Monday, November 23, 2015

Things That Come In Threes

While I was extra busy crafting the last few weeks, I have bought a few new sewing machines that I almost forgot to tell you about. This time they came three at a time, all on the same day. It started with an online auction where I got the winning bid for a serger:
Elna Lock L1 serger
The Elna Lock L1 is very similar to the Elna Lock Pro 4 that I just bought and sold to Brenda so I thought it was a pretty good risk. I arranged to pick it up early morning before their regular pick up hours but before I could get there I won another one:
Kenmore 385-1960180
The Kenmore 385-1960180 is an early electronic/computer model so there is a pretty big risk in bidding on this one since there's more that can go wrong that I could not fix. It's a great time saver to be able to pick them both up on my way to work but it's not over because I've also arranged to pick up another serger after work:
Juki MO-103
I've read wonderful things about this Juki serger because it was their first home-market model so was quite powerful, similar to their industrials. Once I get all three of these home and try to work with them, I see the Kenmore is going to be fine but I might need to print out their 100 page manual to be able to figure out some of the finer points.
Large selection of stitches

The Juki serger takes the rest of my time and even though I finally get it to stitch fine it now makes a distinct loud clicking noise that it didn't have the first time I started it up. I can't tell where the clicking is from so maybe the stethoscope needs to come out to find where it is hitting.

I finally got to the Elna Lock L1 and without skipping a stitch it threads up and stitches perfectly. It might be just a three thread, one needle model but is easy to thread and no adjustments were necessary. Wow, I wish all sergers were this nice. I got a text from Ellie who now wants a few sergers for her Haiti project and I think the Elna is an excellent candidate and, hopefully, I can get the Juki up and running great, too. The Kenmore was a bit of a surprise, but then, not really since Kenmore has made pretty good machines but I would put this one on par with the Elna 5000 (but more stitches) and like a simplified Viking 1100. It's a very nice stitcher but as with all electronic sewing machines they aren't made for heavy duty work but still gives a satisfying experience and result. Not bad for one day, huh? And no new cabinets were added!

1 comment:

BarbaraShowell said...

I bought that model of Kenmore when my kids were little biddy and sewed and sewed and sewed on it. Did some fairly heavy duty stuff with it too. I burned up the motherboard two weeks after the warranty expired, but Sears nicely honored it and repaired it for free for me. I used it for about 20 years before I burned it up again, this time by tripping something when I tried to pull it apart. After that it was strictly vintage mechanical machines for me. I do have a nostalgic spot for that model though. I believe I have the manual still if you have a problem with downloading it. Some pages in the back were stuck together.