Kenmore 1060

Saturday, after we delivered machines to The Sewing Machine Project, we did a little junkin’! At the last GW in Madison, my brother found this little Kenmore 1060 for me! I could hardly get it into my cart fast enough! I had heard of this machine, but had never seen one ‘in person’ before. This machine is larger by a little bit than the previous models (1030, 1040, 1050), so it did not have a carrying case. I think there may also be a model 1020 and a 1045. No, the machine is not blotchy. I took this picture when the sun was shining in my kitchen windows, and what you are seeing is the shadows from the design of my sheer curtain panels on the machine.

This little button is the ‘rear support release button’.

That button kicks this rear leg ‘out’ to give the machine more support. Neat!!!

Oh, no….it did not come without some ‘stickiness’. The feed dogs were stuck in the UP position, which meant that it would feed fabric properly, but when you put it in ‘drop feed’ position, the feed dogs did NOT drop. Enter…..hair dryer. A little heat and oil got them working properly. Also, the pattern selector knob on the very top of the machine did not turn well at all. I removed the top, and applied heat, and oiled everything that moved.  I applied more heat, and manually turned the knob back and forth until it turned freely. Years of non-use will do that. The oil gets gummy and hardens and acts like a varnish. The heat softens the oil again, and then you apply more oil and ‘work it’ until the movements are easy and free. I actually removed the bottom of the machine, and the ‘legs’ to get to the underside workings, and I removed the right end of the machine to oil the pulley for the motor and hand wheel. I now know it is properly oiled.

When I tried to do some test sewing, all I got was wads, and broken threads. The thread would not ‘clear’ the shuttle and just kept making more ‘loops’ around the bobbin case.

I worked on this for quite awhile, concentrating on the bobbin area. The machine had a severely bent needle in it, so my thoughts were that the needle damaged something. I exchanged the shuttle and put in a new bobbin holder. I tried a different bobbin. That fixed nothing. I decided to email my friend Elizabeth and ask her what to do, but before I did, I took a few pictures of the bobbin area, and while I was doing that, I figured it out. The thread had jumped out of the take up lever. I guess I should follow my own advice. When your machine doesn’t sew, RETHREAD it and see if that helps. If the thread is not in the takeup lever, it can NOT pull up the thread. Duh.

I had to adjust the tension some, but now it sews some pretty stitches, and they all work.

I bought a manual online for it, so now I just need to find a cute little case it will fit in, and it will be complete (to me).

Click the photo if you would like to read about my little Kenmore 1030.

 

Click the following photo if you would like to read about my little Kenmore 1050.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading about yet another machine. I am keeping this one. I did find another one to donate to the SMP, but I haven’t cleaned it up yet. Maybe this weekend. Have a great Thursday, and a wonderful weekend!