sure you can get to the end your machine is plugged into easily.  In this case I could just turn around and turn the socket off - I didn't even miss a word in the conversation I was having at the time!  If you've seen it enough times you'll know if you get to the power quick enough you don't usually get smoke and the most disgusting smell.  The first time it happened to me I stared at the machine sewing by itself and was brought back to Earth by the plume of smoke wending its way from the pedal.  Not my most intelligent moment!

Anyhow, here are some pictures.

The copper contacts control the amount of electricity going through the carbon pile which is filled with graphite discs.  The copper contacts are positioned by prongs that are moved by putting pressure on the pedal.  When the pedal is fully depressed all the contacts are touching thus full capacity of electricity can flow through.  The blue arrows mark the approximate path of the electricity.

In order to get the capacitor out, you need to remove the two screws outlined in red.  As can be seen above the capacitor doesn't look too healthy.

Once out you will have this:

As you can see above the plastic casing is ruptured and discoloured.  I am hoping to get a new capacitor for this machine as it looked very promising before this!

After leaving work this evening we saw the most incredible cloud and I took some photos, one of which is shown below.

Fashion Mate 362 continued

The continuing saga of the Fashion Mate.  There is a particular type of Singer pedal that seems to have a bit of a fault.  I'm not sure if it's an age thing or to do with them being stored, because ones in constant use don't seem to have the problem, whereas only a couple that I've come across that have been stored have been OK.  I'm afraid I forgot to take a picture of the pedal so I've had to get this one from the internet, courtesy of sewingmachinenut.blogspot.com.

These pedals are found on a wide variety of Singer sewing machines from Hushmatics to Touch and Sews.  However they have a highly undesirable habit of going up in a nice little plume of smoke and a nasty smell.  Apparently it's the capacitors but it is a trifle disconcerting the first few times.  As you have probably guessed that's exactly what the Fashion Mate did to me when I started to sew with it, I had a feeling it might because it looked like it had been stored for a while.  All is not lost though, B's son is trying to get a new capacitor for me, which would be great!

Before I got as far as plugging it in though I did a thorough 'cosmetic job' on the machine and it looks really clean and shiny now:

A lot nicer than before!

                                                                            Before

Hopefully we can get capacitors for it and there will be nothing else wrong with it!