Lean On Me

So ever since I brought home my Juki LS-321, it's had a minor setup issue.

You see, industrial sewing machines are designed to tilt backwards for servicing, giving you access to the mechanics underneath, as well as loosening the belt that leads down to the motor.

However, if the machine just tilted all the way back to the table, it would likely crush some smaller parts on the rear of the machine, along with the operator's fingers, and so usually there's a wooden or plastic post mounted in the table behind the machine, like this one behind my Singer 251.

But no such post exists on the table of my LS-321, and oddly there's no sign that a post ever existed back there either, which is a puzzling oversight.

The good news is that these posts are cheap, and very easy to install. You just need to drill of 5/8" hole and slip it in.

Unfortunately this 5/8" drill bit is cheap garbage and drills a bit oversized.

But that's nothing a little hot snot can't fix.

You do need to be careful with this stuff though, it solidifies really quickly when you're sticking the part into a big, cool slab of plywood like this.

But I got it in place just fine, so let's test it out.

It's like the machine is just magically hovering in midair!

And more importantly, it's not smashing the foot lift lever, or my sewing light, or any of the other gubbins back here, into the table. A solid improvement, I'd say.