Singer 411g and the mystery problem with the cam stack

I bought this machine last year via Facebook marketplace, recognising the model as one of Singer's best. It's a slant needle model and does chain stitch. In the home of the person I bought it from the machine was ready for me to try out, but it was on the floor; the person was foreign and communication was not all that easy, so after merely pressing the pedal to see if it went, and fiddling with the knobs and levers and presser foot, to check that they moved, I bought it. The only attachments with it were one foot and one special disk. It did have a sticker on it showing that it had been serviced a few years ago.

I then left it for quite a few months as other things had to take priority, plus to be honest I think my doing-up-machines mojo had got up and gone for a while, but once I got it out again the mojo came back. I have since bought two other machines, a Harris Automatic and a Singer 201 treadle in a very nice Enclosed Cabinet No 51, so my case of VSMA (Vintage Sewing Machine Addiction) was clearly just in remission.....

Usual place for machines that I'm cleaning up i.e. the kitchen table - 

I bought a manual from Helen Howes; I know I could have downloaded one for free but this time I wanted a genuine Singer one. I cleaned the machine, oiled it, greased the gears, and tested out the stitches. All was looking good. 

This machine has a stack of cams, which are the metal disks that enable the machine to produce the different stitches. I have a cam stack on the Bernina 801 that I use, but I have never needed to do anything to that, and I have had no experience with working on cam stacks on other machines. I watched this video How to clean the cam stack on Singer 401a - a very similar machine to the 411g but without the ability to do chain stitch, and it seemed a straightforward process so  I went ahead and took mine out and cleaned it. For reasons that will become clear, I just wish I had taken photos of the cam stack before I removed it.

Cam stack in bits before cleaning -

Cam stack after cleaning (we'll come back to the arrows in a minute) -

PIC 1

Cam stack back in the machine -

Now, observe - there is a wiggly spring clip (right hand arrow in pic 1) that should be held in place by that screw (left hand arrow in Pic 2, correctly termed the stud I believe). That screw should  hold down that clip, but on mine it doesn't. It should be sitting right down on it and there shouldn't be that gap under the top of the screw. 

Here is the cam stack from another machine; this is what that screw and clip should look like - 

Someone else's machine

I didn't know this until I went to try out the one special disk that came with it; it worked at first but then popped off the top, meaning the machine was no longer doing that particular stitch.

I asked on the Vintage Singers group on Groups.io (used to be Yahoo) if anybody could help; someone sent me some photos of the top of the cam stack on her machine so I knew mine wasn't right. I contacted Dan Hopgood (good blogger on vintage sewing machines in the UK) knowing he had one of these machines and he very kindly removed the cam stack from his machine, took it apart, gave me measurements I asked for and sent me photos. Everything on his machine seemed to be identical to mine. I took the cam stack in and out, in and out, and took it to bits again and again, but it seems that it is impossible to get that screw down far enough on my machine in order for it to hold that clip in place. Total mystery.

This is why I wish I'd taken pictures before I took the cam stack out, so that I knew whether or not it was like this to start with.

I plan to sell this machine but don't want to do so until I have sorted this mystery out, as even though the stitches that don't involve the special disk work fine I want to be able to sell it with that disk working properly. There are several other disks that go with this machine (how does this happen -  attachments getting separated from machines?!) and some future buyer may well want to to buy extra disks and use them.

So - I'm rather hoping that somewhere out there is someone who will read this post and solve the mystery for me!!

Singer 616G now up and running

Last year a sewing acquaintance gave me this machine. Someone had given it to her but she didn't want it.  The G in the model number, 616G, indicates that it was made in Germany, but apart from that I couldn't find out much about it in the usual way, which is first just to google it and then see what images and information come up. One image that did was, funnily enough, one with a sewing machine repair man's sticker on it saying "Tom Dilley" - he's in Swindon and I have used his services on more than one occasion. Another image was on www.singersewinginfo.co.uk. 

However, I managed to work out what models it was similar to, and was able to find out, for instance, how the tension unit came apart and how to put it back together again. I found that out here here at TNT Repair. It's a gear driven, slant needle machine, with all metal gears. I have to confess that when I got it I didn't notice any of these things, even though I'd heard all of these terms...... That's what I like about this hobby - I learn new stuff all the time!

