Friends, Please Don’t Let Your Freinds Sew Sheep

Bah Bah Black Sheep Have You Any Wool?  Or, what in the world were they sewing on this Featherweight? Yeah, I know.  Totally gross.  Full view, this is even after I cleaned it up a bit.  It was about this point I thought I better get my camera, this is one for the books and you all will be so interested in seeing this… Like I said in the Title of this post.  Friends, please, please, please don’t let your friends sew sheep.  Seriously. It took me a good 2 hours this morning to pull out this stuff.  It clung to everything and was in every nook and cranny… I’m not even sure if it IS wool but it sure does look like it, small hairs EVERYWHERE!  Uggh.  After more cleaning I got to the point where I wasn’t afraid to use the air compressor can and blow the remaining stuff out… Much, much better.  I cleaned up, oiled and lubed the machine in all the appropriate locations and was ready to see if this baby would crank over and start to run.

But I need a power cord first.  I thought about using the cord from the other Featherweight but a little voice kept saying not to screw up the good one so I left it in the box and went to work on the power cord that came with this dud.

Remember this sight from the last post…?

It was a horror show.  I took it all apart and kept thinking someone must have died.  I discovered the terminal pins were wired backwards.  They shouldn’t be poking out like they do in that above picture.  I can understand the reasoning behind it because it kind of looks like that is how it is supposed to go but rest assured it is not.

The wiring diagram confirmed it for me.  See the diagram on the right?  That is the Three Pin Terminal Plug wiring guide and it clearly shows those T looking pins facing INSIDE the terminal, not out, and there is NOTHING poking out!!! Everything is flush…

Now, I added the color to the diagram for my own benefit.  I’m kind of a visual person if you haven’t noticed.  I also did this to figure out which terminal the BLUE wire went to.  In the diagram we see a knot of two wires but you don’t see an arrow saying which one is blue and which one is black up further at the pins.

Since I’m rather impatient to see if this thing will run I headed out to the hardware stores to find some parts.  I bought just some basics, wire, rubber feet, colored tape and a plug.

This a temporary fix until I can order the replacement feet for the foot pedal.  These rubber feet work just fine but I needed something to fill in the gap between the bottom plate and top plate.  I used 5 layers of electrical tape…it works but as soon as I get me the replacements I’ll change it out.

I also want to find some kind of rubber protector for the cord as it comes out of the controller…

…so I’ll keep looking.  The plug, well I’ve used what I could find at the hardware store.  It is a basic two prong plug.  I like the nice big head (easy to pull out of the socket)…

The wiring of the foot controller and the outlet were easy by comparison to the 3 Pin Terminal Plug.  For the life of me I could not figure out how the wires got all scrunched in there and lay flat.

I took me 2 and a half hours, 4 tries but at 10:30pm last night I finally mastered it!

Mastered might be too big of a word but seriously, I did it.    I was doing a happy dance last night like nobody’s business.  Jim was actually sleeping in the chair and he woke up to my excitement.

“Did you get it?” he asked…

I was ready to plug everything in and see if this machine works!

“Did you wire it correctly?”

Yes, I damn near made my fingers bloody.

“Okay, do you have a way to shut the power off quickly in case there’s a spark?”

Umm, yeah…I’ll use the surge protector.

I unplugged everything on the protector, especially the computer.  Ready?

The moment of truth.

IT WORKED!!!

Now for the next step with this learner 221, the motor.  This morning over breakfast Jim gave me a one on one explanation of how a motor works.

I’m on to the motor friends!

~Happy Sewing!

~Cathy