OK, I think I'll name this one Patrica. She's really persnickety when it comes to thread, tension and fabric. And the phase of the moon too I think. But when she's in the mood she sews really nice. I don't think it's the fault of the machine though. Many things make the believe the problems lie with the previous carbon based units that owned her.
After cleaning her up I took some pics.
Ain't she purty?
With her top open.
With all her cams and goodies.
About the only things missing from the accessories box is a straight stitch foot, the screwdrivers, oil bottle and brush.
Quilt squares done with her:
It took a lot of lubing, and quite a bit of cogitating on my part to figure out one of the biggest problems.
The linkage that works with the cam drive and ZZ linkage was binding. If you know how these types of machines work, the ZZ lever, the shiny horizontal one on top, is also connected to the follower on the cam. So as the follower tracks around the cam the lever moves back and forth in it's slot.
If you are doing simple ZZ stitches you set the lever at the width you want and lock it down with the tab on the right, and the nob on the left.
As I was sewing the machine was loosening up but I was having horrible tension problems. We finally came to the conclusion this machine requires major tension readjustments if you use the C&C Dual Duty XP Heavy thread. Most don't but they are all different I guess.
Buy the time we had that figured out I was out of 3.5" squares so I decided to fancy up some of the 6.5" squares.
I messed up quite a few because the machine just wasn't cooperating. Mostly because of the binding problem.
The ZZ lever was dragging on the bottom of it's slot. I had the top off and was checking out the screws to remove it or adjust it because it was really interfering with the formation of the patterns.
Finally since all the screws to remove the lever were underneath other things I had an idea. I use a set of channel lock pliers and bent the lever up. It took a couple bendings but I got the drag removed.
By the time I had the quilt squares done she was working good.
So then I did a stitch pattern felt for the record.
So, do you think this machine is worth the price I paid and maybe $10.00 worth of parts I put in it?
Joe