Hello, Baby (Craigslist WIN)

I have a Craigslist obsession.  It's bordering on unhealthy.  I know it's a problem, and I'm trying to deal with it.  Unsuccessfully. 

Introducing, my newest toy:

I have been diligently stalking Craigslist and garage sales for a serger, with not much luck, for a few months now.  Just when I was resigned to buying whatever I could get  my hands on for $40, and mastering french seams (check) this came up.  For $50, I have the BabyLock Protege (BL 402), with a carry case, although no manual.   It's got 4 scary needles, differential feed, and works faster than I think.

I was a little intimidated, because I had called a local sewing shop last week - to see about their used/floor models - and the sales guy dropped some unsettling knowledge on me regarding sergers.  Most of it had to do with me needing the self threading serger, because they are otherwise impossible to thread.  Impossible.  It takes professionals 15 minutes, he said, and it blew the wind out of my serger sail significantly.  The magical serger starts at $1,000.  I mean.  I love this sewing thing, but if I had an extra thousand Snorkcoins, I might allocate it to Mr Snorks' New Dirtbike Fund.  Or something that involves an exotic country.  Not a sewing machine.  Time for those french seams. 

However, The Baby has a tiny handy color coded threading diagram right on it, and Mr Snork downloaded a copy of a similar Brother 1034D serger for me, and played a few YouTube videos of the threading process.  Even without the YouTube videos, I had the thing threaded in 5 minutes. That includes a couple of choice words and looking in the bathroom for my tweezers (they come in handy). 

I think I will call the salesman back and call him a dirty, dirty liar.

It's stupid fast.  A lot of scraps later..  I have the tension thing eyeballed.  Not so good:

Pretty bad:

Pretty good:

A 'chain' !!: 

The lady I got it from had bought it off her friend and never ordered a manual and learned to use it.  She thought it might need a new blade, but wasn't really sure if it was missing, or broken, or what.  (Blade seems to cut fine).  There was really no way to test it - since neither one of us had any idea about threading it, so she told me - "If it doesn't work,  you can bring it back, I'm not a jerk or anything".   There are some super nice people floating out there.