Jamesbeat

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Sorry for the poor photo, it's late and I didn't want to bother hauling out my good camera.

My Gimbels-badged 'Precision Built Deluxe' zigzag machine built in Japan.
Has 'J-28' cast in the base.

After I unstuck and oiled it, it runs Really nice, unbelievably quiet. So quiet in fact, that when I first pressed the foot control, I thought that I must have left it in bobbin winder mode.

The machine was on the floor at the time because the cord is very short (it was originally in a cabinet) When I stooped down to look, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that the needle bar was in fact moving up and down!

It desperately needs a good exterior cleaning, and also a new belt and bobbin winder tire.

Does anyone know anything about this machine?
I can't seem to find any information about it. Plenty of very similar models, but not this exact one.

Presumably, it must be very rare, so I'll sell it for a million bucks on ebay and retire

miriam

yeah right James. I've posted links to generic manuals in the past. I was able to come up with a manual from White. I found it by going to Singerco.com/manuals. At the bottom there is a box. I put in w2134 and it came up with a free manual. It should be close enough for you to be able to use the machine. Yes there are some variations but it should be intuitive enough for you to use the machine.

GroovyEyeDesigns

You're right. It does. Nonetheless, I'm glad I managed to get a full refund from eBay, considering the seller told me it was working perfectly. Now I can invest it getting her running.

GroovyEyeDesigns

By the way, I'm drooling over all the beautiful metal in here!

LynxSS

Posted this in the VSMS before I found this thread. Cut and repasting here:


Hey all, new here.

I usually fix motorcycles and computer servers, this is my first sewing machine My wife's favorite purse was disintegrating and hanging on by a thread and gave me some incentive to get this sewing machine up and running that I bought last year for $20. (I liked it because I thought it looked a bit like Ironman) It is a Japanese De Luxe model MSAZ.


The belt was cracked and coming apart, the stick length selector was seized and the rest worked by hand with some effort. I oiled all the points and cleaned everywhere it needed and worked the oil in and now the thing spins effortlessly with no resistance, even with the bad belt the thing runs great and whisper quiet.


Stich selector took some effort to fix. There was a bolt way up inside the case only accessible from the bottom that was torqued down and why it wouldn't turn, It also looks like someone hammered it back together and slightly bent the cam. I found out the hard way that if you pull this piece out it will not go back together easily unless you push the reverse button and it'll drop back in. With that fixed everything is working perfectly.


I'm impressed with the quality of the internals and it sews great, effortless stitching through 8 layers of denim to fix my wifes purse straps. It only does straight and zig-zag stitches, nothing fancy but as both of us haven't sewn much in 20 years it's all we'd ever need for the occasional repair and hemming. I do like that you can drop the feed dogs and set stitch length to 0 to do cool stuff by hand though.


Anyway I'd like to find out a little bit more about it, when it was made and by who if possible. Any info would be helpful.

I've got some more pics here and a couple videos of it running here

Rodney

Welcome aboard LynnxSS. Take a look underneath the machines for numbers beginning with JA. The JA number can tell you who made the machine. Also some manufacturers either stamped or cast their names on some parts. You may get lucky there too.
You can post pictures directly from your computer by clicking the square icon that's third from the right above where you type. A picture may help the members here identify your machine. Many machines of different brands are just the same other than some of the trim pieces.
Rodney

LynxSS

Thanks Rodney, I see now how a cam could work. I think finding one will be next to impossible though. Should not be too hard to make some, there is only 1 follower.

I've checked again for any JA marks anywhere and don't see any, they might be under this other serial number tag that is riveted on. I also checked under the motor mount where someone earlier on this thread found theirs. This is the only number I see anywhere on the machine, 52901:



I have my pics hosted on google, are they not showing up?

LynxSS

Ahh I opened this thread in another browser and saw the pics do not show up after all When I copied and pasted from the other thread they did not get done right. Here they are:







And the link to additional pics and a few videos here.

Cari-in-Oly

Welcome to the group. JA #s will be somewhere under the lip or on the bottom of the machine cast into the head. That # on the plate is the serial # which is useless on a Japanese machine because there's no records to look it up. Very few machines don't have some kind of marks.
As far as making a cam, you would need to have a right one to copy or it probably won't work. Cams can be a real crap shoot. There were tons of different cams, sometimes a manufacturer used more than one style over the years, and most cam boxes aren't marked for what machine they go to. The best thing is to find a pic of a machine like yours that has it's cams so you know what to look for. Not always possible. The only other way is to buy cam sets until you get one that works in your machine.

Cari

miriam

There is some info: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...e-t207416.html