Keep a Clean Machine!
January 1, 2010
Here's a great resolution for 2010 - keep your sewing machine clean and happy! Here's some advice from John Gass at Sandi's Sewing Connection. He's been cleaning and repairing machines for many years, and sees the same problems over and over - many of which can be avoided by keeping your machine clean and oiled. Check your owner's manual for specific cleaning instructions for your machine. The tips below are useful for cleaning most sewing machines.
WARNING: These photos may frighten your sewing machine!
One very simple thing machine owners can do is keep the area under the stitch plate and around the bobbin clean. Lint and thread fragments tend to collect in these areas, causing a variety of stitching problems. Here, so much lint accumulated around the feed dogs that the stitch plate was actually raised and lowered when the machine was run. Generally just taking off the stitch plate will expose lots of lint - this is easily removed by gently brushing the lint out of the machine.
This picture shows lint in the hook race - the part that circles the bobbin case. Lint in this area tends to be oily, and gets packed into the hook race, especially in the narrow groove. To clean this area, remove the hook race (this can only be done on CB hook machines) and clean away the lint with a wooden toothpick. While you're there, put a drop of sewing machine oil on the hook race to keep it running smoothly.
A needle fragment jammed in the hook race can be removed by taking out the bobbin case and gently brushing the broken part out of the machine. Whenever a needle breaks, be sure to remove ALL of the pieces to ensure that they won't get between moving parts and cause problems.
Lint and thread in the top tension discs can sometimes be removed by "flossing" the discs with a heavy thread - such as gimp or topstitching thread - dipped in rubbing alcohol.
Lint can also collect in other parts of the machine that aren't easily accessed. That's why it's important to have your machine cleaned regularly. Vacations are a great time to take your machine to the BERNINA technician for a yearly clean/oil/adjust - you won't miss your machine if you aren't at home!
Broken threads can wind around machine parts and prevent parts from moving. Thread wound around the needle linkage can cause the machine to bind and stop running. To help prevent this from happening, stop sewing immediately and remove the thread before it has a chance to begin wrapping around any parts. Once the machine is jammed, you'll need to have a machine technician take your machine apart and remove the thread, then reset any parts that might have been pulled out of place.
For more photos and machine maintenance tips, visit the Machine Service area of Sandi's Sewing Connection website.
Posted by: Jo Leichte at 3:29pm
9 Comments
Topic: Equipment
Tags:
bernina
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sewing machine maintenance
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john gass
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sandi\'s sewing connection
9 Comments
I'm a customer at Sandi's Sewing Connection & John has taught me a lot about regular cleaning I can do myself. Yearly clean, oil, & adjust keeps them always running great.
Click on the link to see pictures of machines through OUR service department. :)
Happy New Year!
Sara
Excellent!!!
Oh my gosh, I've never seen anything quite like these photos! I wonder if any new life forms were discovered whilst the machines were serviced - by what must have been a very brave technician.
I must be a bit obsessive about lint and thread- I brush everything out each bobbin change, sometimes every two.
What a good idea...I learnt all this when I attended Bernina classes at Dee Why in Sydney when I first bought my machine in 1986 and have followed this advice. I think everyone who owns a machine should be taught how to do this simple maintenance when they buy a machine. Learning this early would not only help people to care for their machines at home but also reduce the machanics nightmares when something does ned fixing by them.
I am amazed by the machines that come in for repair...dirty on the outside, too! Maybe someone will print these photos to the first page of all owners' manuals! Thank you for showing these pictures and how to clean information!
I can honestly say that I have never let lint, thread etc. accumulate like that in any machine I have ever owned, but I did do a friend a favor & remove virtually years of debris from hers & magically it worked again!!! Same people who never change their needle??? Those photos are very scary. Thanks.
Thanks for making this information available to a wider audience, Jo. Coral Seitz has been our customer for many years and was also a store employee for several years. Coral is an active sewer and I confirm this when I service her machine and check the hours of use in the service mode. However, her machine is always literally spotless inside in areas that she cannot possibly get to! Her diligence in maintaining her machine is obvious and her machine loves her for it.
If you are going to clean around the feed dogs and hook, first remove the needle plate and open the bobbin case door. Then use a brush, a vacuum attachment, or air and direct the lint and threads out the front of the machine instead of simply removing the needle plate or opening the bobbin case door and driving everything back into the depths of the machine where it then accumulates.
And, thread does make a difference. Some thread has short fibers and actually looks "fuzzy" if held up to the light. Such thread creates more lint during sewing and that lint ends up in the machine.
Oh my, I have never seen machines as bad as these... (actually I lie, the fan in my computer was jambed up with lint... but that is a whole other story)
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