Sewing machine bits

[camwyn]

Here's some photos of the sewing machine I recently received and am, to be honest, a little afraid to plug in. It was last used in 2013. It's heavy as hell. I would not be surprised to learn it runs on diesel. It's mounted in a wooden table with a pedal on the side of the table meant to be pressed by the user's knee.

Comments

[eor]

Wow, that does look like a heavy duty machine!

I don't have any of the right terms, but these bits I recognize: Pic 2 the knob with the FSR almost certainly stands for Forward, Stationary, Reverse (the feed direction). Pic 3 is the tensioner, all of those seem to work the same from 1900 on. One of the other 2 knobs in pic 8 will be the stitch length, probably the bottom one. The other one could be stitch width. Is the light integrated (not separate stalk & button)? If so, the silver push button thing near the other knobs might be the light switch. The two silver buttons with the N, I'm thinking the one with the red line might be power if it isn't located elsewhere. The other could also be light. When you press either one of those (unplugged) do you get something other than N?

It looks like it might have the silver hand turn wheel on the end. Make sure it turns freely through the whole needle up/down/up cycle before plugging it in.

If you don't already have it, you will need sewing machine oil. If you're lucky the thing will have multiple little holes on the top which each take one drop per session. There are also commonly places that need to be oiled under the faceplate on the end where the needle is and the slidy bit that goes around the bobbin case.

[camwyn]

There's a bottle of oil that came with it. Also a bunch of needle plates and different presser feet, and a brush for going through all the thread path to clean out lint and other accumulated schmutz from use.

[camwyn]

Wait, that reminds me. When the time comes to buy new oil, is it like motor oil, where you have to buy the right weight and viscosity, or do they sell 'sewing machine oil' as a huge general category?

[camwyn]

The light is inside the front end of the machine, and is operated by a little flip switch on the back of the machine near the hand wheel. According to the manual for the 304b, the FSR thing is for direction control when making buttonholes- f to make the left, s to do the bottom end by turning the hand wheel, then r to do the right, then s again to do the top end. The forward/reverse feed is the plain silver button next to it.

If I press the one with the red line it goes to S, and then to E, and no farther. The one without the red line returns it to N. The 304b manual says they're the drop feed push buttons, and on the 304b manual page they look about the same, for what that's worth.

Apparently on the 304b, the bottom knob is the stitch regulator. The one on top has to do with zigzag stitching and needle position regulation, but that's where it gets weird because the 304b has related stuff on a knob that this machine just doesn't have, and this machine's knob has more options than the 304b does.

[eor]

N, S, E and no farther? You're missing W for a full set! Okay, so I'm no help.

The bottle I have just refers to it as Machine Oil and references sewing machines, vacuum cleaners and some other things that have moving bits. I don't think they are as picky as autos.

I got my manual from https://www.a1sewingmachine.com/sewing-machine-manuals.htm I believe. They have an "email us we might be able to get you a photocopy" and also sell parts.

[neotoma]

I have my grandmother's old cabinet machine with a knee pedal as well. I haven't used since I inherited it, but it worked fine at the time of her death.

If you're able to find a manual for it, it will probably be a great machine to have.

[neotoma]

Here is a page of scanned Riccar manuals -- maybe one matches your machine?

[camwyn]

I wish! That's the site where I got the manual I have now, for the 304b.

My father's been looking, too. He jasn't been able to find so much as a mention of the Riccar 304, just the 304b. If this thing weren't labeled in English and the former posession of a woman who never traveled to Asia in her life I'd be wondering if it was a case of the 304 not being sold in the States.

I think I'm going to see about taking these images to my instagram account in case someone who follows tags there knows what the deal is.