Inlay - Overlay Custom Roller Foot for the Necchi Nora

I started on my 1st attempts at Leather Inlay - Overlay and didn't have a roller foot for any of my flatbed machines.

I chose the Nora because of her extreme reliability and the number of spare feet I had to modify.

I made one with two rollers; one on either side of the needle but this was unsatisfactory.

The (what I call) "parallax" that occurs on every sewing machine is especially noticeable on small tight curves. By parallax I mean the difference between where the material pivots from under the presser foot verses where the needle is actually striking.

So I kept at it until I was able to create a center wheel foot.

I like the center wheel because regardless of whether you turn left or right around the corner the minimal change in stitch length is the same.

So far the results are positive, I can stay between 1 - 1.5mm from the edge of the work piece.

06-2018
Updated version:
The little teeth got in the way of stitching around corners so I had to make a second version of the spring steel guide

This was just a change to the spring steel presser guide, the roller is unchanged

15-91 Clone "Fashion" (1953)

OMG just another amazing 15-91 clone.
With the motor belt removed it can spin about 4 times around with a single spin; these old masterpieces of manufacturing precision are a pleasure to work on.

A very nice condition machine with just a couple of chips, needed almost no cleaning but required rewiring of the motor plug.

Sews beautifully, needed a little bobbin spring tension adjustment.

When I saw that it was a "Fashion" brand I had to have it!
Says 1953 on the made in Japan tag.

Accessories and manual too.
Always like to have one of these on hand; so many newbies relate to them better than the complex machines, so I have a range of machines to offer.

Manual is great! It has the sales date on the Official Guarantee page

The 20 year Guarantee was up 55 years ago.
Strangely enough this machine was purchased was 22 years to the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

Necchi Lelia 513 (1961)

My latest find is the Lelia 513.

  A very nice condition girl that was nearly completely locked up.
It took a while to free up the main works and a lot of time to free up the ZZ pivots. I found references to the needle pivot being commonly frozen; this one was Super frozen.
Got the manual and accessories too but sadly had to remove from the cabinet and so have no case for it. 

Lelia is one of the supreme examples of fine manufacturing of the mid 20 cent. All parts are painted separately and assembled with care to avoid paint chipping.
The reputation for precision is very evident here and is sited as the root cause for the freezing up issue. In the early days of plastics (60s-70s) the freezing (think Viking horrors) are a different type of cause.
So frozen ZZ, very stiff crank shaft was not all. One thing they did not do well was making a solid provision for oiling the motor bearings, if you have one of these machines with the original motor you should consider getting a drop of oil at the two ends. I believe this was a considerable problem for this machine and will cause slow sewing, low power, and replacing the bearing is not going to be easy.

 Note the plastic buffer between the body casting and the motor mount keeps the paint from scratching. and the little piece of felt to isolate the motor mount from the casting too.

This machine had a really hard time starting up and would get a little slower as it heated up. 

The only way to get to the bearing is to open up the motor but definitely do NOT do this unless you must.
I always pull the commutators out file them down, blow it out, and reassemble once I get this far.

I pulled the front cover off (the part I don't recommend doing) because the shaft seemed loose, only then did I see that the front bearing was bone dry.
Got a little oil on it and reassembled it; it's working much better now.

I found that the hand wheel was very tight to the main casting and so I gave it 0.003" clearance with a feeler gauge: I think this helped.

Lastley went ahead and cleaned every tooth on the thumb wheels because it deserved it!



I think this machine will make it to 100 years old.