Brass Head

I have been struggling with this Morse 4100 for a month. It's a '53 or '54, I think, one of the earlier Morse Foto-Matics. The brochure says that the grey color was designed by Japanese scientists using the finest Japanese pigments. I like that even as they were catering to us Americans, they were taking pride in things Japanese. It's a nice blue grey, looks a little more industrial than Eastern Exotic: oh, well.

When I got it, the first thing I noticed was that Every screw head in the machine was deformed. I freed it up, but when I turned it manually, the parts inside were clanking into one another. I knew between the mangled slots and the clanking that I was a victim, and that my Morse was a victim, of some ambitious loon with a mania for adjustment, armed with an unground, paint-spattered screwdriver and probably a little ball peen to boot.

Unfortunately, the 4100 does not have a removable top, so I had to disassemble it like some ship in a bottle, through those goofy little access ports. It had been run so out of whack that one of the control rods was bent and interfering with another moving part. I bent it back: duh.

Eventually, I got it working OK except that the tension is a little different on one side of the zigzag than on the other: teensy loops one side on the bottom , teensy loops the other side on top. Fiddling with the left-right-center gizmo helps, but not consistently. I sort of try for perfection when I fix these things, so I can't really call the job done.

I did notice as I was cleaning it up that the top thread is a little thicker than the bottom one. Could that be it? I tried different needles, etc.

Anyway, up it goes into my wife's sewing room. It pays not to be TOO precise in one's fiddling until a machine has been run a while. Sometimes they get better; sometimes they get bad enough to see what's wrong with them.

Here it is, kinda handsome, I think:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]586375[/ATTACH]

Mickey2

I am trying to weed out eveything grey in my life; at least a good portion of it. Since the last few years before the millennium the world around be has increasingly been taken over by a greyness; grey paint, gerey furnture hues in off white, drift wood, slate, charcoal, exhaust, smog, béton brut,... I strongly suspect it's linked to a parallel increase in in use of antidepressants since the 1990s

Some like the early Japanese zigzaggers. Personally I'm not entirely convinced, but they are often all metal, and that's always a pluss in my book. My favorites tend to be Swiss and German models; Bernina, Gritzner, Adler, Dürkopp. Most of them have one or two plastic gears. Some of the concrete grey Pfaffs are very nice, 1950s to early 60s.

I have to admit, I lean towards what was just before mid centry, the cast iron zigzaggers like Bernina 117, (Pfaff 130 I have yet to get to know). There is a similar green Husqvarna . The cast iron zigzaggers I have my eye on were made a bit into the 50s, but were all models introduced before WWII.

I suspect the grey color is more industrial and utilitarian than Japanese, but I'm open to any refinement. As mentioned the early grey Pfaff zigzaggers were introduced around the same time. The mechanical engineering is probably borrowed from German models too. Elna had one of the earliest double layer cam stitch patterns, but I think a few German makers like Gritzner and Adler introduced similar features around the same time. The early Japanese zigzaggers are pretty close to these in apparence and function.

Brass Head

The German machines are an unexplored territory for me. I look forward to traveling there! The older handcrank machines are fascinating.

I have a Pfaff 230 in the basement (greyish, as I recall!), which I bought for next to nothing. It looks intact, but it is as locked up as if someone got in there with their tig welder, determined to make a monolith out of the thing. It's been in storage for couple years now. I have no idea as to its merits. Perhaps you do. As I recall, having a sound cloth-and-staple cog belt (or whatever they're called) isimportant in these machines). The one on my basement dweller looked fine.

I like the Japanese machines. They are very well made, traditionally designed within, but with all sorts of kookie knobs and nameplates outside. I like the color palette, derived from the heyday of Dupont auto paints as seen on cars and on Fender guitars, of which I have a few. They're fun, they're fairly cheap, and they're worth fixing.

I wonder if the Japanese-devised grey on my 4100 is a subtle protest against feeling that they had to follow Dupont's lead?

The ancillary aspects - culture, national identity, industrial design, shifting aesthetics, view of women implicit in the advertising - are nearly as interesting as the machines themselves.

