The New Beast

We. Lucked. Out.

This is my Husqvarna Viking 6440, made in 1975, and after three hours, most of a bottle of Triflow, and the Owlvark's meticulous nature, it is the proverbial well-oiled machine. This model was intended to be permanently self-oiling, "permanently" being the 25 years it was under warranty, and as such is made of sintered metal as far as the moving parts go, so when the machine is warm, the oil expands out of the gaps and onto the places it needs to be. It does, however, dry up eventually, and if the machines aren't used regularly they tend to freeze up solid and can be broken by trying to force them through. We were lucky and the one we got was only stiff, not frozen, and I had been doing my research beforehand so we knew exactly what to do with it. With knowledge gained from the Yahoo Group for pre-1980's Viking sewing machines, which is moderated by a retired Viking repairman, and a .pdf file of the maintenance manual, I took it apart and the Owlvark went to work with the Triflow while I reglued the various bits of the case that had been broken by someone with not enough patience to locate all the screws. After a thorough oiling and hand-turning, the formerly stiff unhappy machine is now running as though it had just been made yesterday. It is a joy to sew on. The gearing ratio is 5 to 1, which lets it power through just about anything you can conceivably think of sewing, it a has a low gear that gives you all the power at a fifth of the speed, to let you do precision work without losing power, and, thanks to an ingenious set of interchangeable cams, it has around two dozen stitches besides straight and zigzag. The reverse is button-controlled and works like a dream. I made one heavy drape this afternoon, which it motored through as though I was asking it to sew butter and not four layers of corduroy and wool, and only stopped because I broke the needle- apparently I still have my childhood habit of unconsciously trying to pull the material through instead of letting the feed dogs do the work. (I'll get over it with a bit more practice.) It turned out to have been for the better; the needle it came with was actually the wrong one. So we made a trip out to Joann Fabrics (which was helpfully having a massive sale on notions) and bought a normal needle assortment (it uses a very standard size, thankfully) some leather needles, some bobbins (there's a company that actually does facsimile bobbins for old Viking, Pfaff, and Bernina machines, respectively) and, since they were having a good sale on cloth, we picked up a few odds and ends for me to practice on. The new needle works great (which it should, considering that it's proper one) and I'm looking forward to finishing off the drapes before the cold weather hits. And all the other interesting projects that will come up for it.