Mercury Electric Dial-O-Matic, picture heavy
 

I received a call yesterday from my OJCG. He said he had another "very nice" sewing machine and he wanted $80.00 for it. He Emailed me some pictures and I told him that what he wanted was waaay too much. After a lot of haggling and standing firm on my offer of $35.00 he sold it to me. I met him to pick it up and he offered me a Singer puzzle box for $10.00. I took that also as it was complete, even had the little screw drivers in it.

The case show very little wear, hooray! This sewing machine has been used in the past as it is very linty. The only scratches on the bed and pillar is likely from the foot controller and they are very light. The wiring is perfect, another hooray. So I oiled her up and greased the motor, plugged her in, turned on the light switch (even the light works) and she runs like a dream. But, what did I expect? Of course she runs, she is a Japanese clone. The motor and the bobbin case and race tell me that this machine was made by Morse. The serial number is TA-133996. I think I "did good" on this one!;)

My blue clone looks very similar to this one. Have you tried FMQing on it? I tried lowering the foot pressure and like 2 or 3 different FMQing feet and it just didn't want to do it.

O.K. let me know how it goes. It may be, that the only way I can do it with this machine, is to use a spring needle(which I don't really like for safety reasons).

Caroline, I have quite a few FMQing feet:<

Nice machine. Love that face plate. Your case is like my SEWMOR 404 case used to be before it was busted to bits by the shippers. Same color, same shape, same corner braces on the corners.

But .... you said: "So I oiled her up and greased the motor, <snip>" Ummmm, that not be a grease it type motor, that be an oil it type motor. Just thought I'd tell you that.


As for machine embroidery I tried some with my HOTHER. I found that dropping the dogs and using one of those bouncy spring loaded feet/attachments it worked pretty good. I haven't tried FMQ'ing with any of these machines yet.

Joe

Ooooooo, that is a pretty one!

Caroline,

I have a blue Morse with a bobbin winder that looks similar to yours. Unfortunately I took the bobbin winder apart to clean and can't for the life of me get it back together correctly. Would it be too much to ask you to take a few pics of the bobbin winder from different angles so I can get an idea of what the correct position would be for the parts. Thanks for any help on this.

Caroline,

This is gonna sound like I'm trying to be a "know it all" which I'm not, but the only SM motors I know of that use grease as lube are Singers. If you pull a motor like that one apart you'll usually find a felt washer surrounding a bronze bushing. The felt holds the oil in the bushing area as the bushing absorbs it.

If your motor gets hot enough the grease might melt into the bushings ... "if" it's not Tri-Flow. If it is get as much out as you can and oil it with sewing machine oil. I'd oil it anyway.

Joe

ah - do join the clone club - post a pic here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...p-t164361.html

I will do that Miriam. Right now I am fighting/fixing the stitch regulator which does not work. It did not like the bobbin case I first used (that was missing) so I took the one out of my Belair to use. The Mercury liked it. It does make a nice stitch though but all I can get is a long stitch.

Get a flashlight and look up in there - look for something that is suppose to move and won't - then oil it - maybe needs a little heat

Be careful though, you might find a mouse nest like Miriam's got in a couple of her machines. LOL

Joe

White 77 Rotaries also have grease tubes. As a general rule, if it takes grease there'll be tubes hanging beneath the motor to unscrew & fill with grease. If it takes oil, there'll be oil holes.

And I've always heard to only use Tri-Flow grease on gears...Use Singer Lubricant on motors.

I guess some pictures of the Dial-O-Matic stitch regulator are in order. I removed the stitch regulator assembly and everything inside appears to be working inside, not frozen. Perhaps this one will need to go to the OSMG and see if he can figure it out. This one may be beyond my limited fixing abilities. FRUSTRATING!

Very nice...and I'm proud of your negotiating skills! You go girl!

Is the dial not turning? Or is it a lever? What is going on? I have one that the dial and the reverse button froze up. I had to get way in there and soak the inside with Triflow - I must have oiled it every day for a week and gave up on it. I went back a month later and it works fine. The stuff just has to get in to the right places. On mine, there is a thing in there shaped like a ramp like thing - it was gunky.

