The Lowly 192K Spartan
To assure a 192K (black Spartan) avoided the landfill, I made a minimum bid on an "untested, selling for parts" machine. It arrived with the little plastic base broke to smithereens and the motor askew. Obviously it had been abused in transit. Upon energizing, nothing happened. I put it asside for a later task and most likely for a learning throw-away machine. Yesterday the Tri-Flow thread prompted me to do some cleaning. The Spartan was outed to be the victim. The first chore, getting power to motor, was easy. Upon opening the motor I found a crimped wire had become separated (amazing someone didn't get sparked but the live wire hadn't made contact with anything). Soldering and shrink wrap corrected that. While off the machine, I straightened the motor bracket.
There was no rust but the lint and gunk was present as we all have seen. Not terrible, but it needed cleaning. Being a learning outing, I used Tri-Flo and was pleasantly surprised. It did everything others said it would. One probably can see where this is headed.
I cleaned and adjusted everything and as I was doing this I became aware of the pristine condition the machine was displaying. What had started out as a "for parts only" is a very nice sewing machine. As if I needed another. This model has the "Back Tack" feature so I may use it as my pretend feather weight. It is relative light in comparison to the 15 or 201 or even the 99. It is small. The first sewing absolutely amazed me. Without even fine tuning the tensions, it sews a tight beautiful stitch. I may have to do some fiddling with the feed dogs or foot pressure as the stitch length appears sporadic. I think I will find a case, if there is one available that will accept the little jewel, and, as I say, use it as my feather weight.
I'm just so pleased with myself and happy with the outcome, I had to tell someone. You folks are good listeners so you get the verbiage. Thanks for listening.
Last edited by Vridar; 10-04-2013 at 12:51 PM.