Originally Posted by frudemoo

As some of you may know, I have been trawling the Internet to find someone who might be able to copy their Phoenix Kl.250 manual for me. I'm in Australia and there are very few of these machines around (for sale, anyway) and they are much more common on eBay in Germany.

So... dutifully.... when I see one listed, I usually contact the seller to ask if the machine comes with a manual and offer to pay them separately for a scanned copy of the manual.

FINALLY I GOT A REPLY! I was so excited!!

He asked me how much I would pay for it... I said, well - you're the one that has to do the work. I don't know how many pages it is etc. I was eagerly awaiting his reply and noticed it had come through last night. .................$150!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the worst part is that I just don't know what to say. I think that any response I give won't be able to hide my hurt. Sure, I was offering to pay for it and make it a worthwhile exercise for them.... but I was not expecting such a blatant extortion attempt. There is also a part of me that feels tempted to try and reason with him and suggest ways of copying it more easily and then asking him to lower the price, but I feel instinctively that I shouldn't deal with him any further...

What would you do? - I am so disappointed to have lost this opportunity. I STILL can't figure out how to use the machine and I was so hoping that having the manual would help me figure things out

Originally Posted by frudemoo

It picks up the bobbin thread and looks like it's going to make stitches and then it sort of draws the bobbin thread up through the eye of the needle or something. You can go for a good inch or more before noticing there are no stitches and before this thing starts to happen with the thread looping up. The thread doesn't break and it doesn't get tangled in the bobbin case. It's nothing I've ever seen before and therefore I'm stumped!

The other manual I have says to use a system 1738 needle with the long groove facing to the front.
I just happened to have some Schmetz needles that have this number on the packet, but they are round shank. There was a giant (denim weight) flat shank needle in it when I got it but we suspected that this needle wasn't right, however changing the needles hasn't seemed to help the problem, nor has it made the problem worse.

Any clues?

Originally Posted by frudemoo

It picks up the bobbin thread and looks like it's going to make stitches and then it sort of draws the bobbin thread up through the eye of the needle or something. You can go for a good inch or more before noticing there are no stitches and before this thing starts to happen with the thread looping up. The thread doesn't break and it doesn't get tangled in the bobbin case. It's nothing I've ever seen before and therefore I'm stumped!

The other manual I have says to use a system 1738 needle with the long groove facing to the front.
I just happened to have some Schmetz needles that have this number on the packet, but they are round shank. There was a giant (denim weight) flat shank needle in it when I got it but we suspected that this needle wasn't right, however changing the needles hasn't seemed to help the problem, nor has it made the problem worse.

Any clues?

Originally Posted by Mizkaki

Sorry to be so late in jumping in here. I just looked at your picture of the machine. When the bobbin is one the side like that, so is the hook. The hook passes on the scarf side of the needle opposite of the long groove. So you have to thread side to side not front to back. Usually it means orient the long groove to the left and thread it left to right.

Years ago I had a German machine that looked a lot like yours. I don't remember the name, but it took 16X231 needles. The 16X231 is AKA DBX1, a very common industrial needle.

Cathy