Laura 17

I had a needle sensor failure alert. Sure enough, thread is snarled in bobbin are. Could not get it out so unscrewed needle plate. The thread is quite short and tightly caught, I can not reach it to dislodge. I am in Hong Kong so there is no technical help here. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Mousie

can you get a long pair of the tweezers that ppl with sergers use? Maybe that would help?
Other than that I don't know.

Stitchnripper

Concur with long pair of tweezers. There are ones that have a bent tip that might work. There are plenty to look at on amazon so you can get an idea

Tartan

​On my regular sewing machine, I use a pair of sewing tweezers and manipulate the hand wheel back and forth I little as I tug on the thread. I don’t know if you can do that with a long arm machine?

Barb in Louisiana

You have to release the pressure of the thread being caught up so tight. I would start cutting it into pieces. Use anything that will let you release it, razor blade, thread ripper or a pair of small scissors with those very sharp tips. Then use a small vacuum or tweezer's to get all the small pieces out of the mechanism. When I have had to do this, I have hade to take the whole bobbin assembly apart. Even a small piece of thread can cause you more problems.

Wonder why it happened in the first place? Are you using the correct bobbins? I have several different machines and have learned the value of buying machines that use the same bobbins. Some that look the same have a tiny size difference that can cause a lot of problems. Maybe a longer piece of thread that wasn't on the bobbin got down there and snarled itself up. Hope this is a one time problem and your sewing becomes much happier today.

Edited to add: I just realized you said a Sweet 16. I think what I have stated still applies, but maybe not. I have a Nolting long arm and when I have had bobbin problems it has been because the bobbins were wound loosely. Rarely do I see thread snarled down there. Good luck with clearing your problem up.

cenpaqltr

Sometimes a little bit of oil and work the hand wheel - this is enough to move the thread to a point where you can grab it.... Good luck!

love to sew

yes, to above replies, try to see if you can move the hand wheel a little bit. this ususally helps me dislodge a bit of thread.

selm

I agree with Barb about cutting the thread. But I would try releasing thread after each cut to minimize the amount of small cut pieces of thread. At some point, after a cut, you will hopefully be able to pull and release the thread.

themadpatter

If you really have to tug on a thread, having a pair of hemostats handy is very nice. The ones I have now are 5 1/2" long, but I preferred my old ones, which were 7" like these: https://www.amazon.com/Fishing-Strai...gateway&sr=8-7
Hong Kong is a very populous place, so I'm sure there must be medical supply stores where you could buy one locally if you needed to.

DACO48

I, too was going to suggest a little oil and maneuver the bobbin. That is what we used to do on the commercial machines.