Do It Yourself Sewing Machine Repair

I taught sewing lessons at The Tin Thimble in Loomis, CA for 5+ years. At the stop of one of my favorite classes "Get to Know Your Sewing Machine" (for those of you in Northern California, y'all can look at a full list of their amazing classes, hither) I would bear witness my students how to maintain their sewing machines. I always loved that trivial end segment, and I never felt that I had enough fourth dimension to really swoop into it. A tune-up at a sewing machine repair place can cost upwards of $65, and I can tell you that I cannot beget to do that often. My sewing machine is used several times every week, for hours on cease, and I accept it to exist professionally tuned about once a year. As long as the belts, ability cords and tension stay in good status, I can service information technology myself. I practise what I'thou about to show you once a calendar month, to ensure my machine stays in skillful working guild. Some of you may detect that servicing your machine yourself solves problems such as skipped stitches, pulling, tucking, slightly-off tension and volition greatly increase the longevity of your machine.

Your manual tin be a crucial resource to assist you in this process. Look for the sections labeled "maintenance" or "troubleshooting". The manual will also accept helpful diagrams of your machine that you lot can reference throughout this tutorial. If you don't take a transmission, nigh tin can be institute online to download, or on sites such as Ebay or Etsy to purchase.

This blog postal service has been in the works for some fourth dimension now, and now that my darling husband-to-be acted as my photographer, I am excited to deliver information technology to you!

I would like to say that these instructions are best for older machines. By older I mean most machines from the tardily xc'southward and older. Nigh brand new machines don't leave yous the option to service them this thoroughly, and therefore you'd have to take them to a sewing machine repair shop. This is a good example of why I prefer vintage sewing machines to new ones, but that's in a separate post you can read about here.

Gear up? Ok, take hold of your motorcar and some tools and we'll get started! If you think of things I didn't cover, or have questions, delight feel costless to comment below or shoot me an email!

What You'll Need:

• Screwdrivers in many sizes. You can purchase a kit of modest screw drivers from most textile stores & sewing automobile repair stores. You can besides utilise the screwdrivers that come up in your eyeglass repair kit. You'll besides need a regular sized 1 that you use around the house.

• A rag or towel that tin can get (very) dingy.

• Sewing car lubricant. Also bachelor for auction at nearly fabric stores & sewing machine repair shops. I recommend the vocalizer brand that comes in a tube. I don't recommend the very liquid-y stuff that comes in a eject-type bottle, but to each their own.

• Several brushes. I use erstwhile makeup brushes and paint brushes, but you can also purchase a cleaning castor for your motorcar at the same stores. Y'all may also apply a toothbrush.

To Begin:

Remove all thread spools, the bobbin, the bobbin example and the needle. Set up them aside, somewhere safe.

Remove the screws from the top of your sewing machine. Mine in particular has three, yours may accept more than or less. Some machines don't have any screws at pinnacle, but instead have a hinged lid that opens.

Notation if there are washers with the screws and that they may be different sizes. Exist sure to brand a note of which screw fits in which opening. I recommend making a sheet that looks like this:

Side by side, remove the height cover. Some machines have a metal subclass underneath that keeps the lid on tight, you may have to push the chapeau back (away from you lot), or frontward (toward yourself) to go the bracket to unhook.

And so you'll see this! The inner workings of your motorcar. Accept a moment to appreciate all the work information technology does for yous :)

Turn your hand cycle towards you and take a wait at everything that moves in there.

Cleaning the Top of the Machine:

You're at present going to accept a rag and make clean out all the old, nasty, dingy grease. A knitting needle tucked inside a rag becomes a handy tool for reaching those smaller spaces. A toothbrush may come in handy during this pace too. I wouldn't propose using your soft brushes for removing grease, they're amend for lint removal later on.

• Exist gentle: Use kid gloves when cleaning your machine. It doesn't require a lot of strength or pressure to get your machine nice and clean. No abrupt jabbing! Being too crude will greatly increase your chances of bumping springs, and dislodging crucial pieces.

• Watch out for springs!These little babies are sensitive, fragile and will screw up the entire function of your auto if they're dislodged or cleaved. See the photo below for examples of placement. If they are covered in lint, utilize a soft brush (like a makeup brush, or the sewing machine-specific cleaning castor) to brush information technology off. If they are coated in dirty grease, employ the rag to gently wipe it off.

Below are pictures of the gross stuff yous may run across in your machine. Hunks of dried grease, dirty grease, lint, threads, etc. all needs to come out! Be sure to clean each place, and then turn the mitt wheel 1/four plough and so that you can see and clean all sides of the wheels, cogs, etc.

Yous'll besides want to turn your sew selector, stitch width, and stitch length knobs (depending on where they're placed on your machine) to make sure that y'all clean all sides of their mechanisms. The photograph below shows the built up grease on my run up selector knob. To become it all make clean, I turned the knob through each stitch to make clean entirely effectually the cog.

Oiling the Height of the Automobile:

In one case y'all've thoroughly cleaned the tiptop part of your machine, we need to supercede all the grease we just removed. Oil helps to keep all the parts and pieces moving smoothly, and prevents excess wearable, friction, heat and dissonance.

We are going to grease any 2 parts that motility confronting 1 some other.

