Airwick156

Hi. I have a Singer Sew Mate sewing machine. Its worked wonderful since my daughter had given it to me.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a sewing group with the church my daughter and I go to. I was sewing away and a lady that was at a table behind me had a machine that was old and I apologized to the ladies for my machine being so loud. And the lady behind mes machine purred like a kitten.

The lady that does the sewing group at her house is also a quilt instructor. Her husband built a room onto their house that is HUGE Huge.

Anyhows this lady says "sounds like your machine needs oiling". I said "oh, Ive never oiled it didn't know to oil them. I told her I don't have any machine oil and she said here Ill oil it for you and so she did..She cleaned out all the lint and stuff and oiled it with a qtip.

After she oiled it, I ran some scrap fabric through the machine until the thread came out white again which took forever it seemed. LOL

I went to sew and the bobbin thread kept breaking. I would only be able to sew a couple of inches an the bobbin thread would break. She DID NOT adjust the screw on the actual bobbin case. She didnt adjust anything at all. Since I don't drive another lady picked me up and she had to go home at a certain time and the lady that oiled the machine was trying to figure out why the thread kept breaking and couldnt since we had to leave.

Today I decided I wanted to sew and so I pulled out my machine (this is the first time since I went to that sewing group) and I started sewing a straight line was able to sew 3 or 4 inches and the thread would break right at the bobbin where the thread goes through. I made sure that my upper tension was set directly on the number 5 as it has a black square around it and thats what its been on since Ive had it.

I have replaced the needle. I have rethreaded the machine countless times, I rewound a bobbin and tried that all without success.

But...I don't understand this...I changed my setting to do the blanket stitch and the thread never broke. Any suggestions? I am getting so aggravated and I don't have the money to take it in for service. Im so heartbroken over this.

Here is a picture of where it breaks at the bobbin..sorry the picture is blurry but if you look you will see the thread. I actually pulled the thread out a little bit so that you could see it. The second picture is of the bobbin housing.

mike'sgirl

Well even though she didn't adjust anything, maybe she still knocked something out of whack by cleaning and oiling. Have you pulled your bobbin case with bobbin out of the machine and tried to set the bobbin tension? Pull the thread out a bit and let the case/bobbin dangle. If it doesnt let out more thread, or isnt easily letting the thread out, its probably too tight. There is a little screw that you can turn to loosen or tighten the tension. The screw on the right is the one you want to turn.
If your bobbin just falls you need to tighten your tension.
Do you have a manuel? It might explain things better than I have. Hope it works out and gets you sewing again. Gina

Airwick156

I actually had thought about that that she possibly could have knocked something out of whack. I took the entire bobbin casing out and put it back in and that didnt seem to help. I will think about the screw. I do have a manual. Just have to remember where I put it. When I find it I will put it in my sewing machine case.

DresiArnaz

Eeeeeeeh(in my best I Love Lucy voice)

Maybe try and clean again?

Maybe she missed something and there's still some thread or lint lurking somewhere...

One time I had some thread that was coming off the spool funny-all twisted in a weird way. It kept breaking until I put it some distance away in a coffee mug so it would have time to untwist.

I read that on a forum somewhere-might have been here-when my thread kept breaking. I was throwing everything out there and hoping something would stick. : )

I hope it's something minor.

Tartan

Put a nylon on your finger and go all around the bobbin case and inside where it fits. If you feel a catch on the nylon you will know there is a rough spot that might be cutting the thread. Try winding the bobbin with another thread also. Sometimes you will get a spool of thread that just breaks. Check your manual and see that the bobbin is inserted with the thread coming through in the right direction.

Airwick156

Thanks Ladies for your replies. I have done everything imaginable to try to resolve this and nothing seems to work. And I love the machine too. I have given up on sewing for tonight. Tomorrow is another day. But gosh darn it I was so into sewing today.

notmorecraft

I had a machine with this kind of bobbin, only have drop in ones now, make sure you aren't putting the bobbin in backwords and when you put it in the holder and then put holder in make sure it 'clicks' into place, hope you get it working.

Dollyo

I'm assuming that the machine sewed just fine before it was oiled. The tensions were set to work w/minimal oil. There was more resistance. Now that it has been oiled, there is a good possibility that you will need to reset your tensions because there is less resistance. Since it's breaking at the bobbin, that is where I would start. It probably needs to be loosened. Mark on the bobbin where you start before you loosen the screw. And turn it very slightly, then check to see if it stops breaking.
Did it sew well w/that thread before the oiling? If it did, then continue to use it. If this is a different thread, then change to one that you haven't had a problem with in the past.
Good luck, we all know how frustrating that is.

Prism99

The first thing I would check again is the bobbin. Are you sure it is inserted into the bobbin case with the thread coming off in the correct direction? Compare it against the manual. It's really easy to miss something as basic as that.

A charitable organization once brought me a machine that had started doing what you describe -- for no apparent reason. They couldn't afford to take it to a technician. The machine was a classroom machine for a sewing class. Because the machine worked fine before a bobbin was changed and started breaking thread after the bobbin was changed, I started looking at the bobbin. Sorted through my box of spare parts and tried another bobbin. The machine worked fine! Compared the two bobbins and they were ***almost*** the same; only a very slight difference in shape. What had happened in the class is that the student had grabbed another bobbin to wind, and it was not the correct bobbin for the machine.

You mentioned that you wound another bobbin and tried that. Was it a bobbin that had stayed at your home? I would still try a third bobbin in the machine. Although plastic bobbins are more likely to deform, even metal bobbins can deform just enough (for example, from a drop on the floor) to cause the thread to break. And, occasionally, it's possible for a package of bobbins to all (or mostly) come from the manufacturer defective.

Edit: If it's not the bobbin, then the next thing I would examine carefully is the bobbin case. Check especially for a tiny piece of lint caught underneath the spring on the case. You can use a large needle to carefully lift up the spring to clean under it. Jamie Wallen shows how to do this within the first minute of his video on longarm tension (incidentally, his method works well for domestic machines also in terms of adjusting tension for quilting rather than piecing):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1mRhcquZTM

You mentioned that the thread breaks at the bobbin case. That would be right where that spring is. A piece of lint can cause the tension on the bobbin thread to be tighter than is set by the screw.

ManiacQuilter2

When I had an older Singer, I thought you have to take it in for a yearly servicing. What does it say in the manual for your machine?? Just oiling it should not have affected the tension. If you never had it service, take it in and have the technician that will check it over like we get annual physicals.