Kenmore 1914 Frozen to fixed Sewing Machine
Kenmore 1914 is another fantastic sewing machine, a LUXURY freearm which takes C cams (came with 30 cams + 14 built in stitches!), includes a monogrammer and chainstitch capability
| Kenmore 1914 sewing machine ad highlights freearm capability, buttonholer features, solid reliability! |
 |
| 3 gray and cream acccessory case "books" originally came with 1914, I did not get the accessories one, but happened to have a couple of them already. |
 |
| 1914 with 30 C cams, and monogrammer |
FEATURES-
1.2 amp powerful motor
Dual belts with self adjusting pulley system
Left homing needle (158.19142)
Quick Change Super High Shank presser foot system
Q Foot for sewing Qiana fabric and knits
FREEARM
14 built in stitches
30 Kenmore C cams
Monogrammer
Quick change needleplate inserts zigzag, straight stitch, chainstitch
 |
| Original ad |
 |
| C cams and monogrammer |
 |
| Freearm insert bottom view |
 |
| Needleplate inserts left homing straight stitch with straight stitch foot Zigzag needleplate insert with Zigzag foot A |
 |
| Underside of Kenmore 1914 straight stitch and zigzag needleplate insertshave a small black spring attached to help hold them in place, a gentle touch from underneath, releases plate. (I do not have the chainstitch plate, yet, the box with presser feet, and buttonholer accessories and the manual, were not with it, when my hubby bought it at a garage.) sale |
 |
| 1914 freearm base slides off to thle left, it has a different freearm base from the 1931, they are not interchangeable, 1914 has a very long metal rod on the back, which slides into the machine base. |
 |
| 1914 has an interchangeable straight stitch needleplate, and chainstitch needleplate, which can be changed out with the standard zigzag needleplate. |
 |
| The nomenclature plate shows the manufacturing identification code first, 158 Maruzen, a decimal, then the first 4 digits indicate model 1914, the last digit is the batch ID #, 2 which was the third batch, they start with 0 as the first batch number. |
Like most sewing machines my hubby brings home to me, this was completely frozen, so I spent a few hours cleaning and oiling, to free it. The most frozen, was the camstack gear, due to hard gelled grease, and the feed dog release piston.
 |
| Cleaning tools, I had to use the brushes to clean the hardened grease off the camstack gears, this was the area most frozen, causing resistance. Don't run the motor, until you have freed the machine up, to avoid damaging the motor. |
 |
| The machine top, or lid, flips back to show illustrations of many stitches available, and what cam number is required. The stitch width is at the left front. Cam release lever, the camstack, stitch selector (back right corner), bobbin winder , are all located here |
 |
| Stitch samples sewn on 1914, red thread on Bobbin, green thread on top. |
 |
| Underside of 1914 top coverplate includes bobbin winder, and cam release lever, the stitch illustrations are on the underside of the flip up to. Remember to check bobbin winding tire, and oil necessary |
 |
| Mechanical view down inside 1914. The brown reverse cam stays inside, you do not remove it. The camstack has a built in spring, to help push cams up and off, but this mechanism may be frozen, as this one was. My hubby pushed it down hard, after I attempted to clean and oil where I could access it. Repeatedly pushing it down, and cleaning and oiling, freed it up, but expect to need to work this mechanism regularly, to prevent it freezing up again. |
 |
| 1914 Stitch length control is the outer ring |
Always free up mechanical parts inside, before attempting to use frozen knobs and levers. The knob and levers themselves, are RARELY the cause of their being stuck, it is nearly always caused by old sticky oil freezing up the linkages behind the knobs and levers,
Reverse and stitch length pivoting cam follower was very sticky on both sides. A long paintbrush, dipped in rubbing alcohol, was how I reached in from the side, to clean out old sticky oil, to free this up. As it loosens, turn stitch length to longest stitch setting, and keep cleaning and oiling, until reverse pivoting cam folliw immediately snaps back in place, after you release it.
1914 (158.19142) bobbin gearbox.
Bobbin gears are metal
 |
| The feed dog drop mechanism is usually frozen on these. It is best not to disassemble mechanisms, especially if you aren't sure what you are doing. My hubby thought we could free it up better, if he disassembled it, but did not realize there was a hidden, long thin cotter pin which controls the push back in the feed dog release, that needed removed first, so after he removed the outer cotter pin, he was able to free the feed dog piston, but it snapped the long thin, hidden cotter pin, so until that is replaced, the feed dog release mechanism does not have the typical pushback. |
 |
| 1914 underside view of feed dog release, and lower mechanisms |
 |
| Motor removed from motormount, to accessthe mechanisms above it, for cleaning and oiling. |
 |
| Using a flat long handle paintbrush dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean both sides of the pivoting cam follower that controls reverse and stitch length |
 |
| Dual belt pulley system, because the motor is further forward, so an idler pulley is used to prevent the belt from hitting the power switch, and front of machine casing. This idler pulley sometimes needs oiled lightly, or it will squeal, and affect speed. Once oiled, it is quiet, and runs smoothly. |
 |
| Full side view of 1914 below handwheel |
1914 SEWS JEANS BEAUTIFULLY!
 |
| Bar tack 1.5 stitch width zigzag, and right between 12 stitches per inch, and buttonhole setting stitch length |
 |
| Before I snipped my threads, after sewing bar tacks and top stitching, shows where I started and stopped, then moved to next area, without snipping threads. The curves are my stitches, and the bar tacks. |
I needed to replace the zipper slider/head on my brother's jeans, the holder for the pull tab, had sheared off completely, in the laundry, so I had to pick our the bar tacks and some topstitching, and remove the metal stop, on the zipper, to slide off the damaged slider, and put on the new one.
Next, I had to restitch the bar tacks, and topstitching in gold thread, after replacing the zipper slide, and the bottom metal zipper stopper.
For bar tacks, I used 1.5 mm stitch width zigzag, and set stitch length in the middle, between 12 stitches per inch, and buttonhole mode.
For straight stitch topstitching, I used 10 stitches per inch stitch length.
