Blackberry

Sometime back I posted about my Pink & Dark Grey Brother that I got for $20. Well, it has been cleaned up, rewired, and sews really quiet. The cams all work but the problem I am having is in the straight stitch. When I try to do a straight stitch the stitch has a very slight zigzag to it. Would any of you that work on vintage machines have any recommendations on this problem. It seems that the bar that goes up each level for a different zigzag pattern on the cam shaft, it doesn't have insertable cams, doesn't quite go all the way to the top which would make for the straight stitch. I am hoping someone has some info on this. The machine is a Brother HZ3B3 Model 100 Super Select-O-Matic. This picture shows the cam shaft before cleaning. It has now been cleaned and oiled heavily.

Candace

Use Triflow on on metal to metal moving parts and possibly some hairdryer heat and keep moving the cam dial up and down until it moves freely.

miriam

looks like it has a lot of dried up oil on there. You will need to clean that off and then get some good oil on it.

mlmack

That is the before pic, though it would better to see the after pic.

miriam

LOL I usually forget to post before pictures. You may have missed some microscopic bit of that dried up oil - that last bit can be real hard to find the exact place it is lurking. Ask me how I know....

quiltorelse

Sometimes the knob screws on. If that is the case, try unscrewing it to see if that is why it won't go all the all the way to the top.

miriam

I haven't found many that unscrewing the knob helps all that much. Usually if it is that gooped up it will have some small bit of dried up oil in there. TF and heat will do the most good.

ArchaicArcane

Can we see the straight stitch?
The first thing that came to mind was this:
http://blog.sew-classic.com/2008/10/...-about-it.aspx

mom-6

I found the slightly slanted stitches to be common on any newer zigzag machine I've had, once I used the zigzag feature. As long as I left it set at straight it was ok, but it never quite would do perfectly straight again.
Never investigated the cause, just shrugged and figured oh well whatever!