Cari-in-Oly

I think your Morse is a bit later than you suspect. The early Morse machines were 15 class clones, later ones came after the first zig zaggers started arriving from Japan. Morse had his machines built with other manufacturers' designs and was sued more than once for it. Not saying they aren't good machines, just that his models came after others because he copied them. Despite his glowing obituary Morse wasn't a very good man, just a greedy one.
I think the reason I have an unnatural aversion to Morse machines is because I intensely dislike dishonesty. Same with Nelco machines. I do own one Morse clone, it's an almost identical twin to one of my Brother clones and will be a parts donor to the Brother. I also have an aversion to stripping a machine for parts but I don't think this one will bother me too much.

Cari

Brass Head

I have seen a 1955 ad with this machine in this color. They were first imported in 1953. The Morse lawsuits, I thought, were more about obscuring the "Made in Japan" label than about the machinery, though I have not researched the matter in depth. I'd call Morse's shenanigans more entrepreneurial spunk than outright dishonesty. Sometimes a colorful world will tend to be a tad unrighteous. After all, if there is an Almighty, He thought to create P T Barnum as well as Albert Schweitzer, and He had a hand in the mighty shell pink Atlas, so he has a playful side!

I am mindful too that it was arguably enlightened American policy at the time to encourage the revival of a more democratic/consumerist Japan by encouraging and subsidizing non-military industrial undertakings, including, of course, the making of sewing machines. Tolerating a little "good old-fashioned American" hucksterism would have been in keeping with this policy. The dark side of this, of course, was the effect on American makers, though there was certainly something of the huckster in Mr. Singer, methinks, and fair is fair if not always pretty.

My Japanese phase only started fairly recently. Is there an authoritative book or website on the subject?

I want to thank you again for an opportunity to converse with people who know what they're talking about on a subject I find fascinating.

Mod: Please fell free to dump the "After all...Atlas" sentence on grounds of religious content (???), if you must, but leave the innocuous remainder, if you will.

Cari-in-Oly

In the process of progress(Yahoo upgrading itself, new computer, changing browser, etc.) I lost 13 years worth of bookmarks. My whole computer life essentially, gone. There have been numerous discussions on just about everything to do with sewing machines over the years on various groups and forums but I now can't go find what I've read about anything because a lot of stuff went away with progress. My brain works in weird ways. Sometimes I'll remember the fine details about something but the overall picture is fuzzy, and sometimes I'll remember the overall story but can't quite picture the fine details. Losing all my bookmarks so I can't look something up before I talk about it really hurt. I check out old magazine ads too, I actually own several Brother ads that I'm going to have framed.
The court cases against Phillip Morse and Leon Jolson are out there in webland if you know how or where to search. Thinking about what I said earlier, I may have to back pedal somewhat. I may have been thinking about Leon Jolsons obituary that painted him in such a glowing light. You're right of course about all the shenanigans, Singer wasn't above reproach(to say the least) in his life or business. I really don't know for real why I don't care for Morse machines, they're as good as any other Japanese machines and I do love my Brothers though that started as sentimental. Brother machines make up half of my 70+ herd.

Cari

leonf

Cari, sorry to hear of you loss. Computers are wonderful for storing and losing vast amounts of information.

Brass Head

Hi, I took delivery today of a backup/parts machine for my 4100, though it looks good enough to fix it up in its own right. Amongst all the goodies was the original manual, and folded up in the manual was the original bill of sale and guarantee card: March 31, 1954, sold to a Mrs. Florio of Torrington, Connecticut for $239.95, a lot of dough in '54. How many years has it been since anyone looked at that paper, and where is Mrs. Florio now? My own mother is 96 and lives alone, drives (badly), manages her own affairs entirely. She broke her hip a little over two weeks ago, had it replaced (hemiarthroplasty), and will be back home, we just found out today, on Friday. I've been building ramps all week, so I think we should be good. Maybe I'll give Mrs. Florio a jingle and invite her to the coming home party. We're serving haddock, and I picture our Mrs, Florio as a practicing Catholic, so the menu should be fine. My mother can show off her 15-91, bought about the same time, I believe. And if Mrs. Florio wants her Morse back, she can have it. They can make Mom's surgeon a quilt.

Fantasy, I know, but...

Brass Head

The only Brother I have lives in Iowa and can't sew a stitch. But the exact contours of our love for these old machines are not as important as the love itself. I understand how painful it is to lose an avenue of connection to the world. Here's hoping for a digital miracle. Maybe some local nerd can recall your missing bookmarks? You could try the local high school: I know from experience that such creatures are to be found there.