Repairing My Own Machine
 

Greetings, Fellow Quilters!
I have learned so much from all of you, but this is my first time to speak up. The other day there was a thread about the high cost of having our machines repaired, and I felt encouraged to do some of my own - like cleaning and oiling. I've been finishing up some UFO's, thanks to your encouragement last year, and my machine stopped threading my needle, so I've been investigating what is going on. I have a Baby Lock, Quilter's Choice, sold by the local Bernina dealer. I had my husband unscrew the front cover and check out the workings of the threader. A "gizmo" slides on a bar with some plastic parts. It doesn't want to slide, so my husband suggested we spray it with silicone spray. That is supposed to lubricate plastic. When I took the new owner classes for the machine, I was told to NEVER spray anything in or on the machine. I don't quite trust the Bernina repairman because when I took my Elna serger to him to fix, he mixed up the color-coded parts and didn't fix it either, even though he said he could fix it. Another repairman showed me there was a burr on a part that needed to be carefully sanded off. What do you wonderfully knowledgeable sewers think about the silicone spray? I surely don't want to do more damage. Thanks for you help, Dianna

Do not spray anything into a computerized machine at all. Leave that to the dealers. computerized machines are very sensitive. if you don't care for your dealer i suggest finding a new one. computerized machines are not as easy to do it yourself as the mechanical machines and I don't recommend that on an expensive machine like that.

You will void your warranty if someone other than a certified tech. opens your machine. If it's out of warranty you can do some detective work and take a chance. But, if it's still under warranty..take it in for service.

I don't spray anything into my machine. I do all my own maintenance on all my machines and when a plastic piece needs lubricating I use a little Lithium grease applied with a cotton swab. There are many free sites online to help with good information to help guide you thru the process.

I wouldn't do any work on my sewing machine. It's computerized and I had problems with the needle threader and was manually moving it back in place (it would get stuck after threading the needle) and finally took it to the dealer. It took him over a week to fix it. I shouldn't have moved the needle threader. I really screwed it up. Thankfully he was able to fix it after tearing everything apart and he didn't even charge me. He told me to keep my mitts off the machine when it came to repairs. And I am going to obey him (I never obey anyone).