My Great Deal!
 

Hello to all. I was at the thrift store today and found a Kenmore moddel 158-1450280 for only $19.99. Since my older back up machine froze and died on me several weeks ago, naturally the Kenmore piqued my interest. It sews beautifully. My problem is that there is no book and only 1 bobbin. Please pass on any advice on how to get an owners manual. Also she takes the class 15 metal bobbins of which I have none. Are the class 15 plastics ones interchangeable? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance......Judi

I thought that JAF sold 15 metal bobbins.
http://www.joann.com/search?q=15+metal+bobbins

ManiacQuilter JAF does sell them. I just have many, many plastic ones and wondered if they were interchangeable? Also, there is no bobbin case. Not surer if there is suppose to be , but I bet there is. I need to get my hands on a manual.

Your should be able to download those from the sears website http://www.searspartsdirect.com
If you don't find it there, a Google search for that model show some for pay sites.

Ken

Don't purchase the bobbins from Joanns. They are from China & quality is terrible. Cindy Peters of stitches-in-time - try facebook or write to her at [email protected]

Although the bobbins are technically interchangeable, if the machine has a metal bobbin case, it is best I use metal bobbins.

Thank you both txmerlin and Farmhousesewer. I will try both......Judi

Plastic bobbins are fine. I don't suggest metal bobbins in plastic cases because they wear the case out.
Chances are good that your machine does need a bobbin case. It should be easy to get one, class 15 cases are among the most inexpensive and most plentiful ones around. The thing you need to figure out is which way the "finger" on the bobbin case goes - to the 11 o'clock position or the 1 o'clock position (probably 1 o'clock), and then get a case that is good for zig zag.

More than likely, it's the one shown on this page:
http://www.sewingpartsonline.com/ken...ine-parts.aspx

That's probably not the best price but a great site for figuring out what stuff looks like.

When l bought them at Joanns they were a little bit too big for my bobbin case so I couldn't use them.

I'm a little confused as you say it sews beautifully but then you say there is no bobbin case. It does appear to be a different type of bobbin case.




I have a free pdf for your machine that I got in March of 2015 that I think was from managemylife.com It was saved as L0910299.pdf I had tried to download another one from ismacs, but it wouldn't open. When I tried to download again, it kept failing. Maybe you can have better luck - here are some links
http://pdfstream.manualsonline.com/d...a360787e59.pdf
http://ismacs.net/sears/home.html which links to
http://ismacs.net/sears/manuals/kenm...4502-14401.pdf

On page 8 of L0910299.pdf it lists optional accessories and gives plastic bobbins as a option.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Oh! I had one of those weird angle bobbin Kenmores a few years ago. I don't recall the model #. It has a strange bobbin case and mine came to me literally barn fresh, filthy and with one plastic bobbin. I cleaned it up, got it sewing properly and gave it away. So yes you can use plastic bobbins in it.

Cari

Sears.com has manuals online for the old Kenmore sewing machines surf the net a bit, you will find it.

So that is neither a 11 o'clock nor 1 o'clock and not even a Japanese front access bobbin case I am familiar with. Based upon the manual it does take plastic bobbins .

Yeah, I haven't seen one of those hook systems in any of the Kenmore machines that have hit my bench. All of the 158 (Maruzen Jaguar made) Kenmore machines I've seen have been a regular 15 hook and bobbin set up. I don't know if it will be easy to find that bobbin case at all.

Tammi it really is a weird set up. Luckily I got the manual with mine. It was kinda cool to watch it when it sewed just because it was different. It sewed well after I cleaned it up. And to clarify, I didn't give it away just to get rid of it, I gave it to someone who posted a want ad on my local Freecycle since it wasn't a machine I wanted to put in my collection.

Cari

I wonder if it was their answer to the slants. There's a definite similarity in angle of approach...

I was told by a gal who bought her 500J new that they advertised that you could sew over pins with a slant. *shudder* I've hit pins with a slant. My first machine was a slant. After I serviced it, I asked her to please not sew over them. ;)