TheMountainsAreCalling

Hello all!
I have been absolutely pouring over the site tonight, loving all the photos and trying to glean any scrap of useful info I can about my machines. I am new to sewing-- I bought a cheap Singer from Jo-Ann's a few years ago, finally took a sewing class last year... and discovered my "brand new" machine was Worthless. Constantly jamming, tension troubles, so frustrating. Luckily, my husband's grandfather was over one day and mentioned he had grandma's old sewing machine in the basement and no one in the family would take it! I was so thrilled. It's a beautiful Singer 15 clone (as I've just discovered today) in turquoise, with all the original manuals and accessories, and runs like a dream. It has made sewing so enjoyable! (I'll post photos in the Singer 15 clone thread, as I know this is not the place.)

The point of that story is that my mother, who was a wonderful seamstress, gave up sewing almost ten years ago after having nothing but trouble with modern machines, and hesitating to invest so much money in a "quality" modern machine since she's not sewing clothes for all the kids anymore. She has been jealous of my Morse. Today I was at the Rescue Mission and came across a beautiful, two-toned blue Ambassador machine that is almost the same turquoise blue as my Morse. All the dials turned, and the wheel turned freely, and the RM guaranteed "it worked." It had no case, and no tools or manual. It's a charity, so after agonizing over it for 20 minutes, I bought it for $40 to give to my mom for Christmas. The badges say Ambassador Automatic 106 Deluxe Zig Zag machine (made in Japan). There is no JA or JC number on the bottom, just a serial number C39-77287 (which I understand is pretty useless). The motor is a 115v El Ray, made in USA. I would be very excited if anyone can give me any recommendations for a manual for this beauty. Tomorrow I'll clean her up (according to all your helpful hints), replace the broken needle, figure out how to thread her and put a few stitches down to make sure everything works. I hope it does! It clearly is more advanced than my Morse. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated! I hope this machine will be "the one" for her!