J Miller

I'm finding out that some machines are much more sensitive to threads than others too.
This new Singer caused me no end of trouble this afternoon. It was most likely something I did, but at this point I don't know what.
The thread wadded up in the bobbin area and my wife had to dig it out with tweezers. Some pieces were the thick C&C jeans top thread and the rest was the thread I've been using the last couple days.
All I was doing was trying to make a button hole.

I'm pretty sure much of the problem is the damaged bobbin carrier too. Next week I'll have to order one in.

Joe

irishrose

You did better than I'm doing. I've got the Touch & Sew 639 here trying to get it to sew. It thinks it's chain stitching when it's not supposed to be. I'm on my way to a manual to see how to set it for chain stitching so I can be sure nothing is on that shouldn't be. I only want it to straight stitch.

chris_quilts

I do buy old thread but for decoration purposes. I have empty glass gallon jars filled with spools and spools of older thread and I will continue to buy wooden spools of thread because I have a Two-Spools that needs those wooden spools. DDs dislike the decorations but I get many comments from friends and company about them. Moral: Keep thse older spools and put them to use as decorations.

Rose_P

Thanks for posting this. It makes me feel not so alone in my sewing room when things go whacko. I had a very similar experience a few days ago with my 40 year old Bernina 830. I broke a needle somehow and after I replaced it there were lots of snarls and thread breaks. Eventually I noticed the bobbin tension screw was loose and fixed that, but still it was not making proper stitches. I could type a long list of things I tried, including trying to use a Diamond Deb nail file to remove the nick in the needle plate that happened when the needle broke. I finally noticed the thread had jumped out of the take up lever. Hitting myself in the head because on that machine it's right out in full view and probably the easiest and most logical thing to check. My excuse is it never happened to do that before. Lame, I know.

The odd thing is that I also use my mom's Elna 62C that's a little older than the Bernina. On it, the thread goes through a hole on the take up lever and can't jump out, but the last guide above the needle on the Elna is designed such that the thread hops out of it with the slightest provocation. The corresponding guide on the Bernina is very effective. Wouldn't it be handy if everything was interchangeable and we could put them together so they each had the best features?

Oh, and of course I was sewing a 10-minute block at the time of my Bernina fiasco. Guess how long that one took!

jaciqltznok

I never grow tired of reading this type of stuff....hours of joy to me...thanks to all who contribute!

ArizonaKAT

I just "fixed" my friend's singer she hasn't used in years because the bobbin keep jumbling up. . . She had the bobbin in backwards. She thinks I'm a genius.

earthwalker

Yep....sometimes overthinking it is what mucks us around. Love this kind of thread....you always learn something and shared experience makes me feel somewhat less of an idiot.

jaciqltznok

I have done that ...the silliest things are wrong...read that as operator error...and I clean, fidgit, etc for a while..then I TEST things out...and then bang...I find the problem.....of course I knew the problem 33 seconds into the machine..but why make them feel dumb..hehehhe

chris_quilts

I don't remember who said on this board but 99% of the machine's problems are the carbon based unit sitting in front of it. I am sew guilty of being the problem quite frequently.
Chris

bearisgray

Remember to redo the bobbin, too, when the machine is acting up.