It's Dead!
My daughter wanted to make a zippered pouch yesterday and I don't own a low shank zipper foot yet so we decided to use the 648. We got it all set up and started sewing with it. About 10 minutes into the project Olivia got a big thread jam and the machine stopped working. I cleared the jam and discovered the machine was out of time too.
OK, no big deal. That's why we have multiple machines, right?
We finished on the 620 I picked up a couple weeks ago. The rest of the project went about as smoothly as possible for a frustrated 10 yr old doing something new.
I checked the broken 648 this morning hoping to get a lesson on timing a Touch & Sew. It's not going to happen any time soon. The gear on top of the shaft that drives the lower half is gone. Yes, gone. There isn't a bit of nylon left on the gear. No signs it was ever there either. It's like the plastic turned to dust and just disappeared. All that's left is the metal part of the gear on the shaft. I couldn't even find any broken pieces of the gear.
Weird. The machine worked just fine before yesterday but given it's far worse than just a couple missing teeth on the gear I don't see how. It's like the gremlins that only wreak havoc on Touch & Sews payed me a visit.
Anyway, the 648 is heading out to my shop where it can stay until I pick up a new top gear for it and get a few other projects completed first.
No Miriam, I don't need your hammer, I do plan to fix it eventually. I've poured enough money into that machine that I'm not going to stop now.
The 620 in now in the 648's cabinet and there's just a little more room in the LR for more sewing stuff.
Rodney