Sewing Machine... Again

Why is it that fixing a problem is never as easy as it should be? Perhaps because the problem was never as easy as it should’ve been.

My 1963 Singer Touch & Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 sewing machine has had issues since we brought it home, but since taking it to get a much needed tune-up she’s been taking everything I’ve given her like a pro. However this last time I threaded the bobbin another issue arose… thread caught between the reel hook and bobbin reel. This has happened before and I simply was able to unwind the caught thread by hand, but this time when I did it the thread snapped. Crap.

I grabbed the tweezers in hopes of having some success unwrapping the thread from around the thin shaft but this wasn’t nearly as easy as it seemed to be in my head. For one, the thread didn’t want to unwind and the more I tugged the more the fibers simply pulled away, leaving me with nothing to grab. My only option was to turn the old girl over and try to figure out how to get this one piece off without disassembling the whole unit. Fortunately it was possible and quite easy to do. I made certain to account for where each part was and how it was all attached before removing the bobbin reel and pulling the thread off. Putting it back together was just as easy, so if you guessed that something wasn’t right, well, you’re right.

When I went to put the bobbin case into the slot above the bobbin reel it wouldn’t go in. It was as if the bobbin reel itself was just slightly too high for the bobbin case to slip in between it and the reel hook (if this is confusing, try typing all this up accurately!) I figured I must have just tightened the little nut too much and took the bottom cover off the machine and tinkered a bit until I was pretty certain it was where it should be. However, the case still didn’t fit, nor did it seem to change the location of the bobbin reel.

Alas, it was time for me to leave for one of two meetings I had that night, one at Clark College for the Business Administration Advisory Committee and another right after at church for Christian Education and after both of those my brain felt like goo. This morning I am hoping to figure out how to get the reel back where it needs to go to accommodate the case, and if not, I will be sad.