Males and Females

The joys of electrical connections! But I am not joyful. On New Years Day, we have our neighbors over for home-made donuts for a nice end to the holiday season and a way for us to connect before we all go inside for the winter and only see each other passing by in our cars. Our next door neighbor, Bob, has a long history with sewing machines since his own dad repaired them for a school district. We showed him the Damascus, a sleek beauty with a potted motor (potted motor = stuck on the back but integrated into the machine, not a separate piece you can trade out) and in good physical shape. Here's where the male and female parts come in: the electric plugs at the motor have one male, one female. The male outlet needs a female plug for the foot control and the female outlet need a male plug for the connection to the electric outlet in the wall.

We only got the foot control part so no connection to the electric source. We took it all apart with Bob's help to see if we could change the outlets/plugs but didn't see how that was possible so it got put into a box and there it sits. Until now. Same machine, different name, potted motor, both the same male and female plugs came up on Goodwill Online Auction this week and, yes, I did win it. No shipping & handling charge since I can drive into their center in St. Paul to pick it up so it's more affordable and I could bid a bit higher than others. For under $20 she came home with me today.

1st Damascus on left, auction item on right

 Now I have the electric plug so I can finally test this all out. The plug end looks okay but the wires will need to be fixed but that should be okay, too.

female left, male right

Very funky foot control, too!

Even the foot controls are different with the bottom of the shoe shape and weird vented box on the side. But things don't go as I expected when I cannot get the motor back into the sewing machine. The carbon brushes are out, nothing to obstruct, but it doesn't go in. While I wait for inspiration to strike I start to turn the hand wheel and find out this thing barely moves. I get it oiled and keep trying to keep things moving but they haven't moved in a long time and are reluctant to start now. I go back to the machine from the auction and it moves great, of course. So the machine that looks great is not moving, motor pulled out (and not going back in too well) but the machine that looks crummy is moving right along. Oh boy, now I have a dilemma. Keep working on the bright shiny model or try to clean up the poor one in hopes of getting it to work? No! I will not give up but will find a way to get that motor back inside and working again. It isn't going to be easy so stay tuned. Just like in all relationships it's not always about the obvious but it's the little things that can do us in!