In this, the third and final part of this general introduction to the Elna No.1, we take a look at bobbin winding and threading the machine.
The first step in winding a bobbin on a Grasshopper is to swing the guide arm down from its parked position to where it is in this picture. Having placed an empty bobbin on the winder shaft, you then run your thread from your spool, along to the wire loop guide at the top of the faceplate, then back round this guide and down to the bobbin …
Now at this point on most other domestic machines, your next move would be to declutch the handwheel so that when you press the go pedal or whatever, your bobbin winds but your needle doesn’t move. Not so on the Grasshopper – putting the bobbin on the shaft magically disconnects the drive to the needle bar.
Having looked at this close up, you probably have two questions, which I’ll now answer for you. That shaft with the bobble on the end which is alongside the bobbin winder/motor pulley shaft is what the speed reduction gear fits on to (there’s a post about that coming up before long), and no, vintage Elna bobbins are not the same as Singer 15 ones. These have a keyway in them, and they’re slightly taller.
Here’s a shot of the rather manky faceplate of this 1945 machine which is still in exactly the same state as when I bought it, but hopefully you can see the thread path for normal sewing. It also shows a weird red reflection and I can’t for the life of me think what that was, but never mind.
There’s nothing weird about threading a Grasshopper though – you go from spool to wire guide on top of faceplate (it’s just visible top left in that snap) then down, round the top tension and back up, through the take-up lever from back to front, then down through the bottom guide and the guide on the needle clamp.
The needle goes in with the flat to the left, which of course means that you thread it from right to left.
Finally, here’s a shot of the shuttle assembly with a bobbin in place and threaded up ready to rock, which reminds me that with the introduction to this fine machine now done, I mustn’t forget to do a post about the proper lubrication of the shuttle race. With paraffin …
Thank you sooo much for this information! I purchased my machine from a flea market last year and just decided to get it out and play today. The only problem so far is that when I wound a bobbin the needle bar was still engaged. Any thoughts?
Yep, my thought is give me a day or two and I reckon I can do a blog post about this …
Sid
I am having trouble understanding the instruction manual for my ’47 grasshopper on how to ‘thread the lower thread and upper thread’ and ‘drawing up the lower thread’. I have used a sewing machine back in high school, but have never set one up on my own. Are there supposed to be two strands of thread at the needle (one from the spool and one from the bobbin)? I don’t know how to do this. I know there is a little but about this in the post above, but I still can’t figure it all out. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Gosh, Leigh-Ann, it’s a lot easier to show you than tell you how to do this! The business about picking up the lower thread is just the same on a Grasshopper as it is on pretty much any pre-1970 vintage sewing machine of any make.
If you don’t have anybody near who could show you the process, maybe see what there is on YouTube?