Hi Joe et al!
Oh, I'm going to do my best to tinker with these, for sure! I contacted the seller for one of them, and she insists that it was working great before shipping. Anyway, I still want the machine. The poor thing looks like it wasn't loved. The finish is sort of pitted, if that makes any sense, and I half-seriously wondered if it had been through a fire! But there's no smoke smell whatsoever. I think it probably just sat for a long time. It'll never be shiny again, but I'm going to make it look as beautiful as it can. And I bought it to sew with, not to display.
The hard part seems to be figuring out exactly where it's getting stuck. It's when the thread take-up lever is going up, almost to its highest point. The rest of the circuit is really smooth. It just grinds at that one place so far (on the black one... I haven't even started working on the mocha).
Thanks, all, for the help!
Ila
Originally Posted by
J Miller
If you're going to buy vintage or older machines you need to learn how they work. What makes them tick. How to diagnose their ailments. What is their foibles. Many of them are susceptible to thread jams, those are easily cleared if you study how the machine works. Not every problem is oil related. It is fairly easy, these old mechanical machines are not that complicated. People who choose to remain uneducated about these things are easy prey to the shysters and crooks of the world.
As for ebay sellers you almost always need to figure the seller is going to say whatever he / can to hype the machine.
You can't take them at their word. If they are honest, great. If not, you'll be forewarned.
I'd bet both the 301s in the OPs post are thread jammed. Easy fix. Just study the instructions all over this forum about it.
Joe