Originally Posted by DogHouseMom

How many times have I read all the steps one should go through when there is a *problem* with the machine? It's been seared into my brain from reading the posts (and ahem ... contributing) again and again and again. But did I practice what we (I) preach?

There must have been a bad spot on the bobbin wind and the machine gave me a ka-chunk and rewarded me with spaghetti on the bottom. No problem, snip, remove bobbin, check, go.

Two stitches and had problems again but now the symptoms are worse. Loud noises, seizing, needle refuses to move - etc.

Removed the whole bobbin case, gave it a thorough cleaning, changed the needle, changed the bobbin. Still having serious problems with the machine. Basically I did everything EXCEPT that one all important step.

We have a problem with the bobbin so we concentrate on the bobbin area don't we?

In a state of panic that my beloved Janome was on death's bed I called the dealer and the FIRST thing she asked was ... did I re-thread the machine.

Well of course not!! I'm not a "rookie", I'm an experienced sewer I knew the problem was in the bobbin area so I concentrated all my efforts on the bobbin area now didn't I?

Rookie mistake number 1. Re-thread the whole machine you dope. When the machine hit a bad spot on the bobbin and 'choked' the thread jumped out of the UPPER tension discs and the machine will continue to seize no matter HOW clean and pristine that bobbin area is.

Will I make this mistake again?

probably :)