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Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Worlds Ugliest Sewing Machine!.........

Lets start right out with a picture.



I saw an Ad for a used sewing machine. It was a "Make me an offer" type ad.
There was no picture but there was a phone number. I called and we made arrangements to meet after I was assured that it was in working order. (except that her nephew had cut the power cord) Yea, he cut the power cord all right. After he pulled the needle clamp off. Took the foot off. Dismantled the upper tension. Took the bobbin cover and needle plate some where , and he or "they" still weren't done. The pressure foot adjustment knob and the thread spool holder were also gone. They ended up giving me the machine.




Not a pretty sight. In fact the machine was an Ugly Mess. Could I possible ever get this thing going again?
Did I even want to?   Well Ya! I took the Sewing machine repair  "Hippocratic Oath" .....I think........

"I will do no harm to any sewing machine, ugly or not, and I will do my best to revive it".

I spent a week researching similar machines and checking dimensions with suppliers and E-Bay parts people.
After about $30 in parts and quite a bit of fabricating, I had this "thing" working. It actually cleaned up pretty well and these old "cast body" machines with all metal gears are hard to kill.






I am still trying to find a good side of it. It just isn't photogenic at all. Anyone ever heard of a Fleetwood?
It's just another Badge Machine from Japan. Here is the best I could do for the Spool Holder.


I am not sure I have the upper tension done correctly because I really don't know what the original upper tension looked like. But, It sewed this on the first try
and I feel like I have fulfilled my obligation to the Oath. And, I learned from this adventure!


This may be a better angle for a picture? It's good side!

3 comments:

  1. I had a Fleetwood back in the early'60's, but it did not have all those dials on it, but it did zig-zag and had a few different feet. El Cheapo, even back then. I think it was smaller, too. Shades of tan. It was one going machine. I thought it would never wear out. I finally traded it in on another El Cheapo of a different brand in late '77 just to have something different. Can't remember whether the new one had any extra bells and whistles. They were good, dependable machines.

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  2. I have one of these and thank goodness you had it threaded, I needed a refresher lesson.

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