I guess I can join this club. I have recently acquired a "New National" class?, Model? "US" hand crank machine.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560769[/ATTACH]
It really was pretty clean and working, but I have done some more. I don't have a "glamour shot."
It took some research to figure some of the things out about this machine. I forgot to take pictures from all angles before I took it apart to do some more cleaning.
HOW NOT TO PUT THE NOSE PLATE ON!!!! It is upside down in this picture.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560770[/ATTACH]
I'm not sure that this wheel with inside gears and handle are original to the machine. Two reasons I think that is that the tag indicates that the hand wheel is supposed to travel counter clockwise to sew which is not the way the hand wheel travels when sewing. The other reason is that the handle does not rotate as the wheel is turned.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560773[/ATTACH]
Fortunately the Serial Number is on the tag as I had difficulty trying to figure it out by looking at the imprint in the back of the pillar.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560774[/ATTACH]
To find out when this machine was manufactured by New Home, I called 1-800-631-0183. I had trouble navigating the automated answering system and left a message in the general mailbox. I hadn't heard anything back for a couple days so I called again. I'm not sure who or where, but finally got a "real person" and they transferred me to a "customer service" mailbox (which wasn't an option when I called prior). I got a call back and was told that they couldn't help as they only had information about "New Home" machines, not "New National." I told her that it was a "New Home" machine as that was on the decals on the bed of the machine. Where it was manufactured (Rockford, ILL) is on the front slide plate. She looked and sure enough "US" was a model manufactured 1936 to 1942. She then explained where I could find it on the Janome site. To save time explaining you can find the link to the pdf for machines made in Orange, MA or Rockford IL, on this page
http://janome.com/en/support/general-support/faqs/ The link is near the bottom of the page where it says "Antique Machines" Based on the number given in the list, I would suppose mine was probably manufactured in 1942.
After cleaning the rust on the leaf tension. I put it on this way, as the thread groves were on the bottom. The picture is taken from the back of the machine.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560775[/ATTACH]
I did get it to sew after some adjustments to the tension screw. I ran out of bobbin thread and managed to get a bobbin filled, but probably not quite right seemed a little loose, as I couldn't figure out the right thread path from the spool to the bobbin winder. While looking for instructions on how to wind the bobbin, I happened across this site -
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/...dventures.html (which also has a picture of the correctly placed nose plate) I thought I may have gotten the leaf tension on incorrectly. I don't think so. Kind of interesting that whether the notch is in front or in back, it can still sew. I don't remember where I found instructions on how to wind the bobbin. It said to wrap the thread from the spool pin around the tension screw once.
I don't know if it meant to wrap completely around or just behind the screw. I'm think maybe just behind.
Oh, something else about winding the bobbin, before I took the bobbin winder off to clean a bit, the tire would stay in position on the inside of the hand wheel. After cleaning, I had to hold the winder so the tire would stay connected to the hand wheel.
Should I put a spring washer on the screw to attach the winder??
Janey, Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.