New look
I am working at making this blog a bit better thus the new theme. Really wanted something in beige, but could not find anything that appealed to me. So I went with the same theme I am using on Subject to Change. It is called Emptiness.
That is my old junk sewing machine up at the top, on the kitchen table. I look at the photo, and say to myself, “I really need to refinish that top-plate”. Actually it does not look that bad in real life.
I think I have the tension problem mentioned in Beginer’s Woes about sorted out. I replaced the corroded tension disks with a set I got from eBay. That made thing worse. After searching the web, and asking on a few forums, I finally got pointed in the right direction and was able to locate and fix the problem in about twenty minutes. There were a couple of rough spots on the bobbin case that were holding back the thread as it was pulled around the bobbin just enough to balance the roughness of the tension disks. When I replaced them there was too much funny tension on the bobbin side. That caused the tension to change with speed, so it could not be set properly. It only took a few minutes with a fine stone to smooth the spots out. Nowhere on the web could I find an answer to “tension changes with speed”. There the search engines ought to find that and the next person will not have to scratch their head for a week.
Which brings us to a book review: Hutchison, THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF SEWING MACHINE REPAIR, Tab Books, 1980. The information in the first two chanpers you can get out of your sewing machine’s manual. Chapter 4 covers old Plaff SM’s. Chapter 5 covers old White SM’s. Chapeter 6 covers New Home SM’s. Chapter 7 covers one Brother SM. Which leaves chapter 3. Chapter 3 is the useful one. It tells you what needs to be checked and set rights. However it does not go into much detail as it is only 17 pages wrong. These are selling for $30 and up, way up, from used booksellers. Save your money unless you have and old Plaff to fix. As an aside, the writer does not seem to be a sewing machine mechanic, just a writer trying to make a buck; in other words, the book is not authoritive.
Your comments and corrections are always welcome