In search of one for SO's John Lewis JL 250 without much luck so far. Anyone
know any good sites, or original manufacturer's name / model number? Mainly
for cleaning / maintenance rather than "how to use".

TIA

On Jun 13, 10:05*pm, "newshound" wrote:
In search of one for SO's John Lewis JL 250 without much luck so far. Anyone
know any good sites, or original manufacturer's name / model number? Mainly
for cleaning / maintenance rather than "how to use".

Do you have a photo of the shuttle? For 99% of post-war machines they
use one of three types of shuttle, and everything works the same
within that. One is Singer (vertical axis, varied), one is cheap
Japanese (horizontal axis & the shuttle race is easily removable
without tools) and the best is Euro or high-end Japanese with a
horizontal axis. General weekly servicing is the same throughout -
brush / vacuum it clean, one drop of SEWING MACHINE oil down each of
the oil holes and keep oil & solvents away from anything plastic.
Silicone grease on the plastic gears annually, if you have to.

The "starter Haynes manual" for sewing machines is an old bright
yellow paperback by TAB books. Out of print for years, but it's a
favourite on the ebay hooky reprint circuit. It'll tell you how to set
timing for most machines.

There's also a lot of mileage in web searching for PDF service manuals
(esp Americans, which means the Scottish Singers too), even if you
have to pay a fiver.

IMHO, sewing machines are repaired by replacement with something
better, until you've worked up to a Pfafff / Bernina / Viking. Then
they don't need much more fettling anyway.

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Jun 13, 10:05 pm, "newshound" wrote:
In search of one for SO's John Lewis JL 250 without much luck so far.
Anyone
know any good sites, or original manufacturer's name / model number?
Mainly
for cleaning / maintenance rather than "how to use".

Do you have a photo of the shuttle? For 99% of post-war machines they
use one of three types of shuttle, and everything works the same
within that. One is Singer (vertical axis, varied), one is cheap
Japanese (horizontal axis & the shuttle race is easily removable
without tools) and the best is Euro or high-end Japanese with a
horizontal axis. General weekly servicing is the same throughout -
brush / vacuum it clean, one drop of SEWING MACHINE oil down each of
the oil holes and keep oil & solvents away from anything plastic.
Silicone grease on the plastic gears annually, if you have to.

The "starter Haynes manual" for sewing machines is an old bright
yellow paperback by TAB books. Out of print for years, but it's a
favourite on the ebay hooky reprint circuit. It'll tell you how to set
timing for most machines.

There's also a lot of mileage in web searching for PDF service manuals
(esp Americans, which means the Scottish Singers too), even if you
have to pay a fiver.

IMHO, sewing machines are repaired by replacement with something
better, until you've worked up to a Pfafff / Bernina / Viking. Then
they don't need much more fettling anyway.

Thanks for the useful pointers. It's probably about 10 years old, vertical
axis shuttle. Sorry, not set up with any of the photo "drop boxes". I wanted
to make sure I'd located all the oil holes, also how to check the thread
tensions. It's got me wondering what sewing machine oil is too; I'd guess
something like a 10 cSt straight mineral oil? Can't see much need for
additives, or any benefit from synthetic. Couldn't immediately locate a copy
of the TAB manual.

On Jun 13, 10:47*pm, "newshound" wrote:

Thanks for the useful pointers. It's probably about 10 years old, vertical
axis shuttle.

Looking at the pics, I'd expect it to be a badge-engineer job,
probably a Janome underneath (maybe Toyota, as I think they sell more
as re-badges), and I'd be amazed if it wasn't the cheapo Japanese
front-loader oscillating shuttle. If you flip two little plastic
clips, can you take the shuttle out?

I wanted to make sure I'd located all the oil holes,

There aren't many. Trace the mechanism from end to end, not stripping
down anything that isn't plastic and held on with no more than two
screws. If it isn't a drilled hole with a countersink, it's not a
regular oil hole. Less is more.

also how to check the thread tensions.

Get the threading right, then leave it alone. You set the top tension
to the middle of the dial, then look at stitch formation as it sews,
adjusting until perfect. For some materials and some threads, you
knock it a division or two either way. If that's not enough, you;'ve
mis-threaded it, or put the bobbin in backwards. If that's the base
machine that I think it is, 90% of faults are caused by it throwing
its thread off the top arm through the "easy threading" slot.

It's got me wondering what sewing machine oil is too;

Don't even think about it. You care about viscosity, you care about
the crud it leaves behind, but mostly you care about it never
oxidising. Go to the shop and buy the right stuff.

I wouldn't expect this machine to need much servicing, or to wear out
before it's thrown away.

On Jun 13, 10:47*pm, "newshound" wrote:
"Andy Dingley" wrote in message

...



On Jun 13, 10:05 pm, "newshound" wrote:
In search of one for SO's John Lewis JL 250 without much luck so far.
Anyone
know any good sites, or original manufacturer's name / model number?
Mainly
for cleaning / maintenance rather than "how to use".

Do you have a photo of the shuttle? For 99% of post-war machines they
use one of three types of shuttle, and everything works the same
within that. One is Singer (vertical axis, varied), one is cheap
Japanese (horizontal axis & the shuttle race is easily removable
without tools) and the best is Euro or high-end Japanese with a
horizontal axis. General weekly servicing is the same throughout -
brush / vacuum it clean, one drop of SEWING MACHINE oil down each of
the oil holes and keep oil & solvents away from anything plastic.
Silicone grease on the plastic gears annually, if you have to.

The "starter Haynes manual" for sewing machines is an old bright
yellow paperback by TAB books. Out of print for years, but it's a
favourite on the ebay hooky reprint circuit. It'll tell you how to set
timing for most machines.

There's also a lot of mileage in web searching for PDF service manuals
(esp Americans, which means the Scottish Singers too), even if you
have to pay a fiver.

IMHO, sewing machines are repaired by replacement with something
better, until you've worked up to a Pfafff / Bernina / Viking. Then
they don't need much more fettling anyway.

Thanks for the useful pointers. It's probably about 10 years old, vertical
axis shuttle. Sorry, not set up with any of the photo "drop boxes". I wanted
to make sure I'd located all the oil holes,

the mark 1 eyeball should do that. All oil holes need to be user
serviceable. If it uses plastic gears theyre probably prelubed.


also how to check the thread
tensions.

If the 2 threads meet halfway through the fabric, the tensions are
even. If the stitching is sloppy, theyre too low. If it puckers all
fabrics (not just lgihtweights) then its too high.

It's got me wondering what sewing machine oil is too; I'd guess
something like a 10 cSt straight mineral oil? Can't see much need for
additives, or any benefit from synthetic. Couldn't immediately locate a copy
of the TAB manual.

Machine oil. Baby oil is the same type of oil, with a tiny amount of
perfume added.


NT