Originally Posted by irishrose
Originally Posted by miriam
I'm in hog heaven. I bought a used Elna SU back in 1975 and wore it out (seriously) by 1992. I borrowed a Good House Keeper - then someone bought a Viking for me so I gave back the GHK. When DD moved out I let her have the Viking and bought a Janome - HATED it. Then found a Singer 401G in the trash - fell in love (not at first sight... I had to see past a lot of ugly first...) Then yesterday I found an Elna SU on CL for $30. I never drove so fast in my life... It is in wonderful shape and has many parts and lots of discs. AND she threw in a sewing basket full of cool goodies. I won't know what to sew on from here on out... I've never had selection before. WOW!!!
You'll do what I do. Piece and quilt on the 401 (301 for me) and sew anything else on the Elna. You always make me nervous when you say your Elna wore out. I bought my Elna SU Star new in 1974 and she's still going strong. She has sewn everything from silk organza to leather belts.
WW, on the bobbins, I used pliers and pinched gently, turned it a quarter turn and repeated all the way around the outside edge. I didn't touch the center. May not work for you if yours got stuck on the bobbin filler.
Don't be too nervous about your Elna. Mine was bought very used. Then I was using it as a business plus all the day to day sewing. I was very hard on it. My sewing 'room' was in a closet of an old house - unheated so I'm sure running it cold wasn't so good.... Then when the repair man rebuilt the motor he used the wrong parts. After 3 times, I found that out... when I finally pulled the motor myself and took it to a MOTOR repair shop - when they looked at it they said it had wrong brushes in it. The 15 year old boy who was helping me broke a gear getting it back together. Then since I never got that fixed - didn't know how... and no money or I wouldn't have been working on it n the first place, it kind of deteriorated sitting around and it got kicked around a bit. Believe me it is in rough shape. There is now quite a bit of rust on it too. Pretty sad. Now days I have a repair manual and lots of parts... well, a donor. I also have another Elna SU I picked up free off CL because it is broken. I figure one day I should tackle it and maybe get one good machine. Since I have two old green machines, DH and I were just talking - maybe I should take a class or two to fill in the gaps what I don't know how to do. Those 4 old Elna machines would give me great pleasure to see them stitch again. To keep your Elna running good, oil with good sewing machine oil once in a while, keep lint out of the bottom - keep the gears very clean and keep it from getting too cold. AND keep young males away from the insides... Remember, it's vintage, they can be repaired. I'm working up the courage to work on the Elnas. I've gotten pretty good at the Singers - I had NOTHING to lose though. I'm thinking the best way to learn sewing machine repair is to get one in horrid shape - you can't kill it if it's already dead - it's pretty cool when they do actually work. I've had a few never did work again but I learned a few things. Someone gave me 10 machines that had been in a flood. I still have one - it is a 15 clone - still needs work on the tension and the thing is all gummed up inside - maybe I used WD40 or something on it??? I don't really know. LOL Mistakes aren't failure - not trying is for sure. See, I'm working up the courage.....