MeganMills

Do you still have this machine? I have one that I am working on for Howick Historical Village (HHV) here in New Zealand that looks to be the twin sister to your one. (I call it "mine" while I'm working on it - but it belongs to them and they've asked me if I can get it going for them and clean it up as they want to use it for demonstrations.) Certainly yours is the very closest of any of the many pictures I've now looked at of old German machines generally and Hengstenbergs in particular.

There are a couple of parts on it that don't work quite as they should - the main one at the moment being the knurled thumbscrew for the stitch length adjuster - it only screws in a few turns and then, whether due to being the wrong size or some munted threads, simply won't go any further and I daren't force it. (I know that never ends well!)

So I'm going to look for a replacement but to be sure I get the right thing wondered, if you still have the machine at all, I could trouble you to take close-up, clearer picture of yours please (perhaps removed from the machine and alongside the ruler for scale).

I'm also interested to know if your bobbin winder has "auto-release" when the bobbin is full. Nothing seems to be missing on mine. (I've taken it off the machine to give it a good clean, but have not disassembled it as I'm a bit nervous to try.) Mine doesn't auto-release when the bobbin is full but if yours doesn't either maybe they are not supposed to.

To take a look at the one I'm working on there is a bunch of pictures I'm taking as I go along here (not including the ones for the Singer puzzle box - that was something else I worked on last year too):
[links to remote file/photo storage are not allowed. please post photos directly to your QB post(s)]

Mine has the hole at the bottom right corner of the nose of the machine (around the corner from the tension disc, towards the seamster) just like yours, but it has nothing in it like yours has. Do you know if this is just for use with attachments? Of course I'm very interested to learn about anything else you've discovered about that machine since you got it. Mine came with no attachments, no manual, no lid and not working at all so it's been a bit of a journey so far learning about her.

Thanks so much... Megan
p.s. Did you get the shuttle lift working on yours? By cleaning from under the bed very thoroughly, as well as from above, everything I could reach I got mine to work. The handwheel has to come forward as you open the left-slide plate and, when the shuttle is all the way over to the left, you pull the slide plate out a bit more to the left and the shuttle pops up. It's ingenious - the cleaner and more oiled I got it, and the more I gently pulled on the slide plate, the freer and easier it got and the higher it popped up the shuttle. Now it works like a charm.