Cecilia S.

Oooh, still my beating heart, a site full of sewing machine geeks, and a sister machine to my Ziggy! I love this!

Frudemoo/Amelia, our machines look nearly identical from what I see on your photos! To the left of the side-place, mine has a strange, Roman-nose-like lamp. Does yours have a light elsewhere? Oh wait, yours is a treadle - so probably not. Does yours have a candle holder there, then? ;-)

Thanks so much for photographing your tension. That, plus Miriam's wonderful link, will inspire me to take apart my tension assembly. I will surely post again with photos and questions ;-)

Thanks also for the bobbin-winder rubber doughnut photo. That looks as mine does now that I replace the doughnut with a less fat one. That is, clearance in its resting position, but not a lot of clearance. I think perhaps someone simply put a too-thick rubber doughnut on mine.

I still think we should not have to thread through that wee little hole on the tension spring, but let me ruminate on this one a bit...

Have you been sewing on yours yet, or is it new-to-you and you are yet to sew until you get the manual?

-C.

miriam

Your tension spring may not be 'set' right - does it spring back when you touch it? I don't know how to explain it but that manual tells how to 'set' that spring - I think it is the only place I've seen that information.

frudemoo

I've tried to make mine sew and have had success with a few stitches, but it misses stitches and does weird things, so I think it's the needle - but it could be the timing.... I have no idea. I've been fixated on getting the manual as a starting point, so that's been a 6 month project (as you can see from the topic I've started called "SO disappointed!!!!" about a guy trying to charge me a LOT of money for a copy of the manual. .....But I know the manual may not even help me that much. I haven't found anyone else with a comparable machine who could help me any more than this, that's why I thought it would be nice if we can help eachother.

I think mine's from 1953 so they're a similar vintage, but being a treadle and a SS only, my machine is a lot simpler. I'm sure yours will be fabulous once you've got it working well, they are impressive machines (I'm keeping an eye out for one of the later free arm models) ... and then I can finally make my assessment as to whether I like the British, German, Italian or Swiss machine the best!

I'll have to check out Miriam's link too. Haven't had a chance yet.

Cecilia S.

Hi everyone;

I had some very kind help with manual translation from my recent German-speaking houseguests, and also from someone on this board.

I am posting here a few photos from my manual; Amelia, I hope this helps you with your threading. The photo of the threading diagram very clearly seems to indicate that the thread goes through the tiny hole on the end of the tension spring. This really does seem odd to me (and to others as well!) but please tell me if you agree with what the photo says?

I have also included a photo of the diagram of how to thread the bobbin out of the bobbin case; the little hook on the outside of the bobbin case is unlike any other machine I have ever seen.

Does this help you? I found that mostly, the manual was intuitive based on diagrams and other machines' traits; however, it is indeed a funky machine in its own way!

-C.[ATTACH=CONFIG]417989[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]417990[/ATTACH]

Cecilia S.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]417991[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]417992[/ATTACH]

Cecilia S.

Miriam, no, my tension spring just flops between 9 o clock and 12 o clock, if that makes sense. It does not spring back, although having just now touched the spring on my old White single stitcher, I know what you mean.

Today I shall disassemble and re-assemble my tension. Fingers crossed :-)

Cecilia S.

Now this is just me being a geek - but look at this neat advertisement which came with the old 429. An ad for a new modern Duplomatic Automatic Phoenix 388! I hope you can read the text; I find it amusing.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]417993[/ATTACH]

miriam

If you mess with the spring you might want to look at that manual how to set it so you have some idea how it should go - It was the most frustrating thing for me to learn about tensions. I wish I could just show you....

miriam

I had a brochure when I got a Phoenix - it went with the machine when I sold it to a really great little gal that deserved a good machine. [ATTACH=CONFIG]417994[/ATTACH] it also had a tin full of attachments and disks.

Cecilia S.

I have the same tin!!!

:-)

No disks, though, for my Ziggy is just a zigzag and straight stitcher. Zick-zack, in German, and I just love how that sounds!

-C.