Below I have pointed to the places I put oil. Your machine may have more than or less moving parts.

What not to do:

• Don't grease the belts. I am pointing to the drive belt in my sewing machine in the motion picture beneath. If whatever of the belts looks frayed, or cracked, have your sewing car to a professional to take information technology replaced.

• Don't over oil. As well much oil tin crusade the pieces to slip and malfunction. If yous're using the liquid oil, information technology simply takes a drop or two per part. If you're using the thick stuff, a half-pea sized will be more than plenty.

Cleaning the Left Side and the Bobbin Housing:

Now, open the left side panel on your machine. Mine has a hinged door that opens, yours may have screws. If information technology has screws, be sure to add them to your paper sheet and label them and then that you don't forget where they become! It's also a good time to brush any lint off of the tension knob (if that's where yours is placed), and the thread guides forth the front of the car.

                                  Side by side remove the human foot, and the needle if yous haven't already.

Take a soft castor and clean the dogfeed (those are the little teeth that stick up from the bottom of your motorcar).

Now remove the needle plate (besides known every bit the pharynx plate). Mine has screws, (see higher up) some take a bracket underneath so that yous tin slide the plate off past pulling it towards you lot.

Remove the lint that builds up underneath the needle plate. Below, you tin run across that mine was and so dirty, I used a small screwdriver to gently push out large pieces of lint. Hither'south a skillful time to use your soft brushes & grease-free toothbrush equally well.

Removing the Bobbin Housing:

Taking autonomously the bobbin machinery can be a fiddling intimidating, but follow forth and yous shouldn't have a problem. If you have a summit loading bobbin, you do not need to follow these steps. Because I don't currently accept a summit loading car in my possession, you may want to encounter what you tin can find on YouTube, and I volition add pictures of that process as before long equally I can!

For a forepart loading bobbin: you should see two small-scale arms on either side of the lesser of the bobbin mechanism. Gently push those arms away from the case. Run across the photo below.

You can then remove the first metallic slice (known as the 'race'). See below.

You volition then be able to remove the second metal piece (known equally the 'claw'.)

Gently brush out the entire bobbin mechanism. Brush over the hook and race and collect all the lint you lot notice. Mine is below. Gross.

Oiling the Left Side and the Bobbin Housing :

Over again, turn your hand bicycle and sentinel what moves inside the left side panel. Place a drop of oil anyplace where two mechanical pieces motion confronting i another.

Be sure to place a small amount on the needle bar (the cylindrical piece of metal that moves the needle up and down).

For the bobbin mechanism, be sure to place a small amount behind the part that swings back and forth (motion the hand bicycle in total rotations to discover this role). Meet the photo below.

Cleaning the Underside of the Machine:

My machine has a small plastic arm at the side that holds the machine into information technology'south lesser case.Whether your machine is in a case like mine, in a table, or non in any kind of housing, you'll demand to tip it back and then that you can look underneath it. I rested mine on a stack of books, merely you could also lay a towel down on your workspace and set up it in on it'south back.

Take your soft textile and gently wipe downward the underside as well equally the bottom of the case, if the machine is in 1.

Oiling the Underside of the Auto:

Once again, turn your hand wheel and watch what moves underneath the machine. Identify a driblet of oil anyplace wheretwo mechanical pieces move against one another. Look for very small-scale movements at the underside of your motorcar, not all parts hither brand drastic movements.

Reassembling the Bobbin Housing:

Firstly, turn your hand wheel until the inner crescent moon shaped slice in the housing is on the correct.

Secondly, pop the 'hook' into the housing, information technology will but fit in all the fashion if the crescent-moon shaped piece is in the right place. Y'all may have to suit it's position using the handwheel.

Third, place the 'race' over the top of the hook and the crescent-moon shaped piece. See that itty-bitty notch at the bottom of the housing betwixt the two black artillery? That notch helps align the 'race' to the residual of the housing.

Lastly, pop the footling black arms over the footling metal buttons on the housing. Be sure that the dogfeed lever to the right of the housing (it unremarkably has little red arrows on it), is in it's upright position.

To Finish Up:

Lastly, supervene upon all the screws in your automobile (pinnacle, side and bobbin), and give the machine one concluding good wipe downwards. My car gets especially dusty on the dorsum side and in the grooves of the case.

Then, replace the needle, and using a piece of cloth that you don't care about (y'all could even utilise the rag you've used through this whole procedure), run the auto at total speed, without any thread in it. This moves the oil throughout the car and allows any excess oil to work it's style out. You may see oil on the cloth, and that'southward OK. Proceed using the machine without any thread until y'all don't run across oil on the fabric anymore. Then, using thread you lot don't intendance near, thread the bobbin and the elevation of the machine and stitch some more than. Yous may come across that the thread is greasy (either on the pinnacle or the bottom), and this is OK likewise.

And there y'all have it! Your machine has been serviced.

What did I forget? I'd be happy to add pictures and descriptions to anything.

What questions do you lot have?

Would you guys be interested in a tutorial on fixing the tension on your machine?

Comment below and let me know!

Source: http://www.palindromedrygoods.com/2015/09/how-to-service-your-sewing-machine.html

Posted by: pettiesblecliked1962.blogspot.com

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