Ar-r-r-g
 

I have been frantically trying to finish some plush ponies for Christmas and accidently ran over too many pins with my Husquevarna AGAIN and threw it out of alignment AGAIN. The Husky is a great machine except for the pin issue which is starting to cost $$$ in shop visits. My fallback is my daughter's low-end Brother, which clatters like an old jalopy, has no torque for thick bunches of fabric and no thread cutter. Last time I shopped for a machine, I only found Cadillacs and Yugos, with no mid-price Toyotas. Does any one have any suggestions for a reasonably priced machine that is still reliable? I don't care about any fancy embroidry features.

I love my Juki TL98QE and Babylock Jane - Had the Juki for 4 years and no service - yet. Had the Babylock for 2-1/2 Years no service for it either - yet. They are straight stitch only machine, all I use.

You have to remember that with any computerized machine you chance throwing the timing out if you hit a pin.

sorry -- but the best remedy is to remove pins before you get to them! it is dangerous and never a good idea to run over pins- regardless of what machine you are using- no point buying a new machine if you are going to continue to do the same thing over & over.

I'm not sure of the model, but Pfaff has a machine on sale through December for $599. If you have a dealer close you might check with them. That seems like a reasonable price and looked like a nice machine when I glanced at it at my dealers. I'm not in the market so I didn't look very close.

Yes you simply must break yourself of the habit of sewing over pins. Very bad for your machine (any machine) and dangerous for you, if you hit one just right and it breaks, it could fly into your eye.

So, true! Happened to me, but I was wearing my glasses, luckily!

Sorry - I'm on the other side of the tracks here - I sew over pins all the time. Worst (fortunately) that has happened to me is a broken needle. I use a Viking Platinum - about 10+ yrs. old. Viking came out with a 'new' machine a few months ago that, if I remember correctly, was relatively reasonable - $800 ish. There have been a couple of threads on this machine. I know member twoxover purchased it and, as far as I know, is quite happy with it. You might want to do a search on her threads to find out the model of the machine. Otherwise, let me know and I'll do some searching for you. Since you already have a Viking.

I bought the Singer 160 Anniversary Edition from HSN about 3 months ago and I love it. It came with a lot of attachments and runs like a top. I paid about $329 if my memory is correct.

Both my Bernina and Viking have never caused me a problem when I sewed over a pin. Now, my Bernina and 40 wt. thread is a different horse altogether.