Necchi or Alco? (UPDATED 26 August)

  In the thrift shop the other day, I saw what I considered to be an anomoly - a sewing machine with the names Necchi and Alco, both on the same machine.  I had been under the impression that the Alco and Necchi names were connected through the same distributor, but this is the first time I have seen one with both names on it.

  This one is a 524FB (FlatBed), made in Taiwan. Sales documents that accompany the machine indicate that it was purchased in May, 2000 at one of those "Liquidation Sales" in Florida.

 I thought the 524FB was considerably older than that, my old Blue Book shows production beginning in 1991 and models usually become obsolete in about 7 years.  I guess this one could have been old, unsold stock and that's why it was dumped at a motel sale.

  This machine was touted as a "Sew and Serge" machine.  The "serge" function is merely a zig zag or overcast stitch plus a bolt-on cutter that is powered by the needlebar to give the impression of an overlock stitch.

UPDATE:

  The machine was sewing okay but making a buzzing sound that I didn't like. I removed the end cover, thinking that the motor bearings might be bad. I took off the belt and ran the motor by itself and it didn't buzz. When I put the belt back on, I noticed that one of the motor mounting studs was in a position where the cog belt was rubbing against it.

  Repositioning the motor cured the problem.

One Good Deed...

About a week ago, I fixed a lady's sewing machine. When I didn't charge her, I told her all I did was replace her bobbin case with one from a parts machine someone had given me. I told her if she hears of anyone about to toss out a machine, please grab it for me because I can always use parts. She said she had a machine out in the garage that was worn out and good only for parts, I could have it if I wanted it.

Turned out to be a Singer 401. I am partial to the Singer slant needle machines because a 301 was my first sewing machine and a 401 was my second, so I took it.

She said that it had been used so much that thread has worn a groove in the housing of the machine, the thread kept getting caught in the groove and shredding or breaking. I looked closer and, sure enough, there was a groove just above the last thread guide on the housing.  I threaded the machine and she was correct - the thread runs right through that groove.

I toyed with several options: grinding the groove smooth, installing a rub strip over the groove so the thread would no longer catch in it but being low-tech, I opted to just bend that thread guide at the groove about 1/8" so the thread no longer runs through the groove.

In a quick test, it sews fine. I need to clean and oil and give it a real test tomorrow.

Cindy's Kenmore

I said when we took over the quilt shop that I hoped it would bring me some interesting machines to play with - here is the first one.  It is a Kenmore 117.560 made by White. I have always been intrigued by the rugged appearance, brown wrinkle paint, and octagonal shape. There isn't a curve anywhere visible on the machine, except the balance wheel. Every surface is flat. I have seen them before but every one I saw was either in too rough shape or too expensive for me to pick up. This one is in excellent condition didn't cost me a cent!

The machine appears to be very well-made and very heavy. The owner said that the machine was slipping when she tried to sew patches on a leather motorcycle jacket. She had to "help" the balance wheel by hand at times.  My first thought was that the belt was slipping but that possibility vanished when I learned that there is no belt, the balance wheel is turned by means of a friction wheel.  Looking at the friction wheel, I noticed that it was positioned so that only a small amount of surface was contacting the balance wheel. No wonder it was slipping!

I repositioned the friction wheel and dressed the rubber to make it conform more closely to the edge of the balance wheel. Hopefully, she won't have that problem again.

Where Have I Been?

I have had a couple of inquiries lately why I haven't posted in a long
time. I really am okay, it's just that life got in the way. My full time
job involves a considerable amount of travel and that travel has spiked
recently. One period, I didn't unpack my suitcase for three weekends -
just removed the dirty clothes, replaced them with clean clothes and
zipped the suitcase closed for the following week. I spent a week in
North Carolina, the next week in Orlando, Florida and the following week
in Tucson, Arizona. That has finally quieted down and just in time, as
you will learn if you keep reading.

My youngest daughter is graduating from high school this spring and we
have been doing all the things parents do when their child is about to
go off to college - college tours, orientation visits, and satisfying
all the administrative, medical, educational, and financial requirements
that go along with college application, selection, and entrance.  The
big rush will come later when we have to get computer, books, clothes,
and the hundreds of other things we can't get ahead of time.

But the biggest news and the most time-consuming in the last month is
that we are buying a quilt shop!  

The only quilt shop in the county was
on the verge of closing and came available at a price we could afford.

Stock is way down and so is customer traffic. 

We were shocked at all the
things required by the town, state, and federal governments: Federal
Employer ID Number, Workmen's Comp, federal and state unemployment
insurance, sales tax number, trader's license, occupancy permit, even a
sign permit to allow us to display a sign.

