Hi there! I'm new to the board and have some questions about my machine that has been acting up recently. I know this is long but I'm trying to give as much background info as possible.
I bought a Bernina 440QE from a dealer about 5 years ago. The shop still does repairs, but is no longer a Bernina dealer. I have taken it in to be cleaned and try and clean it religiously. He did say last time that I oiled it too much. (?)
I mostly sew on Friday & Saturday, pretty much all day. I like to sew fast, and until I had issues, had the speed bar all the way up. I do a *lot* of free motion quilting with a darning foot. I had started with the BSR, but one I got going and better at FMQ, just use the darning foot.
I sew for a hobby but I also sell quilts part time (I work full time, but would love to be a full time quilter). I've been sewing for 35 years, quilting off and on through then, and been really into machine quilting for maybe 7 years. I got the Bernina to get better at FMQ, because the two machines I had at the time just couldn't do it.
About two months ago I was happily quilting away, heard a THUNK and then stitches would no longer form. The timing was off. I got that fixed and within two weeks, it happened *again*. I was able to reproduce this by sewing at top speed, so i turned the speed bar down a little so even if I floored the pedal, I wouldn't go quite that fast.
All has been well for a while. I did have issues with the machine resetting itself while I was sewing. It would turn off and on, sometimes 4 times in 5 minutes. There was a loose connection.
Now today, it happened again. I wasn't even quilting. I just turned the machine on and prepped to hem my daughter's pajama pants in a knit. I didn't even get halfway around the leg and heard a thunk. The timing is out yet again, the needle hitting the bobbin race. I am experience with working with knits and wasn't pulling.
I'm mostly looking for thoughts. Am I using the machine way too much more than intended? Am I going way too fast all the time? Sometimes things fall off my desk when I get going. Do I just sew to much and have gone over some usage limit?
Am i just hard on sewing machines and need an industrial?
Basically, at this point I need an actual dealer to look at the machine and hook it up to their computer, but the closest ones are 300kms away. That's an overnight trip and planning so it won't happen any time soon.
I'm trying to brace myself for what to expect, because as far as I knew these are top of the line heavy duty machines. At some point I want a longarm, but I'm not ready (financially and space wise) to get one yet, and relegate my Bernina to mostly piecing.