Another Janome

This morning I spent looking at the machine I got in on Thursday.  As the post title implies it is another Janome.  It's nothing all that fancy but comes with a flat-bed, hard cover, button-sewing foot, clear foot and rolled hemmer.  Considering they normally come minus accessories, flat-bed and cover I'm rather pleased!  The cover was filthy and looked like it had been sitting in a shed however much to my surprise the machine was fine.  There wasn't a speck of dust under the faceplate or top cover.

There is quite a bit of plastic in the machine, as can be seen below.

In order to get to the bobbin gears one has to take the free-arm cover off and then the gear cover.  I couldn't get the gear cover screws off and ended up cautiously prising one corner up just enough to check the gears weren't cracked and then bending it back down again.  In the image below the red circles are where the screws need to be removed to access the gears.

Once cleaned the machine looked very nice from both front and back.

(Did I mention it is dark where I work??!)

The stitch selection knobs are below.  I haven't actually sewn with the machine yet as I had other jobs to do but I hope to on Wednesday.

In other news, I ended up using the Janome XL-II for a project at work the other day.  I had to adjust the contacts in the pedal to get better speed control but once I did that she was a joy to use.  It is such a pity about her cracked gears, I really love her!

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!