 Then there's liability
insurance, attorney's fees, and lease. Bank account, post office box,
credit card processor, website, phone service, Internet, and so many
other things necessary to running a shop. Because I still work full
time, Kathie has been taking care of the vast majority of the details
and is really stressed out. The only bright spot for her so far has been
meeting with the fabric reps and ordering many thousands of dollars
worth of fabric and patterns. Deliveries are spaced out over the next
six months but the first shipments have begun arriving and are piling up
in our living room waiting until the day we take over the business and
can re-stock the shelves.

I am hoping that the quilt shop will provide fodder for this blog in the
upcoming months because I plan to offer servicing of vintage sewing
machines. With luck, I will get my hands on some unusual machines that I
can photograph and write about, then return to their owners when I am
finished and won't have to find space to store them.

So don't give up, check back occasionally and things should pick up
eventually.

Alternate Power Featherweight

I got several comments on my last posting saying how bad I was to sell my wife's Featherweight.  It wasn't really all THAT bad because we still had another one. Unfortunately, my daughter needed a science fair project and decided on Alternate Energy.

She took the other Featherweight and converted it to water power.

My wife tried using this one at a couple of sew-ins but other women complained about all the water on the floor around their electric machines so she had to switch to a 301.

Cleaning plastic Machines

This post isn’t about a vintage sewing machine, but rather about a technique I discovered that can be used on vintage sewing machines.  I picked up a New Home NH 609 this week.  As far as I can tell, it’s the New Home version of the Janome Jem.  It looked like it had been transported in a truck full of old tires because it had black marks all over it. 

I tried vinyl and rubber cleaner to remove the marks but that had little or no effect.  I remembered the graphing calculator I got at a thrift shop that the extremely intelligent manager had written the price in permanent marker on the display lens.  I tried baby oil, kerosene, and several other non-abrasive methods to remove that marker but nothing worked.  Last resort was some Headlight Lens Restorer I had used on our old Dodge Intrepid headlights.

 I figured if it could clean up plastic headlight lenses, it might also clean up a calculator lens.  Sure enough, that mark disappeared like something David Copperfield would have envied. Out to the garage to get the Headlight Lens Restorer to try on the black marks on this plastic sewing machine.  

Shazam! Those black marks just melted away and the Headlight Lens Restorer polished the plastic so it looks like new.  

All I need now is a spool pin and maybe my wife will get off my back about my selling her Featherweight while she was out shopping.

Viking 64 40

In Fredericksburg, Virginia for a business meeting a few weeks ago, I noticed a Goodwill Store across the street from the hotel where the meeting was being held. Never one to pass up a chance to paw through junk, I headed across the street at the first opportunity. There was only one sewing machine, from a distance, I thought it was a modern plastic Singer and nothing I would be interested in. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a Husqvarna Viking 6440, manufactured in the '75 - '77 timeframe, in good cosmetic condition but frozen solid. Vikings are not common in my area, this was only the third one I have ever seen but it was complete, in good condition, with foot control and some extras and the price was right so it came home with me.

A few years back, I owned a 5000 series and a 6000 series ex-school Vikings and they were pure junk. I couldn’t see why anyone would ever buy a Viking, much less rave about it.  

What I did like, however, was their foot controls. 

Instead of a wiper arm sliding across a rheostat, the Vikings of that era use a wheel rolling across a rheostat.  This makes for much smoother operation and less chance of the foot control sticking. 

They also have a safety feature that completely disconnects power when there is no pressure on the pedal. I still have one of my original foot controls but have been hoarding it until I could find a machine worthy of it. 

When I saw that this Viking had the foot control, I figured that alone was worth the $12.95 sticker price, so I picked it up.

When I got this one home and opened up, I found that even though the exterior was spic & span, the spider webs inside indicated it hadn't been used in some time and had been stored in less than ideal conditions. It took lots of exercising to free up the mechanisms but in about an hour, it started sewing and gets continually better.

It has the slide-on accessory tray that probably wasn’t meant to sew on, but I do anyway, since the table extension was not included. In the tray were some bobbins and a couple of accessories, but by no means a full bag.

I wasn’t expecting much, considering my history with Vikings, but when I started sewing a small project, I was in for a shock! The machine is smooth, quiet, and produces an excellent stitch. Now, I can see why Viking owners are proud of their machines, they probably bought them new and performed all the required maintenance, unlike the school system that produced my first two Vikings.

It only has the “A” cam, so I only have four stitches in addition to straight stitch and zig zag but 99% of my sewing is straight stitch, 0.9% zig zag, and only 0.1% decorative stitch, so I can live without all the fancy stitches. Guess I’ll keep it until it needs some kind of repair, and then I’ll put the foot control on a Necchi Supernova and sell the Viking for parts.

Pfaff 330

I haven’t done much playing with sewing machines lately because I was involved in a larger project, recovering a chaise lounge we purchased at a thrift shop.  I did get to use my Singer 20U that hasn’t been exercised since we moved over a year ago, but that’s another post.

