Found a Pfaff 130 in a Dominion Secretary cabinet today
 

And yes, it came home with me. While it was the most expensive machine at the shop, I thought it was the best machine at the shop too. :)

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2 manuals and an "advertising sheet" (which is how I know it's a dominion secretary cabinet.)
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Came with many attachments, including a couple things I don't recognize yet.

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It's fairly tight moving at the moment, but I think I know someone who can look at it.

The decals are in good shape, and so far, all I can tell is missing is the "knob" for the stitch length selector...

The only disappointing surprise so far is this:
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Yeah, it's actually wired into the cabinet. I have to be missing something. No one would have carted this behemoth back to the dealer for servicing IN its cabinet.... :D

Very nice. The cabinet looks similar to the Singer #42 cabinet that came with my 201.

Sewing machine repairmen used to come to your house...at least they did in my town. There was a Singer shop here until probably the mid 70s...& the owner/mechanic did "house calls". And there were also a couple independent sewing machine guys that did, too. One of the independent guys came to my house in the late 60s adjust the buttonhole cutting width on my machine. It looked simple enough...so I started working on my own machines!

Maybe it was a trade in for an upgrade? It is a beauty. Congrats.

Tammi,
Oh my....that machine and cabinet made my heart go pitty-pat! Wonderful! Congratulations on your latest find. It seems like it was lightly used based on the condition of the decals. Please let us know how it sews.
Judy

Beautiful find; hope it works well for you.

Oh dear I'm wiping drool off my keyboard... wow.

Really nice machine!

Thanks everyone! It's one of the few machines lately that has made me take a look, then a second, then a third, before I whipped out payment. Most of the time, I've been saying, "No, I'm in a purge phase, I don't need more keepers...." Though I should have known better, it -was- at my favorite (for finding sewing machines) thrift shop...

Does anyone know what those 4 pieces are in the 3rd pic? I've seen the black one in other photos, I think it might be a knife holder? The other 3 have me stumped though.

Also, I think I know how to get the machine out of the cabinet for a good cleaning. If you detach the light from the machine and leave it with the cabinet, the motor plug can be disassembled.

I really do want it on my bench, as the hand wheel turns smoothly for half a turn, then a little harder for the rest of the turn even after marinating in TriFlow for the night. Looks to be in time with the feed dogs rising, but it's hard to tell when I'm trying to climb over the desk every which way to see what's going on. ;)

Strip off the throat plate and see if it still rubs.

That's a great looking machine!

Please keep posting anything you learn about your machine. We are in the process of clearing my MIL's home for sale. Sometime in the coming month I'll be bringing home a Pfaff 130 that belonged to my husband's grandmother. It's in a nice cabinet. I've heard these can be difficult machines to work on and get the timing right. My MIL said the grandmother said it had timing issues so she eventually got a Kenmore 158. I need to learn more about Pfaffs.

Love your machine and cabinet. I have a 301A in the same cabinet. I didn't know the name of it until this post.
Thanks
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Behind the rear cover plate and to the right is a gear/bearing whatever you want to call it, It is difficult to see, it is near the white Delron gear, you'll need a flashlight. It is there for machines with the coffee grinder attachment to be installed. I missed it on mine and couldn't figure out why the machine was binding. Once I oiled it, the machine purred.

Congrats on your beautiful find! :)

What is a coffee grinder attachment?

It is an attachment that goes on the back of the Pfaff 130 to make all manner of decorative stitches. It sounds like a coffee grinder when it is working, hence the name.

Color me green with envy!! That is one that I want but cannot justify currently. :D

That is a wonderful machine and a great cabinet. Congratulations. I didn't see a price; dare I ask?

I have a Pfaff 130 and love it.

Check, I will do that first thing tomorrow. It's on my bench now, so it will be easier to turn around and check every which way. :)

Well, I found it really strange that the user manual comes with timing instructions. That made me a little leery. We shall see what tomorrow brings though as far as how it works. I can't see all those people building sails and such wanting this machine if it's constantly persnickety. I bet you DGMIL's just needs a good servicing (that you can likely do). The service manual is in the oldpfaffpforum yahoo group which I'm thinking I will rely heavily on. ) Will definitely keep everyone up to date on my discoveries.

