Sewing Machine diagnosis 101
09-10-2014, 01:08 PM
#16
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 911
Herre's a good for ya.
I have a sister that knows every thing as long as your doing it wrong.. she's 75 and a lifetime sewer.
she has two machines. according to her there both thread bound and have been for years.
ok 1st one a 1960 viking Husky, very cool machine, yet it was thread bound plus oil stuck. hair dryer fix. she about died seeing that trick LOL.
#2 a pfaff 2222E ( same as a 2221) walking foot and needle up machine. clean no thread anywhere, but stuck like a BIG dog.. finally get the covers off a good 2 hours later, finding nothing causing a problem.
I do see what looks like a electro magnet / servo. so be very careful, dealing miss no it all.. cause for sure I'll break something and this is a Hi $$$$ machine. so working with white gloves and in a vacuum chamber.
I see a red lever next to the presser foot lever ( wth ? ) ( no manual) ok the red one engages the walking foot
now what makes thing a needle up machine ? ah ha that servo. which does nothing more than drop a pin into the hand wheel to stop it in needle up positron
now what controls this ?? so plug in back in, take a chance on touching buttons and levers. no buttons do anything , red lever doesn't either .
BUTT O dang lookie there . Hmmm mover the silver lever up (presser foot) and oh gee the servo unlocks the handwheel and the machine turns as free as a brand new top.
Those germans are so smart !! when you stop sewing. the needle maybe down, lift the presser foot, this sends a signal ? power to the servo and it drops that pin down, then the motor rolls the machine untill that pin fall into a hole in the handwheel and lock it in the up postion.
she has had both those since new and has no Idea what nice machines both of those are. believe me she keeps them very clean and she knows how to sew !! Those are the only machines she has had in her lifetime.
right now goodwill is full of machines just like those.. as k her to make sure someone gets them and they do not good to goodwill when she dies or sold for pennys
I have a sister that knows every thing as long as your doing it wrong.. she's 75 and a lifetime sewer.
she has two machines. according to her there both thread bound and have been for years.
ok 1st one a 1960 viking Husky, very cool machine, yet it was thread bound plus oil stuck. hair dryer fix. she about died seeing that trick LOL.
#2 a pfaff 2222E ( same as a 2221) walking foot and needle up machine. clean no thread anywhere, but stuck like a BIG dog.. finally get the covers off a good 2 hours later, finding nothing causing a problem.
I do see what looks like a electro magnet / servo. so be very careful, dealing miss no it all.. cause for sure I'll break something and this is a Hi $$$$ machine. so working with white gloves and in a vacuum chamber.
I see a red lever next to the presser foot lever ( wth ? ) ( no manual) ok the red one engages the walking foot
now what makes thing a needle up machine ? ah ha that servo. which does nothing more than drop a pin into the hand wheel to stop it in needle up positron
now what controls this ?? so plug in back in, take a chance on touching buttons and levers. no buttons do anything , red lever doesn't either .
BUTT O dang lookie there . Hmmm mover the silver lever up (presser foot) and oh gee the servo unlocks the handwheel and the machine turns as free as a brand new top.
Those germans are so smart !! when you stop sewing. the needle maybe down, lift the presser foot, this sends a signal ? power to the servo and it drops that pin down, then the motor rolls the machine untill that pin fall into a hole in the handwheel and lock it in the up postion.
she has had both those since new and has no Idea what nice machines both of those are. believe me she keeps them very clean and she knows how to sew !! Those are the only machines she has had in her lifetime.
right now goodwill is full of machines just like those.. as k her to make sure someone gets them and they do not good to goodwill when she dies or sold for pennys
09-10-2014, 10:54 PM
#19
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Not Here
Posts: 3,817
The $100 machines are junk but I suspect that if many of us got one of them - did some appropriate bobbin and upper tension adjustments and sewed appropriate fabric on it - we'd have little trouble.
The problem with a lot of them is that they're poorly set up from the factory and usually purchased by people who know little to nothing about sewing then fall into 2 categories: dump it without reading the manual but after deciding they don't have the aptitude for sewing, and after breaking a bunch of needles because of poor sewing technique (in which case the timing may be forever ruined). Or 2, see number 1, but they futzed with the machine first a bunch and they will never manage to get it to sew right because the futzing was frustration based, not logic based.
Now, if you take a machine that's in a similar to the price range that say a 401 was in when new (so let's say somewhere in the $5000 range in today's $$$), even though they're in plastic clothes and certainly not as solid as the 401,.. they're very serviceable machines for what they're designed for. Most can go through a couple of layers of modern dress denim. You're still hooched if you want to go through a pair of work jeans though).
I'm recently certified by one of the biggish names and have torn down $10K embroidery machines. I don't love the plastic inside, but most of the plastic is servos and pulse motors anyway. The majority of the important parts are metal in that price range.
I do agree with Joe that this is a worthy pastime. The more we hone our observation skills, the better the machines we get or sometimes the better the value when no one else bids on them.
Things I look for now that I never did before I got a machine with one of these issues:
Broken hook tips
Missing stop motion set screws
Missing Bobbin case spring screws
The problem with a lot of them is that they're poorly set up from the factory and usually purchased by people who know little to nothing about sewing then fall into 2 categories: dump it without reading the manual but after deciding they don't have the aptitude for sewing, and after breaking a bunch of needles because of poor sewing technique (in which case the timing may be forever ruined). Or 2, see number 1, but they futzed with the machine first a bunch and they will never manage to get it to sew right because the futzing was frustration based, not logic based.
Now, if you take a machine that's in a similar to the price range that say a 401 was in when new (so let's say somewhere in the $5000 range in today's $$$), even though they're in plastic clothes and certainly not as solid as the 401,.. they're very serviceable machines for what they're designed for. Most can go through a couple of layers of modern dress denim. You're still hooched if you want to go through a pair of work jeans though).
I'm recently certified by one of the biggish names and have torn down $10K embroidery machines. I don't love the plastic inside, but most of the plastic is servos and pulse motors anyway. The majority of the important parts are metal in that price range.
I do agree with Joe that this is a worthy pastime. The more we hone our observation skills, the better the machines we get or sometimes the better the value when no one else bids on them.
Things I look for now that I never did before I got a machine with one of these issues:
Broken hook tips
Missing stop motion set screws
Missing Bobbin case spring screws
09-11-2014, 08:42 AM
#20
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 8,091
Originally Posted by Rodney
I didn't think of the bobbin winder. I was thinking a broken belt 9if that machine uses one) might be the problem.
Rodney
Rodney
This particular type of machine uses a hokey bobbin winding set up. There is no stop motion knob like the older machines. When you snap the bobbin winder to the right it disengages the inner hand wheel from the outer wheel.
That's why you can still turn the machine with the hand wheel, but the motor won't turn it. This design is cheap and poorly made as well and can be knocked out of order easily.
Tammi,
I know the better quality machines are better than the WalMart specials, (it don't take much to do that), but I still cannot bring myself to like or even enjoy using them. They are usually noisy and have a cheap rasty sound to them.
I've listened to a few of the high dollar quilting and embroidery machines in use at a sewing machine store that leases a space in JoAnn Fabrics. Ugh, the sounds makes my teeth cringe! And of course the computers inside put them outside my ability too.
However exercising the visual inspection while comparing it to the text of the adds is a useful skill to develop, and that is what I tried to do.
Joe
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