Yup, learned to sew with a knee bar on my mom’s Necchi BF Nova and that’s what I sewed on all through my youth. I love knee pedals ! A few years ago I got a machine with a knee lever to raise and lower the presser foot and at first I kept trying to sew with it 😂
Oof. Those Necchi BF Nova's are beautiful machines. How lucky to sew on that when you were younger. How funny! I've seen a few machines with that bar that raises the presser foot. I would be so mixed up trying to use that. Hahaha.
Wonderful machine you have there, one of my favourites. The cam is probably not to blame for the bad stitches, probably gummed up linkage. Open the lid and use cotton swabs with 99 % alcohol( not 70%,contains too much water) to thoroughly clean all the linkage and pivot points you see when you move all the knobs. Then use a hair dry to warm everything up and add either Singer oil or Triflow oil to all moving parts, not just what is shown in the manual. Do the same for everything under the needle bar cover also. You can then carefully run the machine with the top off to check the movements, just keep your fingers clear. Enjoy!
Thanks for those suggestions. Especially noting using 99& Isopropyl instead of the 70%. My husband does electronic repair work and we always have that on hand. I never think to mention it here.
Nice machine, I have used the knee control, that would be very nice if you can donate it. Hopefully you can get her running well. The cabinet looks nice.
I had to stop using the knee bar to run my 301a because when I switched back to my modern Juki that has a knee bar to lift the pressure foot, I would get completely muddled!😅
Thanks for the info. It is nice to see that you rescued this beauty. Im envious, as a 603 is on my unicorn list. That is a semi rare cabinet. I hope you keep it. Have you checked out Archaic Archane for vintage tensioner info? Oh, and I ironed one of my wrinkled up vintage instruction books with low heat. It made it much neater.
Thanks so much for your comment and tips! I am still planning to donate this machine to a local sewing/textile group. After I get around to replacing the broken parts. I already own another 503A and I favor other machines. I hope a 503 comes your way so you can check that off or your unicorn list.
It is fun to see where machines end up. Tables and carrying cases definitely seem to get repurposed as one might upgrade their machines. I really never know what I'm going to see in sewing tables that I see at thrift stores.
I'm just through to the cleaning part of your video and I wonder if the overall layer of gunk on the machine is cigarette smoke residue. I have a 301a with that on it but eventually I got it mostly off. You know everybody smoked back then. It was a way of life.
Good point, I didn't consider that for this machine. I did have one machine that definitely came from an old school smoker's house. The machine, the case and all of the threads that came with it, smelled like a bowling alley in the 1980s.
Yup, learned to sew with a knee bar on my mom’s Necchi BF Nova and that’s what I sewed on all through my youth. I love knee pedals ! A few years ago I got a machine with a knee lever to raise and lower the presser foot and at first I kept trying to sew with it 😂
Oof. Those Necchi BF Nova's are beautiful machines. How lucky to sew on that when you were younger. How funny! I've seen a few machines with that bar that raises the presser foot. I would be so mixed up trying to use that. Hahaha.
Wonderful machine you have there, one of my favourites.
The cam is probably not to blame for the bad stitches, probably gummed up linkage.
Open the lid and use cotton swabs with 99 % alcohol( not 70%,contains too much water) to thoroughly clean all the linkage and pivot points you see when you move all the knobs.
Then use a hair dry to warm everything up and add either Singer oil or Triflow oil to all moving parts, not just what is shown in the manual. Do the same for everything under the needle bar cover also.
You can then carefully run the machine with the top off to check the movements, just keep your fingers clear.
Enjoy!
Thanks for those suggestions. Especially noting using 99& Isopropyl instead of the 70%. My husband does electronic repair work and we always have that on hand. I never think to mention it here.
❤
Nice machine, I have used the knee control, that would be very nice if you can donate it. Hopefully you can get her running well. The cabinet looks nice.
I had to stop using the knee bar to run my 301a because when I switched back to my modern Juki that has a knee bar to lift the pressure foot, I would get completely muddled!😅
Oh wow.😂 That would be so hard to transition between machines for sure.
Thanks for the info. It is nice to see that you rescued this beauty. Im envious, as a 603 is on my unicorn list. That is a semi rare cabinet. I hope you keep it. Have you checked out Archaic Archane for vintage tensioner info? Oh, and I ironed one of my wrinkled up vintage instruction books with low heat. It made it much neater.
Thanks so much for your comment and tips! I am still planning to donate this machine to a local sewing/textile group. After I get around to replacing the broken parts. I already own another 503A and I favor other machines. I hope a 503 comes your way so you can check that off or your unicorn list.
I have that same table that a Singer 66-6 came in…the 503A came in a totally different table.
It is fun to see where machines end up. Tables and carrying cases definitely seem to get repurposed as one might upgrade their machines. I really never know what I'm going to see in sewing tables that I see at thrift stores.
I'm just through to the cleaning part of your video and I wonder if the overall layer of gunk on the machine is cigarette smoke residue. I have a 301a with that on it but eventually I got it mostly off. You know everybody smoked back then. It was a way of life.
Good point, I didn't consider that for this machine. I did have one machine that definitely came from an old school smoker's house. The machine, the case and all of the threads that came with it, smelled like a bowling alley in the 1980s.