Black Swan And The Sounds Of Silence

Black Swan is purring like a kitten now.  But it wasn't easy.

A little backstory.  When I bought her, she had a broken needle.  I had just assumed that sometime during the years of neglect something came along and randomly snapped it off.  I assumed wrong.

But first there was also a user created problem.  Last night I just ran paper practice targets though her.  This morning I actually loaded her up with thread.  And... no stitches.  The hook turned, the needle went in an out, just the threads were not locking.  I was bummed.  Something was seriously wrong with the machine.  I KNEW! I had done everything correctly.  Well I hadn't.  In my excitement I had managed to put the needle in backwards.  D'oh!  Once that was resolved, with much blushing, the stitches came out just the way they are supposed to.



Once the user error was fixed I began to run every scrap of excess cloth I could find through her.  While practicing (playing) I noticed a light metal on metal brushing noise.  It took me a while to track it down to the hook area.  I was terrified that I had a timing issue.  Just in case you don't know what timing adjustment on a 201 entails, here's one of the diagrams (there's more) needed to do a timing adjustment on it.

Luckily, instead I found that one of the clips for the race was not fully holding and had allowed the race to slip.  The clip itself was bowed out and brushing against the needle as they passed.

I pulled the hook and bobbin assembly out again and gave it a good look over.  There were many scratches from where my needle was brushing.  Plus a large dent where a needle had hit it square on previously.  So the broken needle was explained.

The clip is held on by a screw on the bottom.  Once I had it off I found a thick layer of grunge that was keeping it from holding tight against the hook body.  After a bit of wire brushing it held snug and secured the race as well.  Getting it all back together I now have clearance for the needle to pass by unimpeded.

I went ahead and cleaned that area on the right above the feed dog mount while I was there.  Then in maintenance mode I decided to tighten up the play in the treadle.  I tightened the peddle pivots and the pitman ball joint cup.

After all was said and done the whole sewing system is running smooth.  The name for the 201 came to me while I was working on the issues.  Once I was sure she was running smooth she was christened "Black Swan".

I was excited enough that I shot a short video of Black Swan in action.