So far, it runs, quite fast, but I need a better belt. The 193077 singer belt fits, but seems to cause some resistance, so I'll order the proper one. I was trying to help the oil work in. ;)
It feeds fabric, but I haven't tested with thread.

Awesome! I had looked at the hinge spacing and wondered if it would fit a Singer (or similar spaced hinge placement). Thanks for that info!

Oh! This is great information!! Being in front of the closet like that, it was hard to see what I was dealing with. Now that it's on my bench, I will look for that Delron gear you mention and see if I can't make this little thing happier. :) Thank you!

I paid more than I usually do for a machine lately,... it was $65. ;) Marked down from $120, so it had been there for a little bit. The also have a Necchi something or other, in a portable case with the wonderwheel, it's gone from $150 to $45, but for some reason, it doesn't interest me as much as this Pfaff.

The correct name for the material that white gear is made of is Delrin. I woke up this morning and the first thing in my head was I spelled it wrong. I was surprised to see it used in the 130. It doesn't fail so that is a plus!

I had been thinking it was a different compound than the Delrin I was familiar with. Delrin is for sure a good material to use, it's extremely hard wearing.

You are so lucky . Beautiful cabinet, We do not find such a super deal ,good for you.

You did great! I got a Pfaff 130 in pristine condition, worthy of the show floor, but without a cabinet for about $350. That was maybe 4 or 5 years ago. It had been fully reconditioned and checked; not a pin prick or scratch on it. I got it from a dealer in another area; they are not common in this part of New England.

Thanks cricket! This one here shows some evidence of having been left in a non-temperature controlled space for some amount of time, but it seems to be perking up slowly. I've been distracted for the last several days, but when I left it, it had only the smallest hard spot in the turning of the handwheel. It's very clean now, and the test sew was.... weird. The tensions are balanced, but I have to look at the stitch length or something. I should get another chance to look at it tomorrow or Tuesday.

Mitch's Mom, thanks for the heads up on that spot to look at and oil. I think I might have missed one of the spots, because it freed up about 90%. The rest... it's going to want a little more TLC.

The only other thing that's outstanding is the upper tensioner. You can turn it until it comes off, and it seems like there may be a piece missing. It tensions great though if you get it the right number of turns and leave it. ;)

Beautiful!
My Pfaff 130 is in a cabinet with mid-century modern handles, but not nearly as nice condition as yours.
I recall a few visits to the farm by a sewing machine repair whose shop was about 40 miles away. My mother would be so upset, because whatever problem she was having wouldn't show up much while he was there, and it seemed like a wasted trip. She and dad would usually be able to fix most of the problems.
Dayle

Isn't that the way it always works? ;) I can't count the number of times I've had clients (I'm in IT) say well, "it wasn't working til you got here... " I can't tell you how many times my car's done that. DH and I fix most of what goes wrong on the car, but it likes to play games sometimes. Will only misbehave for one of us, not both.

I guess I was just surprised that the machine would be built into the cabinet like that in a machine built in the 1950s. I thought that the day of the sewing machine house call was less common then, but I was wrong. :) In truth, the people who ran the Singer store here til last year still made some house calls, to the seniors especially. They would take the machine back to the shop though and then bring it back finished.

That's a beautiful machine and so is the cabinet. I have that cabinet, got it and the machine at an auction for $2.50, BUT unfortunately someone painted the cabinet, so it's on my list to refinish.

ArchaicArcane, how do you like the Pfaff 130 now?

Anyone else have an opinion of their Pfaff 130 to offer?

$65 for that machine is a steal! Beautiful.

Hi Tammi, How nice that this thread was bumped - such a gorgeous machine! I noticed that the photo of the underside looks -SO- much like my Anker Phoenix 429 which is said to be a Pfaff knock off. Would you mind taking a photo of the underside of the bobbin area, and also of the bobbin case ? I would just be curious to know how much of a clone mine is. Does yours have that funny pig tailly bobbin case, for example? Mine is zig zag only, no coffee grinder. Though I guess it would be a Pfeffer Grinder... ;-)

First time I've seen this thread. The cabinet looks just like the Singer cabinet I want. What a great find!
Rodney