Pfaff 130 Automatic 50010 attachment installation instructions

If you are ever in need of instructions for installing one of Pfaff's Automatic 50010 attachments (the cool whizbang gizmo hanging off the back of the Pfaff 130 in the first photo below), the following link will take you to a folder with photos of all pages in the manual:

Pfaff 50010 Automatic installation manual

Excitement for the week - tire blowout

Not sewing machine related, but we were on a camping trip with our pickup truck and camper the last several days. Coming home on the final 100 miles of our 1200 mile trip we had a blowout on the left rear. A loud motorcycle was just passing us on the left and we heard a very loud *bang*. We figured it was the m/c but all of a sudden our truck started swaying. My son was driving and he got the truck pulled to the side without incident. Here's the damage:

Five... no, six sewing machines followed me home...

Five sewing machines today and one yesterday. Ok, so maybe I coaxed them along a little. They didn't actually end up at my house of their own free wills, ringing the door bell and wanting a warm place to stay. And three of them were free (parts machines). It is difficult to turn down a free sewing machine, no matter what it looks like. So without further ado, here they are. The photos show them in as-received condition.

Pfaff 130-6 (in gen-u-ine Pfaff carrying case with busted handle)

Work and play

I've been on travel for work quite a bit lately so I haven't had much opportunity to do things sewing-machine-related. Three weeks in Japan, three weeks at home, two weeks in Japan, two weeks home, then two weeks in Guam (the Guam trip I was able to take my wife along). Soooo, I'm really itching to get back to sewing machine related fun. To get things kicked off, my dear wife and I hit two Goodwill stores today, which happens to be the day we returned from Guam (24 hour travel time from start to finish). Our heads are kind of spinning from the three flights but I can always (usually) make time to hit the thrift stores. I purchased a Singer 328K in really nice cosmetic condition (photos will come at a later date) and an older Singer buttonholer, plus two boxes of Kenmore cams.

The reason for today's blog entry though is to show the machine I passed up at Goodwill, although I may have to finagle my wife into picking it up on the $1.29 Monday event in a couple weeks.

The machine pictured below is a Singer 15-91. Sorry for the lousy photo. You can't really tell if you didn't know, but the machine is mounted to a board with six screws. Someone drilled six holes through the machine bed (!) around the perimeter and put wood screws through the bed and into the wood (you can kind of make out a brass screw head in the lower right of the bed). A couple other minor issues I saw are that the spool post is a piece of threaded rod and the stitch length knob is a regular off -the-shelf screw. Oh, and there was no motor controller. All these things add up to a not-so-ideal purchase.

Domestic Model 69 Hi-Speed

Now there's a term you don't normally associate with an almost 100-year-old sewing machine - "Hi-Speed". But alas, there it is, in bold letters on the front of the sewing machine. I'm getting ahead of myself though. First, let me show the nifty case this brown beauty came in.

Fantasia

Collecting sewing machines is a satisfying hobby in that machines (almost mysteriously) show up in my basement that I hadn't previously run across. There seems to be a never-ending supply of unique sewing machines. Granted, they all pretty much look the same, but they are all different also. Kind of like the saying, "I'm unique, just like everyone else." Ok, so sewing machines aren't as unique as humans, but I still like them. Sewing machines, that is.

Now that we have the preamble out of the way, on to the photos. Here is one of my latest acquisitions, a Fantasia. I don't know much about it other than when I plugged it in at the store it ran, although somewhat slow.

Garage sales - feast or famine

I've stopped trying to figure out why on some days every garage sale we hit has nothing but on other days each one we stop at has something interesting. A week ago we hit a couple sales and I came home with three new additions. They're really nothing to write home about but they are cheap entertainment.

The first garage sale had a Kenmore 158.17520 in a cabinet but missing the cord plug (?), and a Singer 920 Futura II with some attachments and cams but no motor controller. The second sale had a bare Singer 500A (missing the motor controller, spool pins, cam spring, side door, and who knows what else).

Old Kenmore machines are a pretty safe investment, especially when they are five bucks. They are well-built and will last a millennium. Not much in the looks department though. I'm not sure why someone cut off the cord plug off, so I don't know if it runs, but it would take a lot to put a Kenmore out of commission.

Singer Stylist 543

Does this poor neglected sewing machine look lonely? I thought it did.

I picked this machine up on Sunday afternoon, which means the poor thing had been sitting on the shelf for almost 4 entire days during the 50% off green-tag sale at Goodwill. I just couldn't resist. And it came with the manual. I couldn't ask for more. Well, ok, it would have been nice to have a box of accessories hidden away somewhere.

Read's Sailmaker

Here's one I haven't heard of. That's not saying a whole lot, because I haven't been dinking around with sewing machines for a very long period of time.

So I'm at the local Goodwill and spot the lone sewing machine case on the shelf. Looks like any other generic case I've seen hundreds of times before.

