Many months ago Natalie gave me her serger that a shop said they could not fix, there were no parts to be found. She was hoping I could somehow find the part and resurrect her serger and I was hoping I could, too. Taking it all apart, I found the broken part, tried to bond it back together without success so I started on a search for a donor machine. Come to find out, her Singer QuantumLock 5, model 14U595, was the same as a Pfaff 4870 with only minor changes to the exteriors. The Singer serger was a bit of a rare bird but I could find Pfaff 4870's, just needing to be patient for one at the right price. It paid off when one came up for parts, I made an offer, it was accepted and she arrived:
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| Singer 14U595 and Pfaff 4870 |
In my heart of hearts, I was hoping the Pfaff really wasn't broken, that it just needed some adjustment and cords.Opening her up, there was a whole lot of cleaning that needed to be done:
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| Maybe this was holding up the works? |
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| and then there was more, more, more |
I could see the part I needed was there but the arm that supported it was not attached. This had me worried so I took the Singer apart, compared the damage, and decided it might just be best to use the Pfaff for parts as intended. As it turned out, there were two parts that were needed so I went to work. Natalie's Singer QuantumLock 5 had been sitting around since January, moving several times in my workroom, finally getting downsized to a smaller box and then up to a donor machine shelf. I knew I hadn't put it all back together right but I didn't hold out much hope for a part. Shame on me! Now I had hours of trying to figure it all out but the Pfaff really helped me see how it would all work.
I didn't have the lower looper threader back in correctly and I couldn't figure it out so when checking back with the Pfaff I could see there was a plastic part that swiveled with a pin that receded. The Singer's pin didn't push back in enough even though they were both set in springs, so the part didn't swivel. Comparing pins and settings, I could see I was going to have to shorten it so I got out a file and went to work.
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| Small pin in center was too long (photo is upside down!) |
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| They should have been the same size... |
Trial and error, I did get it to work but it's an imperfect system and sometimes the thread would catch on the looper, sometimes not. Without that bit of assistance it's nearly impossible to thread so I'm hoping Natalie knows the trick to this. Now I was ready to try it again but I got an error message that the door wasn't closed. Well, in an old serger you didn't always have to even close the door but as a safety measure they now have sensors. I checked all over that machine and couldn't figure it out so I walked away and came back the next day. With a fresh start at it I could see there was a little flap on the door that I didn't have in the correct position so I took it out and re-positioned the door and flap: no error message. Now I could finally stitch: crummy, crummy, crummy. All of my usual adjustments weren't working and I had other things to attend to so I walked away, again, until I could face it.
Then I remembered a lesson from Ray White: adjust a serger so it will sew with Maxi-Lock thread. Off came the other brands and on went the Maxi-Lock, a different color in each spot, and it stitched perfectly. I let Natalie know and she's happy to have her original serger coming home again. I am, too.
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| Singer Quantum Lock5, 14U595 |
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