Mitch's mom

Shew! Don't run any of that nasty, dirty thread through it, you won't be doing it any favors.
I have a newer Kenmore badged Janome which has been a great machine. I got it on closeout at Sears for 50.00 in a sealed box, and a 1980 Juki MO103. The Juki is basically an industrial machine with a motor attached. It weighs a ton, has no light and will chew through anything I can fit under the foot - it is a mean little sucker

Once you get the machine cleaned up and oiled you'll have a good serger. Those old girls were built to run. From the look of the blade set up it may very well be a Juki machine.

manicmike

GW, I bought a 14U12 (1982) for $30 and think it was a bargain. Very reliable (I've had it six months) , very easy to thread and I use it regularly. Mine looks in slightly better condition (as in, the tension dials still have their colour) but at $20, if you clean and oil it it'll probably last forever.

great white

Oh, I've got plans for it.

First is a good cleaning and servicing and a few service replacements like the cutter blades. The service manual I bought will come in handy for all this. The owners manual is nearly useless other than threading guidance.

Then, I'm going to see if I can make it into a 4 thread with a new needle clamp and tensioner. Mostly just to see if I can as much as anything else. I've already got a needle clamp from a 14u34b on the way as well as an extra tensioner assembly from a 14u64. The thread run is already cast in the 14u32 case and the extra tensioner spot is covered with small block off plate. I suspect they used one case for all the 14u models and added features as they changed model designation. I've already checked part numbers and all the main working bits are the same (is: loopers, tensioners, cutters, throat plates, etc)

I'll be making a different spool holder assembly and thread bar. It will be to hold the 4 spools vice 3, but its also something I can dicker with and custom build in the shop. The machine isn't going to be portable, it will spend its life in the sewing room so I can make it as fancy (or simple) as I want.

Then i'll likely do something about the yellowed paint/plastic. I like the blue on the "professional" 14u's so I may do that with it. Or I might go more like the Ford "seafoam blue" on my 62 T-Bird. I still have some of that left in the can and it's such a nice unique color. Easy on the eyes too. A little prep work and a quick pass with the HVLP gun and its done. Or maybe a traditional "hot rod" flamed paint job. Yeah, I'm the "car guy"....



Finally, i'm going to make a plexi work table attachment that will slide around the free arm to better support whatever we're putting through the machine since the 14u32 doesn't come with the collapsible out feed table like higher models. Much like my table saw, I like in feed and out feed supports. They just make life easier working with big stuff and big stuff is mainly what it will be dealing with (ie: blanket over edging, towel over edging, etc)

Currently toying with the idea of adding an over edge seam width knob like a 14u64, but I need to get it in my hands before I can tell if that is even possible. The case has the boss already there, but I need it in front of me before hunting down parts.

I may replace the other tensioners to get rid of the faded numbers and match the chrome 14u64 tensioner if it works in 4 thread. Or I may just pop them all out, make them all black and print up a new numbered tape on the graphics printer at work.

That's about it I think. I might be pushing it more than its capable of as it is, so thats where I'll stop for now.

Differential feed would have been nice, but I think that might be too much to try and add to a simple machine as this seems to be. Some of the 14u's seem to have had diff feed as an option, so it may be possible. But I've taken on enough with this little machine for now...maybe in the future I'll look at it if the rest of my plans come to fruition.

By the time I'm done, I probably will have spent enough to have just bought a decent 14u64. But this is much more fun!

Krystyna

I had an older Singer serger and it was a little bit of a pain to thread. Actually just looking at the manual made my head hurt so either my son or husband did it. I eventually learned how and it wasn't too bad. It worked wonderfully. Then I lost it in Superstorm Sandy. We resettled and I got a "bargain" Brother. It worked well enough but made an awful racket. Then my husband, who accompanies me to trips to Joann, went wandering and when he came back, he had his own basket with a Singer Pro-Finish which was on sale. It is quieter, but I'm ashamed to say I haven't learned to thread it myself yet. Nor has he ... so I have to wait for my son to be around. No matter what you end up getting, it's going to be a frustrating learning curve, so be sure you save some money for a couple of good stiff drinks!

PBobbin13

Most of the older sergers have a thread specific threading order. If one thread breaks and it's not the last one that is normally threaded, you must remove all threads and start from the beginning. My Viking Huskylock 1002 LCD was like this and it drove me crazy although it did a beautiful stitch. I switched to a Babylock with the jet air threading and love this machine. Can be threaded in any sequence, and does a beautiful stitch.

great white

Couldn't resist a little photoshop fun:

Bearpawquilter

I upgraded from my 80's Kenmore serger which still works great to a Babylock Evolution. The two features I had to have were air threading and the double row stitching used to hem knit pants in rtw. I am very short and have to hem almost all pants I buy. I am very happy with this machine and it will probably be my lifetime serger. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford this machine ($2500) but I realize not everyone is. I did not research other brands to see if those features were available and a more affortable price point. The machine is quite complicated and I have to refer to the manuels every time I use it.

ArchaicArcane

Now that I've threaded mine a number of times, I've learned that with a little creativity you can get around this. If you watch (or take a photo of it completely threaded) you can see where in the thread path thread A needs to run behind thread B instead of in front of it. This is the main reason that they need to be threaded in a certain order. That said, if I break a looper thread, I don't rethread the needle threads and vice versa, so I should in theory only have a maximum of 2 threads to rethread on a 4 thread serger.

While I have nothing against blue, at all, ever... you may be interested in the RetroBright project. It uses peroxide and a few other ingredients to whiten yellowed plastic. I've done a small experiment with drug store strength peroxide and bought a bottle of stronger peroxide based on the results I saw.

Will do! And thanks

Hey! I'm just north of Edmonton and I have no interest in Edmonton either. No offense taken.

JanetM

You might want to reconsider not worrying about difficult threading. If you were to ask the members here "Why do you not use your serger?" I will bet you money they will cite two problems.....I hate/can't thread it and the tension is impossible to set properly. Seriously, you might want to ask the question.

If you truly want to buy the missus a serger she will ENJOY, and USE, I encourage you to look at a used Babylock. Babylock is the ONLY serger that has automatic air-threading and auto tension.

No I do not sell Babylock's, I own one!

great white

Thanks for the suggestions but we already bought a singer 14u32 and will be sticking with it for a while.

We tried threading a friends 14u64 the other day and both the wife and I had no troubles.

Took a little longer than a regular sewing machine but it wasn't a problem.