This Pfaff 330 was an ebay purchase from several years ago.  I decided I had to dig it out of the garage and get it running or get rid of it. 

I liked the machine because it is an early example of a zig zag machine and the bed extension is built in. It just swivels up into place when the operator needs a flat bed.

It came to me with a box of accessories, carrying case, instruction book dated September 1952 and a sales receipt dated 4 June 1953. Not many of my machines have such a provenance!

Those who are familiar with the Pfaff 330 will notice that the bed is unusual.  The paint was cracked and falling off.  Assuming I would never find a suitable paint match, I stripped all the paint off the bed and polished the aluminum.  

After cleaning and oiling, I used it on a small project to test it.  The needle thread kept breaking, so I looked for a burr on the hook that might be the culprit and found the two screws on the outside of the hook burred.  This is not a good photo, I took it with my cell phone but you can get an idea what area I am talking about.

 I smoothed them down somewhat and reduced the amount of thread breakage, but still need to do more work in that area.

I had to stop working on the thread breakage issue because on my second project, the motor became intermittent.  I would step on the foot control and nothing would happen – no hum, no smoke, no rotation – just nothing.  If I turned the balance wheel by hand, the motor would then drive the machine for a while, then nothing again. I popped the motor out of the machine and found the surface of the motor covered with corrosion.  Another poor cell phone photo, but you can see the corrosion all over the surface of the motor.

Apparently, the machine has either been in a flood or subjected to very high humidity for a long time.  The motor commutator was quite dirty and the motor brushes are quite short. I cleaned off all the corrosion I could get to, cleaned the commutator oiled the bushings and cleaned out the brush tubes so the brushes can slide easily.  Reassembled, it appears to be working; I’ll have to use it for a while to determine whether I have made a permanent fix.  In the meantime, I’ll be looking for a new pair of brushes.

Auction Finds

Went to a local auction this morning and there were more sewing machines there than I have ever seen at an auction.  I counted eleven and might have missed a few.  There was one modern machine, a Kenmore 17000 series that appeared to be well cared-for.

An electric Brother in a well-worn carrying case was tempting because the machine inside was pristine. That case had done its job protecting the cargo inside.

Many of the rest of the machines were Singers, mostly 66s in average used condition but there were New Homes, Domestics, a Paveway, and some other badges I don’t remember.

How many did I end up with?  None!  This Singer 15 was the only one I thought twice about because the cosmetic condition was nearly perfect – all the paint and decals were just like they should be with minimal wear.

But I just don’t want to sacrifice any more space to another treadle machine, so I left it for one of the many Amish who were at the auction.

Not ANOTHER Necchi!

  

On vacation last week, I was crawling through thrift stores in Fredericksburg, Virginia looking for treasures.  On the back wall of a Goodwill store, I spotted a plain gray sewing machine carrying case with no name on it.  The metal on the clasps and carrying handle was rusty, an indication that the machine was stored in an area of high humidity. Thinking it was probably a rusty Japanese clone, I reluctantly lifted the lid and found a Necchi Lydia 3 – one of the last of the Italian-made Necchis.

It was dirty and missing the foot control but there was no rust on the inside, it had the extension table (not shown in the above photo), a full complement of accessories, the paint was in good condition and the balance wheel turned smoothly so I gave the cashier the $9.95 on the price tag and tossed it in the back of the van.  I had to go all week knowing that machine was in there and I couldn’t play with it because we were staying in hotels and I had no tools or foot control with me.  Today, I pulled it out and cleaned it up and oiled it.  I had a spare Necchi foot control that could easily be modified to work on the Lydia and didn’t need to replace any other parts.

  I did have a few problems, when I took off the pieces covering the needlebar and presser bar, a plastic piece fell out and it took a while to figure out that it controlled the presser foot pressure and how to get that piece reinstalled properly. After I finally got the machine all back together, I couldn’t figure out how to thread it and had to get on the internet and look up a threading diagram; then there were tension issues.  Cleaning the tension disks seems to have solved that one.

  The reason I have no Lydias in my Necchi collection is because that model has a fatal flaw – a plastic camshaft.  The camshaft controls all the decorative and utility stitches and the camshafts made of plastic crack after a period of years and have to be replaced for a King’s ransom.  In the store, I set the stitch selector on a decorative stitch and carefully felt for bumps as I slowly turned the balance wheel.  If the camshaft is severely cracked, you can feel the imperfection as the cam follower rides over the crack.  The decorative stitches will all have a visible flaw because the crack acts as a low spot on the cam and allows the needle to move in a direction that was not intended.

  Opening the end cover, my fears were realized when I saw several small cracks in both ends of the camshaft.  The good news is that none of the cracks run the full length of the camshaft, this is the worst one. Also, none of the cracks are wide enough to visibly affect the decorative stitches.  It sews well on a test, patch, now to find a small project to more fully check it out.