ArchaicArcane

Singer has a really good book that shows how to balance the tensions. Usually, it's tensions that are off. I know I've written a novel on sergers in a couple of threads. I'll see if I can find one or two of them.

Edit: Here's one: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post6572899

juneayerza

I bought a serger a while back; I've not taken it out of the box, I've not even opened the box. Now after reading all this, it scares me to even look at it.

ArchaicArcane

One more:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post6706450

ArchaicArcane

June, they're not that bad. They need to be approached logically and with the assumption that you would need to play and learn about it. They're different but not so different that they need to be feared.

juneayerza

Thanks ArchaicArcae. I bought this on the spur of the moment decision when I was shopping at Hancocks. They were on sale and there was a customer talking about how great sergers were. I said I probably didn't need one since I quilt and she said she was a quilter and used one all the time. Just shortly after I bought it I had an incident with my right eye that left me temporally without close-up vision. I finally got the rest of the stitches out last week and will go in next week for contact lens evaluation. As soon as I can see again, I'll pull the serger out and read the manual.

ArchaicArcane

I have a friend who serges all of her quilt tops. Thinking about it, it actually makes a little sense. It would never ravel at the edges. I also just quilted a top for another friend and her top had no borders. It was a log cabin based quilt and she serged the edges for me so it wouldn't ravel and it was a dream to work on.

I hope your contact lens evaluation goes well. I had laser eye surgery about 5 years ago and I think one of the worst things is having your eyes not working right. I was probably legally blind for a few days after the surgery and I was so over sensitive to light I looked like Dracula with my arm over my eyes half the day!

ragamuffin

I have 2 sergers and I use them both but they are at different houses. The main thing is to have the knobs set at the number that is colored. If you open the little door below, it will show you exactly how to thread it, it takes 2 needles, and each is color coded. If the left spool of thread is yellow, then the knob has to be set on yellow. The one with green should have the knob at green, and so on. Usually, I have a large pair of tweezers to thread the needles. It takes time but it surely is worth it. Hope you get it going. I cherish mine. The best for pants hems.

quiltedsunshine

If it's not feeding well, there could be lint packed into the feed dogs. If that was the case, you'd need to remove the needle plate and sweep the lint out. Sometimes the feed dogs get broken. Or, the pins on the needle plate could be damaged. Sometimes they have a burr on then that can be sanded off with a very fine sandpaper (about 400 gritt). Sometimes the pins get bent or broken off. Here's a picture.

nanacc

Great News!!! Hubby evidently got tired of the dining table piled with tools, sergers, parts and the blue streak coming from me! Not really...He just knew I had reached my limit. He found that the set screws on the shaft of the stitch length adjustment had worked loose and were out of position. He worked with it until they were in their proper 'notches'(?). Excuse my terminology, but it works! Oh, it was the Babylock 5180 that wouldn't feed fabric.....Forgot to explain that!

nanacc

Thank you, but I'm good now. Got a sweet Hubby that fixed it. I had already cleaned, taken all of it apart, oiled, and checked everything. In my post, I explain as good as I can what the problem was.