Refurbish Old Fashioned Sewing Table Lift Mechanism Necchi

Necchi went Supernova in 1955 – there was a big bang but the world survived. 🙂

It says lifetime guarantee on that advertising, I wonder if I tin can pop my Supernova to a local Necchi dealer for a free repair? The balance wheel clutch is nonetheless stuck.

How-do-you-do!

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This is my Necchi Supernova Automatica C, Italia, 1955. This is the original starting time edition, equally far as I tin make out. It has complicated knobs and all steel gears. The motor was smoking and the exterior was in a bit of a state when information technology arrived.

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The interior was also in a flake of a state with rust in places.

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But the accessories box contained a full ready of cams, and even some extras that the original owner had bought separately, plus a new buttonhole cam with lever bought in 1969 to replace the original chipped i, which is also nowadays. A circular sewing attachment, a needle plate for a twin needle (set sideways! – they've gone forward in time by 60 years and copied my contempo invention), a feed dog comprehend for embroidery (even though we tin drib the feed dogs too), a manual and a project book, simply no anxiety, which is ok except for the ane special foot for the twin needle, only I was lucky plenty to find it lurking in Helen Howes' shop, where information technology is lurking no longer.

The Supernovas came in several variants: directly stitch merely (BF), zig-zag (BU) and zig-zag with cams (Automatica). They could be delivered built into a cabinet, or with a stand up-lonely base, but Automatica also came as a gratis arm! And that's what I've got. 🙂

Before long later the first edition, Necchi brought out an updated version – Supernova Ultra. As far every bit I can tell, the only deviation is in slightly fancier knobs and a few gadgets… ​

So, here is my Supernova Automatica C – all cleaned upward.

The automobile was generally working as it came to me – the previous owner seems to accept cared for it very well, up into late 1970s, but so… Owners don't always age as gracefully equally their machines, and this Supernova was spending increasingly much time in some dusty and humid environment – a garage, perhaps?

So, at that place were some problems. Fortunately, nothing serious, simply requiring tuning and adjustment.

The "drunken sailor" problem

Firstly, she would non sew a straight stitch – information technology came out distinctly zig-zaggy! 😮 Turns out, in that location was rust and gunk (but by and large loose rust particles) clogging up the zig-zag associates, which is quite complex on this car. I was lucky to notice a service transmission for a similar model (downloaded gratuitous from freenecchisewingmachinefiles.weebly.com), and although my zig-zag mechanism was even more complex than that, it was a very proficient outset! The cam module clips onto the zig-zag module, then you tin unscrew information technology and motility out of the way.

Also remove the frontal plate through which the needle position and zig-zag width levers are protruding. This gives admission to the machinery.​​

Move the zig-zag width lever all the style to the right to bring forward the regulators. Information technology'southward a three-tier structure and the groove in the eye tier is upside down! I would have never idea to oil there! And look at all the rust…

The really sensitive chip is the one with the ball bearings visible from the acme.​

Just beware: it's double layer ball bearings as is revealed in the manual. You tin't get to the lower level ones without disassembling everything which I didn't desire to do. So I resorted to drenching the top layer with oil and hoping it would seep through to the lower layer all by itself.

The little asymmetric screw cap in the above photo is a regulator of needle bar position. It rests against the petty pole next to information technology. Set the needle position central and adapt it until the needle is exactly in the center of the needle plate.

But information technology still wouldn't run up direct. 😦 Play around with the machinery and notice that there is a sugariness spot at a sure position of the zig-zag lever where indeed all lateral motion of the needle bar stops to go that elusive straight stitch. Only that sweet spot is not in the left-most position of the lever! If you lot go too far left, you get zig-zag again.

The solution was so simple, it'south painful. Gear up the left zig-zag limiting knob exactly at aught. Oh! ​

​But I desire to exist able to move that knob, and don't desire to fish for the sweetness spot every time I go back to straight stitch. I'll need to install a block on the back of the plate to foreclose going too far left.

Putting everything back together and endmost the lid, I realised that there is just 1 oiling hole in information technology – surely not plenty for all those moving parts? Just information technology's plenty if y'all've got a whole dispensing tray attached to information technology on the underside! 😀 I'll make certain to keep that filled.

The "lazy dogs" problem

​And so I tried some fancy stitches – they are so very fancy that I'll exist writing a dissever post about them, although with infinite possibilities (according to the manual), it is leap to get pretty long. So bear with me. 🙂

Now then, the fancy stitches. The transmission has some 150 examples, but to get you started 😉 and then I tried a few. They came out very squashed, as if the car wasn't feeding properly. Back to plain straight run up – definitely non feeding properly! The maximum setting gives a ii.5mm long stitch. 😦 It should be 4mm!

Such problems are ordinarily caused by the build-up of lint around the feed dogs, so permit's see!

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Remove the needle plate and simply elevator the feed dogs out of the fashion! Wow! There'southward a spring there, squashing up my finger.