This is it with the top and the handwheel off. Notice the highly intellectual newspaper underneath. Actually I think there's some bits of Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, so there you go. Actually I'll read anything.......... it's all educational in some way!

Closer view of inside the right hand end.

That silver bit in the top right hand corner is the top of the motor shaft.

This is the tension unit taken apart - I laid out the pieces in order, and wrote down the direction they were facing on the machine. Even with help for reassembling available on the internet this always proves useful. Or taking photos. Or both, just to make sure!

Incidentally, another website which is particularly good for information on old Singers, and which I have found helpful for taking apart the tension unit on a 201, is this Old Singer Sewing Machine blog.

I did in fact use bits from both websites to help with reassembling the unit. Even though I've done tension units like this before, I don't do it often enough to remember how to do it off the top of my head.

Apart from that, I basically cleaned and oiled the machine, and then tried out the stitches. Everything was working well, although it was perhaps rather noisy, but then suddenly there was a problem. I couldn't turn the handwheel towards me by hand, or rather I could, but only one "notch" at a time, although oddly if I used the foot controller it was OK. I worked out that the problem was in the area of the motor shaft - if I pressed my finger down hard on it while turning it by hand (electricity disconnected) it worked properly. 

I asked a few questions on the Yahoo Vintage Singers group, and got various replies, and eventually managed to remove the motor from the machine, with help from You Tube. This is what it looked like. Somebody on the Group said it looked like someone had worked on the motor and not done it very well. I believe the holes are something to do with balancing it. Anyway, Husband then took it apart, with my permission......but that was as far as I/we got.......

Motor

I have taken apart a motor on a Singer 185, and put it back together again, but that was a different sort of motor. I concluded that fixing this one was beyond me, but as I thought the machine was well worth spending a bit of money on, I took it to the above named repair man.

Here I should say that I have a German friend who I had done some sewing jobs for, but who wanted to get herself a machine so that she could do them herself. I mentioned that I happened to be working on a German one, and that it was made in Karlsruhe [sorry, German people, for the lack of umlaut on the "u" - I still haven't worked out how to insert them, despite Elder Son having told me how to do it....] - at which point she exclaimed "Oh, that's my home town!". So I just had to get this machine up and running so that she could have it, as it clearly had her name on it.

Anyway, Repair Man fixed the motor for me. I went through all the stitches so that I could show my German friend how it all worked. As well as straight stitch, and various zigzag stitches, this machine also does chain stitch; I think the "toy" machine that belonged to my older sister, which was in our house in the 1960s, did this as opposed to lockstitch, but I've never seen one since that did it, so this was something else for me to master. Chain stitch will come undone with a pull of the thread, because of the way the stitch is formed, unlike the usual lockstitch, which doesn't. I think some people use it for tacking.

The white bit in the bobbin area is the part you have to insert to do the chain stitch. The throat plate on the right is the one you have to use.

And for any other sewing machine enthusiasts, this is the underside of the plate, so that you can see the part number - 507115

And this is the working machine, all fixed up! Unfortunately the plastic base broke when Husband dropped it. It's such a shame that these tough all metal machines came with plastic bases! I've seen other broken ones. It's now gone to the lady whose name was written on it. I have to admit that because this machine proved more difficult to get going than others I've worked on, at times I felt like shoving it under the table and forgetting about it, but I think it was well worth persisting with.  Oh, and there just happens to be one on Ebay now for £299!!!!!!! [I think it's been reduced as I see it's now on for £269.99]

I have got three other machines waiting in the wings....... in order of priority, a Janome Novum which I bought in a charity shop, a Jones (1970s model) and a Harris hand machine, both of which I have just been given. I was phoned recently and asked if I could put a new drive belt on a machine; after initially saying I hadn't done it before and therefore recommending my Repair Man, I thought - that's silly, I'm sure I can do it. So I rang her back and said I'd do it, and I did. Another string to my bow!

And for anyone who follows this blog and knows that we moved last year after 32 years in the same house, what should I see on the windowsill of our old house recently? You've guessed it - an old Singer! Ah, I thought, how lovely. I have since found out that the new lady of the house rescued it from being taken to the tip! Just what I would have done.

And now on with some sewing jobs.

Lizzie