Old Hobbies Die Hard - Pfaff 1212 Garage Sale Find

I thought I was doing pretty well in keeping my sewing machine purchases pretty much non-existent lately, now that I'd cleaned out the basement of 100-something sewing machines. Alas, a garage sale did me in. The sticky note on the sewing machine said, "Needs Service $15." I'm a sucker for a good deal, and even more of a sucker for a good deal that needs some tinkering.

 

Examining the machine at the sale, I wasn't able to open the bobbin door under the feed dogs. Something inside was jammed, which also made it so the handwheel wouldn't spin. We plugged in the machine and the motor could be heard to hum so I figured if I did manage to get the bobbin door issue resolved, the sewing machine was probably repairable. I offered $10 and the kind woman accepted it quickly. I figured I couldn't go wrong buying a Pfaff for 10 bucks. She also had a Singer 328 in a cabinet, and although they are a nice machine, I've had many of those in the past and didn't need another one.

I was on my scooter when I came across the garage sale, so getting the machine home was a slight challenge. It did somewhat fit between my feet on the center step of the scooter and I didn't have far to go, so it went well getting it home.

The case on this sewing machine has lots of storage. Unfortunately it didn't come with much in the way of accessories.

The sewing machine looks to be in decent shape. It's a free arm model, which is more desirable in my opinion. It did come with the extension table also, shown in a later photo.

The insides are nice and clean, with not much lint build-up.

I finally got the bobbin cover door open. The bobbin case had come off its pin and was rattling around. I tipped the machine over and was able to shake things loose.

I guess these model 1212's are supposed to have a sort-of  walking foot (they call it a Matchmaker sewing foot) behind the presser foot but the whole mechanism is missing from this thing. Kind of a bummer.

The top thread spool pin plastic bracket was also broken off. Not sure what I'll do about that.

Here's a photo of the extension table installed.

After oiling things up, I threw some thread in it and darned a large hole in my jeans. They are destined for the garbage can but I needed something to test out the sewing machine. It's kind of a ratty looking darn but I didn't have a darning foot so I just took off the presser foot and did things free-hand.