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Nope, no lint. Or anyway, not enough to cause whatever trouble. Which ways that I'll demand to raise the feed dogs. The service transmission says they should come up up above the needle plate "to the full height of the dogs". And what does the "full elevation" mean, exactly? Is it only the shaped fleck or does the base of operations count as well? 😐 I think it may depend on your auto.

Anyhow, in my example they were only barely coming above the needle plate, so needed raising.

Looking at the feed dog assembly from the side, information technology'southward the left disk-bolt-nut contraption that regulates the acme. Merely be careful – information technology'due south fragile.

I had to experiment with unlike height settings, testing them with straight run up. Fix too low, the auto doesn't feed well and the maximum stitch length is too short. Ready too high, the feed dogs bang into the needle plate – that's obviously wrong. Merely and then it can even so exist too high, fifty-fifty without banging – stitches become skipped, in particular at larger stitch lengths. Somewhen I found a good setting which resulted in a 4mm maximum stitch length, exactly. Now, why didn't I just measure those stitches before?

So then, back to fancy stitches. Ah aye, much amend! Not squashed and near like the photo in the manual, except that the contrary seems to be feeding too much at present…

The "fancy opposite" problem

The upper machinery of Necchi Supernova very much reminds me of Jaguar's which I have just been sorting out terminal week. Obviously, Necchi was first, by some xx years. 🙂

Jaguar machines have variable stretch stitch, that is the corporeality of reverse motion in fancy stitch designs can be adjusted with a knob. Necchi doesn't have such a knob, but it could have!​

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That double nut contraption bolts onto a sort of paperclip that hooks the reverse lever. Shortening the "paperclip" results in proportionally more opposite – only spiral the nuts a bit further. Simply be careful – the "paperclip" is frail! In particular on the threaded top end, mine is very rusty.

Information technology would exist quite easy to add variable stretch run up to a Supernova. Simply drill a hole in the top comprehend above that ready of basics and come up with some clever way to regulate the length of the "paperclip"… Well, may be in a Supernova E edition. 😉

Simply in this edition, I have to regulate the contrary in one case and it should work for all stitches. So I prepared several pattern cams for testing to make certain I get the same results equally in the transmission.

Supernova'due south fancy bits

This auto has some remarkable features that don't look important at start sight – you simply realise how clever they are once you start using it.

My Supernova is a free arm model, so information technology comes with an extension table similar in blueprint to many other machines. Commonly such a table is a real hurting though – you take to remove information technology to get to the bobbin. This is true for all those forepart-loading machines – it's actually bad-mannered if y'all try to go on the tabular array on, you can't run across a thing, stuff gets in the way, and fumbling with it by touch is hard when you need to insert the bobbin case pushining frontward.

But the Supernova is side-loading, so access to the bobbin is unobstructed under the tabular array, and you insert the bobbin case by pushing it to the correct – so much more convenient! In fact, you can practice everything – including replacing the needle plate and cleaning the feed dogs – without removing the table.

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She can drop her feed dogs, yet also comes with a cover plate for gratis mitt embroidery. It clips onto the needle plate saving you the hassle of replacing it.

The foot is raised in two stages: first, enhance nearly to full summit but don't release the thread tension; second, raise fully and release the thread tension. You can feel the lever clicking into the beginning stage and so you could cease in that location if you wanted. What is it practiced for? For turning corners in awkward places without having your thread pulled out, or for turning corners when sewing with a double needle, as you cannot pivot on two needles every bit you lot would do on one.

And of class information technology's got a free moving lever for zig-zag width that can exist express at either cease independently. This is smashing for free hand zig-zag embroidery and monogramming.

And so there are the fancy stitches… No utility stitches though as we see with well-nigh other machines, no, the Supernova is an artist – there's the buttonhole maker set, and the rest y'all can do manually with the zig-zag lever. But utility stitches on cams are so very useful, also for an artist… So belatedly, Necchi brought out some additional fixed cam triples to give you blind stitch, overcast and stitched zig-zag – you lot know, the slow stuff. 🙂 Of grade, I'd rather have a agglomeration of extra cams to combine with all the existing fanciness, and so I broke up the fixed triplets that the previous possessor thoughtfully purchased, giving me v new cam designs and some duplicates of what already was in the set. Merely I'm leaving that for another post. 🙂

And last but not least: the Supernova has an on/off switch! Don't laugh at me now – information technology is such a silly little thing, but virtually machines don't take it, then the but way to ensure that your true cat is not going to stitch your dresses, is to unplug the machine. But plugs are tough to pull out and push in, and then those loose cables hang around the identify entangling themselves into tight knots the moment you turn abroad (I'm certain that's what'due south happening). I would rather leave everything plugged in, with cables in a tidy, and just flick the switch to turn it on and off… So unproblematic, yet so frequently denied to us…​

And what'south that other switch? Oh, the motor speed tin can be halved for fragile work…

Could a daughter ask for more?​

Buy me a java 🙂

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