Back to Work

Since coming back from the TOGA last weekend it's been a bit difficult to get down to work. I have so many things to get ready for the upcoming garage sale that I feel a bit like a squirrel: easily distracted and running all around! It also doesn't help when I had to be up at 5:30 every morning this week but there were good reasons for all of it. Really.

While we were still in Lake City I was checking the CL ads and trying to get a great looking Singer 15-91. That finally came to fruition on Monday after work. Wow, was this ever a nice machine and I think I enjoyed talking to the owner just as much as buying the sewing machine. As I have heard before, they were downsizing and didn't need this straight stitch machine in a table. The finish was original and in great shape so he told me he had restored the finish in a manner that sounded like the same way I do but he got better results! Then he asked if I wanted to see another sewing machine that wasn't working right. Of course, I had to say yes and he pulls out a Singer 221, the Featherweight. It did have cosmetic issues with a significant amount of aluminum rot with initials scratched on the front of the base but those weren't the issues. It just would not stitch correctly so he shows me the replaced hook and both bobbin cases. Neither of the bobbin cases had numbers on them so that told me they were not authentic and certainly were not original. He needed the bobbin case with serial number 45750, not 45751 which I suspected. Since he changed out the hook he might have been okay but he said he wasn't. Of course, now comes the moaning about spending $35 when he should have popped for the $50-60 original bobbin case. Well, I learned that lesson once, too, and he had my sympathy.

Turning to my raffle prize, I'm working on the Elna Supermatic and find out the left side of a zigzag is too wide with the needle hitting the needle plate. It is centered correctly but the swing is off. I find out where it needs to be adjusted but I cannot get the nut loosened so I can make the adjustment. Now I need a very small crescent wrench so my hubby went out and bought me one.

Near cam, red arrow points to nut that needs to be loosened for needle centering  adjustment with screw

It worked but I found out that it only centered the needle, which was already fine. Oh, how I need to read the manuals better! Upon closer reading I found out I needed to adjust a screw that I had already checked out and it will not go in further to pull the needle to the right but then I get the idea that maybe it needs a washer to make up for the space that cannot be adjusted any further:

Inside red square is screw with washer behind it

It worked! Now it stitches fine so I get out my collection of cams. I check out Needlebar and their history of the Elna to find I have one of the earliest Supermatics with screw-on cams. It came with one flat cam that doesn't look like any of mine and, wouldn't you know it, they are different:

Red arrow points to high inner ring (older), green arrow points to wide outerring (newer)

I'm out checking on Etsy and then Ebay for those cams with the taller ring on the center, not newer single cams with the wide top ring but the older version. Someone just listed eight of them for under $5 each, a real bargain considering the next closest price with S&H is nearly double. I go ahead and put them in my virtual cart so now I'm committed to buying them but want the S&H to reflect the bulk shipment. I sent a note to seller asking for a new total and I'm so blessed when he writes back that I get them for their cost, no S&H. Wow! The green Elna Supermatic now has eight cams for a bargain price of $40 and I'm a happy camper again.

With only a week left to work on the garage sale I better get out there and get cabinets finished. It's a gray, wet day here so not a great atmosphere to be working outdoors but I'll put a book-on-CD in a player and enjoy having someone read to me while I work. That just might be the adult version of "Read me a story, please?" of years gone by. Remember when?