here is what my manual has to say about use of the darning spring:

Joe, here is a thread about the springs. http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...s-t183629.html I want one of those. I would have had a better view of what I was doing when I was thread painting the ducks and eagles on my son's quilt. Thank you, JMCDA, fo the directions in case I find one.

Caroline, does that stick up thing (now there's a technical term) in the top center of your machine move. A similar lever is bigger and further to the right on my Universal. It has to be moved to the right in order for the big knob to turn and choose different stitches.

Joe, my Universal is twin to my mothers' White and as far as I can find out was made by the Koyo factory that manufactured Whites. When White went out of the manufacturing business and only became a distributor, the factory kept making machines and shipping them to the US where new names were given. Caroline's looks like a higher end model of the same machine. Caroline, what is the # on yours?

I sat down at the machine and could operate everything - muscle memory, maybe? BTW, when I have a machine apart, I oil everything that moves or even might move.

JMCDA,

Thanks for the instructions. I saved the pic to my PC. As soon as I've gotten the controls down pat on this machine I'll give it a try.

irishrose,
Thanks for the link to the thread about the springs. I"m gonna bookmark it this time.


About the great big straight stitch foot. .....................

It dawned on my pea brain about 17 minutes ago why this machine has such a big straight stitch foot.
It's because the feed dogs are very wide. The wide foot covers the wide feed dogs. Really too simple. Hey Joe: "Here's your sign".
If you'll look at the pic you can see the straight stitch foot on the left and the zig-zag foot on the right. Both are just a bit larger than the feed dogs.
Pretty smart, the designer.

Joe

Caroline,
OK, I'm really feeling left out now. Where in the blue blazes is this picture thread? I've looked and looked and can't find it. I want to see the "sticky uppy thingy" too.

Joe

I just updated my thread with some more pictures. Give me a minute and I will send you the link. Or you can go to my profile to look at my recent threads.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...z-t184858.html

Here you go Joe.

Caroline, I thought so. I'm also J A 38, but the serial number is N 10303. Yours is a little newer than mine.

Here's a picture though it was precleaning when the motor was still off. http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...-universal.jpg

I think that I saw a manual on TIAS for your model or one similar. I am thinking that that manual may have enough information to operate my sewing machine.