Nothing is frozen and dial turns well. Too well! The dial turns and turns, something is too loose in my opinion. It is not engaging something inside enough to change the stitch length, the reverse lever works OK. I took some pics but will have to take some more as they did not turn out well enough to post. I will take the machine outside to have better light for pics and will post pics.

Update to Stitch Length Selector problem
 

I did some more fiddling with the Stitch Length Selector this afternoon. There is some kind screw in the center of the dial that sits behind the set screw in the center of the dial. By taking a small screwdriver and turning the center screw I was able to move that pointy end that juts out of the back. It is the pointy thing that engages with the mechanism inside and adjusts the stitch length. The first stitches were six to an inch, nowI am now getting a respectable 10 stitches to an inch and am not going to mess with it any more.

I also had to spend some time adjusting the upper tension. That was a chore because the upper tension dial is not numbered. I also decided that the first bobbin case that I tried was not going to defeat me either. I played with it's tension screw. Voila, both upper and lower tensions are balanced and providing a perfect stitch.

Caroline, it is gunked up inside... I can see it.

Gorgeous! Let us know how she sews!

She is a beauty! I think you did very well.

Did it come with a book? If not, you could find a singer 15 book online, free, and go to town with the oil and grease. It is close enough to be of help, as your machine is configured like a 15. Joe says to use Singer oil and grease, but not the old stuff. Be careful not to oil where it say grease or it won't stay. Grease to grease and oil to oil. You can't go wrong, just done't use too much oil only just enough to lubricate, otherwise it will make a real mess. Good luck.

Wow I was just gifted one of these yesterday. My friend's grandmother machine passed down to her mother and she gifted to me. I was on line looking for a manual as it came with a box full of parts. it looks like it was used maybe twice it is so new. The bottom is clean and the mod number is R3L Ta 157628 and the motor is a Morse as well. Dial o matic. I will grease it up if it needs it and oil it today and sew on it. It has all it's original parts. I am tempted to change the wiring even tho it looks like new but the plug is so outdated? Does anyone know where I can find a manual?

Rosy, I'm thinking that if it has the tension on the face plate like the one in this thread that the manual found at https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_mac...al-rotated.pdf should work. The stitch length is different, but the rest of it should work.

If the tension is on the front above the needle, there is probably a different manual that would work. A picture of your machine would help.

We like pictures. In order to post pictures on Quilting Board, you will probably need to reduce or compress the picture to a file size that is smaller than 2MB. How to post images can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...020-01-17-.pdf
Don't forget to scroll over to the far right to find and click on the "Upload" button.

I have found that only the big red "Reply" button or "Quote" work to give me the paper clip icon to work for adding pictures.
https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...p-location.jpg

Some additional info regarding reducing images at post #4 and images for the scroll and upload button can be found at #5 of https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...d-t312607.html

Another way to post pictures can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/showpo...postcount=1143
And how to use an ipad to post pictures can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/qb-hel...s-t318147.html

Or simply - Make sure pictures are smaller than 2MB
Click on red "Reply" button
Click on the paper clip icon
Click browse - choose picture/s. (only 5 allowed per post)
Once they show up as being loaded, Scroll over to the right side and click on "Upload"
After the pictures show up as being attached, you can close that window and go back to the screen to finish posting your post.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)

mercury sewing machine dial o matic
 

Wow, time sure flies. Thank you for all that info here are some pics of the machine. I had put the machine on the back burner as I couldn't fine a manual for all these parts. I have searched everywhere for a manual.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a manual for all these parts" as the manual found at https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_mac...al-rotated.pdf will give you threading instructions. As for the stitch length regulator my best guess is the knob turns to lengthen and shorten the stitch length and the lever is for reversing the direction of the stitches which would be locked to the length set by the knob. Unfortunately the OP that has this machine has not been on QB for over five years.

There is a Morse and an Admiral that have this stitch length regulator, but the upper tension is in a different position than the Mercury.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)

I'm guessing your question about "parts" is about the what the extra feet do. The feet do the same thing on all that era of sewing machines. Download the manual for a Singer 15-91 and it will tell you what the parts are for. They usually include a foot for sewing a zipper, doing a rolled hem, etc.
bkay

edit: The 15-91 manual is just a more detailed manual. There are several differences in your machine and the 15-91, but the feet still do the same thing.