Steel Sewing: Lady in Waiting III

Once the troublesome feed-dog drop pin began to move... I smoothed the pin surface with a small length of emery cloth and lightly coated the exposed pin parts with sewing machine oil. It was another situation where I found myself patiently looking out the window and moving the control back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... and it was all worth it.

For reasons I have not explored in depth, this single function of feed-dog drop seems to have been the lynch pin that allowed everything else to follow. The stitch length lever became quiet. There wasn't any more clamor from the machine except the slight rotation bump from where the shaft had sat for so long.

I sat down, determined to figure out the zigzag control. I knew the needle bar was going to move because it responded to the right-center-left position setting dial. So it came down to one of those trail and error things because I had no manual. I set all the controls to where I thought a zigzag stitch might happen... and got nothing.

After about an hour of trying all sorts of combinations and taking the top off and watching levers move levers I still couldn't get the machine to do what I asked. After awhile I began to suspect the selector dial. If the outer dial is pressed in and turned at the same time it 'clicks' into place and then you can turn the knob to the stitch you want.

The inside dial has a red arrow that either points up, or turns to point down. There is an audible click between the up position and the down. Not knowing any better, I thought perhaps the down position meant the straight stitch, and the top meant choosing a decorative stitch. This is not quite right.

After messing around with them for far too long I realized that the outer knob went 'loose' after selecting a stitch and it just sort of hung there. It didn't seem right for it to just jiggle there and I tried, but could not find any place that a spring could have been employed to keep the outer knob secure. This is when I began fooling with it in earnest and on a whim pulled at the outer dial and suddenly it 'clicked' into an outward position. It was this last 'click' that was the secret. That final quarter of an inch of movement from the outside dial flipped the lever that rides on the nylon cams. I tried the zigzag setting again, and there it was. Suddenly, all of the built-in stitches were available.

This isn't to say that the machine is sewing flawlessly. There's still slight tension issues. I really should be using better top thread, and I haven't changed the needle yet... but I'm very happy with the results so far. I even spent a few hours last night searching down a manual, comparing 117.841 attachments (they're the same!) and scouring the interwebs to see if perhaps there might be another unmarked, gold-colored attachment bin out there filled with feet that have the 'G-K' initials.