Bernina 730 Record
#41
None of these are the zig-zag sewing foot.
Not that clever, just looked it up in the 540 manual
#43
Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Bellingham, WA
Posts: 16
Recently the foot pedal on my Bernina 730 became essentially an on/off switch. There was almost no speed control and I need to sew slowly. I replaced it with an after market electronic foot pedal as apposed to the "carbon pile" Bernina. It worked very well and it was easy to open the new foot pedal, remove the wires and connect the Bernina wires so the connector to the machine was the same. I was curious as to why the Bernina no longer worked so I took it apart and found the internal metal bracket would bottom out in the ceramic housing before the carbon wafers were compressed enough to vary the speed.
The internal parts in the Bernina foot pedal. The metal bracket is in the next image.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512074[/ATTACH]
The reason was the wafers had become thinner with use but new wafers are no longer available as far as I could find. I added an O-ring to each of the ceramic cylinders as below to increase the compression on the wafers.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512076[/ATTACH]
The result was the Bernina pedal now works as well as the replacement pedal. I think this fix will not have the longevity of new wafers but I do think it will last a reasonable time for the amount of time it took to repair. I read online another fix that involved machining brass inserts the same size as the wafers to increase the compression and another that salvaged wafers out of old foot pedals. I think the best fix is the $20 after market foot pedal.
The internal parts in the Bernina foot pedal. The metal bracket is in the next image.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512074[/ATTACH]
The reason was the wafers had become thinner with use but new wafers are no longer available as far as I could find. I added an O-ring to each of the ceramic cylinders as below to increase the compression on the wafers.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512076[/ATTACH]
The result was the Bernina pedal now works as well as the replacement pedal. I think this fix will not have the longevity of new wafers but I do think it will last a reasonable time for the amount of time it took to repair. I read online another fix that involved machining brass inserts the same size as the wafers to increase the compression and another that salvaged wafers out of old foot pedals. I think the best fix is the $20 after market foot pedal.
#44
Nice find! Glad you had the spare parts. I have a Favorit. She is set up with a size 18 needle for all of my heavier stuff. I luv that girl!! Sewed on her last night. Bernina's are a machine I can't pass up if the price is right and I really like that table.
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