Machine Care
Some tips to get the best and longest out of your machine
Actually using the cover. Re-placing the cover after every use is actually remarkably helpful for many reasons and it doesn't really matter if you use the cover it came with or a fancy one you made yourself. From dust to sunlight to unwanted attention by children or pets, leaving the cover on your machine between uses is a good habit.
Travelling with the machine. Using the cover extends especially to moving around with your machine. If you travel to classes, caravan with your machine or are just taking it to the workshop for a service, the cover, or even better- a carry bag or trolley bag, is a smart idea. It prevents falls, bits being knocked off the machine or bits being knocked of your self by the machine.
More travel tips. When about to take your machine somewhere, you should take a scrap piece of fabric and put it under your presser foot, which should then be lowered. This does two things; It prevents an opportunity for your presser foot to vibrate itself away and possibly the shank along with it. Secondly, the fabric prevents the travel vibrations from wearing both the underside of your presser foot and the teeth of your feed dogs away and gets mileage out of both.
Surge Protection. Not such a big of a deal as it used to be but a surge protector power board between you machine and the rest of the grid is still a sensible idea, especially with older machines and higher end machines.
Turn it off!! If you're not sitting in front of your machine ready to sew, just cut the power. If you wander off for a tea break, need to do emergency parenting or just want to do some extended pressing at the ironing board, it really doesn't inconvenience you to turn it off until you're back. Some machines count the amount of on time and actual sewing time and the ratio ends up being 10% of sewing to on. Leaving it on all the time with no sewing can be bad for the machine or dangerous for pets or children looking for something interesting to fiddle with.
Long-term storage. Please!! Not the shed. Keeping machines is cupboards can be okay but sheds or garages are an open invitation to extremes of temperature, humidity, dust, pests and in the end, get forgotten about. If you haul a machine out of a shed to use, we want to see it for a service FIRST!! Before you break it.
Machines manuals. We know they can be difficult to extract info from but the best thing you can do is know where it is and use the the troubleshooting section, which is usually at the back. If you have an electronic machine, this section also has the common error messages to learn from.
Also in the Manual: If your manual says nothing about oiling your machine, then it is not necessary! Most modern machines are now fitted with self lubricating technology and no longer need oiling by the operator. Cleaning and greasing inside when it come in for a service is another story!
Older machines. If you do have a machine that says it needs oil, great! Get on that. Just know that the expected amount to use is a drop at a time and machine mineral oil only. You have no idea how hard vegetable or olive oils are to get out of them.
Other Basic Maintenance. Machines should still be kept clean by you until they get their yearly service. This means being able to take the hook out of a front loading machine or being able to take the needle plate and bobbin case out of the top loading machine. Also maintaining the lack of fluff in overlockers, that are capable of making vast amounts of lint with the cutter on their own is pretty important to.
Correct Bobbins. Using the correct bobbins for your machine is really important. Even if it fits but looks nothing like the ones that came with it, stop using them immediately. Janome only has two types and Pfaff has four but Singer has at least ten! A good general guide is: bobbin case machines (vertical hook or front load) should have metal bobbins and drop in machines (horizontal hook or top loaders) should have plastic bobbins.
More on Bobbins. Winding one colour over another is not only wishful thinking (you won't get back to it, promise) stacking colours can actually warp the bobbin in to weird and wonderful shapes. They're not expensive, we have more.
Even more on bobbins. Broken, cracked, stood on, pet chewed or otherwise compromised bobbins will only cause grief.
Bobbin winding Tension. If the bobbin looks loopy or spongy or you can stick a fingernail into it, the bobbin winding tension may have been missed or jumped out of. Check your manual for the correct threading path for bobbin winding.
Conversely, if the bobbin refuses to budge off the spindle after it has been wound, the tension was too tight and the bobbin has warped. This can also happen if winding the bobbin directly from the needle (which some machines claim to do). The only way to remove the bobbin is to unwind most or all of the thread first!
Quality thread. Running quality thread through you machine can seem like either a no brainer or a terrific waste of money but either way here are some reasons why you should only use a quality thread:
- Some threads shed more lint than others and can fill up your hook area much more quickly
- Quality threads are also less like to shred and also less likely to have factory joins and weird bobbles along the length.
-Over time, thread can cut into its path through the machine, slicing check springs and causing sharp edges and constant shredding. Quality thread will slow this process down.
- This also applies to older threads. Nannie's sewing box is fun to look through but the threads, be they poly or cotton, probably shouldn't be run through a machine.
Threading tips. Always make sure your presser foot is up when threading as there is a connected mechanism between there and the top tension. Mis-threading the top tension is one of the most common ways to make you machine jam up.
Changing threads. Best practice when changing threads is to cut at the thread and pull through from the needle so it goes through the machine in the same direction that it sews, rather than pulling it through backward and dragging lint and dust back through the tensions. Nobody does this and everybody should!