Hefting the case off the shelf (upwards of 40 pounds) tells me there is a generic cast iron sewing machine housed within. Upon popping the lid off, I see a generic Japanese zig zag machine. Hmm, "Read's" it says on the label. Not one I've heard before and kind of a strange name for a sewing machine.

Strange disc. What Is It?

I saw this disk (pictured below) in the local Goodwill. I knew I wanted it but I had no idea what it was, other than it had stitch patterns depicted around the outer edges. Now if anyone has been to Goodwill, they know that when they find that cool little item, they should know to look around the general area for any other parts that may go with said "cool item". Well, after a fairly thorough search of the area, I didn't find anything that remotely looked like it went with this disk.

Problem number 1, what kind of machine did this go to? Not really a problem I guess, I still wanted it.

Problem number 2, the silly thing didn't have a price tag. I just threw caution to the wind and went to the cashier. She punched something in to her machine. She could see that I was wondering what I was being charged so she said, "Are you happy with 69 cents?" Yup.

YAGM - Yet Another Green Machine - Singer 185K

I just love these cool little Singer 3/4 machines. Too bad Singer didn't make one that also had the cam stack of a 401.... Now THAT would be something. But the little 185K is still neat. And this one came in a case.

Singer 401A Cam Stack

The Singer 401A is considered by many, including the Singer Company at the time, as "the finest zigzag sewing machine made". The company had good reason to be proud of their 401 though. It was built with precision and had scads of built-in stitches, plus it had the option of using Singer top hat cams. To top things off, it was 100% gear drive.

I recently acquired a second 401A machine and decided to prep it for sale. After popping the top cover off, I noticed the cam stack was quite discolored with old oil remnants and decided to venture into the unknown realm of cam stack removal. It was actually quite easy. The top screw that holds the top hat spring clip is all that holds the cam stack in place, so once that screw is removed, it is just a matter of getting the cam follower fingers out of the way and the stack lifts free of the machine.

Three small screws on top of the stack hold all the pieces together, but after 50 years of being clamped together, it took some gentle persuasion to get all the cams apart.

Kenmore 158.850

I wonder how much the heaviest domestic sewing machine weighs? Certainly 36 pounds has got to be near the upper end. And why, pray tell, do I arbitrarily choose 36 pounds? It just so happens that this Kenmore 158.850 tips the scale at 16.25 kilograms, or 36 pounds. I'd weigh the machine in pounds but the balance beam scale in the basement is metric.

More Goodwill Sewing Machine Purchases

50% off anything is usually a good thing. When it comes to Goodwill, it's even better because the prices are usually fairly low to begin with, but the sale days are how the company keeps fresh stock on the shelves. Goodwill had a couple machines that interested me so I talked the trusty wife into taking the loving steed... I mean the loving wife taking the trusty steed (she offered, I didn't have to bribe or beg) to the two local stores to pick up a Montgomery Ward Signature 276C portable and a Singer 288 in a cabinet. A bonus was that the Singer cabinet had a motor control for a 401-type sewing machine. I had just purchased a similar cord set/motor control off ebay for my recently acquired 401, so I now have a spare. Sigh.

Monkey Ward 276C, with a fairly complete set of accessories

Sewing Machines come and go

When I started acquiring (collecting?) sewing machines, it was purely for the enjoyment of getting a neglected machine back into an operating state and watching/listening to it purr along after being oiled and adjusted. As with most things in my life, my sewing machine hobby has evolved to something different than what it was. I still enjoy a finely tuned machine but now I also look at all those neglected machines at the thrift stores and think, I can make a few bucks on this if I were to resell it.

So now with that mentality, I started selling a few machines on Craigslist. Needless to say, the endeavor was hardly a money-maker. Enter that popular online auction place. Two weeks ago I decided to try my hand at auctioning off some machines. Let's just say that online auctioning is now my new friend. The bothersome part of selling to a non-local person is the hassle of packaging and shipping, keeping in mind that the machine had better make it to its destination no worse for wear. The good (great?) part of selling on an auction site is the fact that I don't get left "high and dry" by those flaky Craigslist buyers who don't bother to show up and don't bother to let anyone know they aren't going to show up. I am totally in control (usually) of when my sewing machines leave the house.

 I have a newfound knowledge of double-wall shipping boxes, the realization that I now have to buy packing peanuts/bubble wrap that in the past I used to throw out in the garbage, and the fact that strapping tape isn't cheap. The good thing is, the buyer pays a fee for shipping (to cover a $10 box, a couple bucks worth of bubble wrap and strapping tape, and the $35-$40 USPS fee). I also throw in a package of needles, a couple bobbins and a spool of thread in the box.

I've been sick lately so I'll hopefully get back to taking photos and posting them of the machines I'm working on. I also picked up another machine. A Brother. Looks to be 70's vintage - white with kind of a burnt orange theme for the knobs.