Saturday, November 29, 2008

Husqvarna Classica 105 sewing machine

When I think of Husqvarna, I think of chainsaws. I do not think of sewing machines. Apparently, there's a whole family of companies with the Husqvarna name. I guess you learn something new everyday.

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I've taken apart sewing machines from many different companies, and from several different countries, but this was the first time I got a hold of something by a Swedish brand. I was sort of interested to see if they designed any mechanisms or part configurations differently than the other machines I've taken apart.

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Turns out they do. Or did for this model, anyway. Instead of the usual top panel that comes off to access the mechanisms, the side panels come off. It looks like, in some respects, this arrangement would be better for accessing parts to do repairs. I'm sure there's some trade-offs, otherwise everyone would build them like that.

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I suppose that's about an average parts pile for a sewing machine, Swedish or not.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Pfaff Hobbymatic 803

Busy Saturday, so I need a quick entry. Fortunately, I've got plenty of sewing machines that wouldn't come apart in the backlog.

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This particular one is made by Pfaff, a German company I'd never heard of until I found this machine. The sew/vac place cannibalized the top and light covers before junking it, but it's not nearly as skeletonized as some machines I've found.

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Note the paucity of removable fasteners. The few parts I got off were very superficially located.

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Nothing came out of here.

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I didn't get much out of this machine, and the trophy pile picture came out a lot darker than I thought it would. Meh.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

General Electric cordless phone

No entry last week because I just flat ran out of time.

Somewhere between last Saturday and today was the first anniversary of me keeping records of my junk disassembly hobby. So, I figured I'd use the occasion to post about a phone I took apart several years ago. This was the first time I had attempted to document the taking apart process, from complete appliance to pile of parts.

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This is from November 2004, about a month before I moved to Hawaii, hence all the boxes and stuff in the background. If I remember correctly, I had set the table up to sort out erector set parts for sale, then realized I had a broken phone, and decided to take it apart.

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I didn't think/bother to document the process, so the documentation sort of skips to an end shot of all the parts. For some reason, I didn't separate the parts I kept with the ones I trashed. If I remember correctly, I kept the housing of the cradle, the cradle's antenna, and possibly the receiver housing. It's been a while, and not all of my junk is in the same place. Also, it seems like my photography skills have not really improved in 4 years.

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As I was taking the phone apart, I decided the cradle housing looked sort of vehicular, so I got out my collection of broken toy parts to mock up a dune buggy/ATV type configuration. The white thing on top is a piece of cardboard, and the two (well one and a half, anyway) action figures were there to try to work out the best scale.

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I made a crude mock-up in MS Paint to show where I wanted the wheels (black rectangles) and engine (grey rectangle). Unfortunately, the project has yet to move past the vague design stage. I should still have all the parts, so I may get back to it once I move to an apartment that's a bit more conducive to hobby work..

Saturday, November 1, 2008

White Super Lock 503 Serger sewing machine

I've got other stuff to do tonight, including trying to figure out what went wrong with last week's pictures, so this will be a short one.

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My lackadaisical approach to photography led to this blurry picture, in which the model number is illegible. I had to do a little googling to find out which model it was.

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The front plate came off easily enough, and I think a couple other things came off, but overall there wasn't much on this I could or wanted to salvage.

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I just kept the knobs. Like I said, short entry.