tjbosley

Lucky me,, I think, found a Kenmore 148-12070 in the dumpster. I took it home, cleaned and oiled it. I think the reason it was tossed is because it is stuck on zig zag. Can someone help me??

don't know if you can open this or not.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9969885&type=1

foufymaus

most likely theres a bit of goop/debris preventing it from going back to straight stitch. Crack her open, shift it to the widest zig zag then watch it work as you turn the hand wheel see where the cam connects to make the zig zag. then move it to straight stitch. usually you can see the mechanism move. if you dont see movement then it probably is old sticky oil.

J Miller

The lever on the top front is the ZZ width (stitch width) adjuster. Move it to 0 for straight stitch.
The round knob to the left is the lock to the adjuster lever. Loosen it for the adjuster to function.

That being said, take the top off, the face plate off, tip it over to get to the bottom and oil every metal thing that moves or touches another metal thing. Grease the gears with Tri-Flow or Singer grease.
Make sure to check the feed dog raise / lower controls to make sure they are free to move.

Tri-Flow is the best oil to use to free up a sticky machine. Clean it as good as you can first, I use denatured alcohol on the insides, the oil oil oil oil it till all of moves freely. Then wipe it down and run it really good for a while to distribute the oil.

Joe

tjbosley

everything is moving freely. There's a small piece of meta screwed to the top of a cog that makes the needle move... an I relly makes a blind hem stitch.

Stilt cannot post a pic

tjbosley

if I push that horizontal metal rod leftward, the machine will sew straight

Mickey2

If you can't find a parts and service manual for the model, it can help to play around with the parts close to the stitch width lever and needle positioner. There might be a cotter pin, or bolt fallen out, spring that needs to be put back in place. etc. With just a bit of tinkering and maybe sleeping on it over night, you will find the solution I'm sure. Is it the large rod on top there you move to the left? Look for connected parts going from the stitch width lever to the rod somewhere; a part that should push it in place or something.

Quincunx

I have a 1217 which is the next year's model of this same machine. The top photo is with the stitch width set to 0 and the bottom with the stitch width set to 5. I have lost the link to the manual but can go find it again if you need it.

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Quincunx

And now that I can look at both photos I see the 1207 should be set to straight stitch. I think the parts holding the right end of the long horizontal metal rod are where the stickiness is. You said you can push it to the left, but can you push it towards the back of the machine too?

Did you say it was making a blind hem stitch? I will look at your blind hem gear, because mine will not. (When I turn the blind hem knob to ON it goes to center homing straight stitch. Weird but useful.)

Mickey2

A couple of times it has taken me up to four days to make a machine run smoothly again. Some type of gime and dried up oil can be very tubborn. Even when oiling a few times a day it can take time. You really just have to keep at it to flush out all the old grimy stuff and replace it with fresh oil. It's not really a lot of oil that does the job, it the frequent application. Running the machien on full speed can help too.

sewbeadit

Your machine looks really nice, nice find. I agree with Mickey, frequent oiling for a while really helps get it cleaned out. Sometimes after oiling it will sew fine then gum up again, so oil again until it runs freely for quite a while. Someone said they put a brick on the foot peddle to keep it running and just let them run for an hour or two and sometimes longer if it needs it. So hope you find the answer and you get it going really soon.