My Bailey quilting machine's bobbin is plastic, and it starts to rattle when it begins to run low on thread. However, I continue quilting until it runs out. I just know then to watch carefully.

I agree! I think any machine that costs as much as the Brother Innov that I now have, should have a warning light or bell or something. It's ridiculous, using computerized machines, that we can still run out of bobbin thread and not know it!

I wind extra bobbins, however, my Pfaff tells me on my screen when it is close to the end.

Mine tells me, but also a little far in advance, so I turn it off but it also makes me aware of how much I have left and I can usually guess about how much more sewing I can do, than I can turn my sensor back on. On my regular computerized or mechanical I usually find out long after I have been sewing that nothings together.

I have a bobbin case, not a drop in. I can't see when the bobbin runs low. However, when I ask myself "I wonder how much bobbin I have left", I am usually down to a few feet. Initution, I guess.

Mine beeps too but I watch after that and push a little more that it says because it seems to be able to do some more seams. Guess I don't do what it is supposed to be. LOL

My machines are all vintage....I can usually tell because the sound changes, and the bobbin case rattles. Don't find it a major headache though.

Mine tells me, but way to soon. I found at first I was throwing away a lot of thread. Now I keep an eye on it after, it has told me, because I know I have quite a bit left to use.

Mine makes a weird sound like a gentle pop and then the fabric I'm sewing bunches up a little when the bobbin actually runs out....it's a straight stitch machine, a vintage 1941 Singer.

My Bernina #730 gives me a message.
Great feature.

My Pfaff has a light that blinks when the bobbin is low IF you remember to shut the bobbin door! LOL Ask me how I know that one. My other machines do not and I don't recall seeing that feature even in the high end models. I love it. Also love my thread cutter on my Janome, but it does seem to be more temperamental on beginning stitches. I wish I could find a machine with all those features. Having it start dinner and put wet clothes in the dryer for me would be nice too.

I have been buying the prefilled Fil-tec bobbins. I think they have about 3 times the thread on them then you can put on a bobbin. They are plastic and can be reused. I buy the off white, black, tan and grey. If I need to use a color bobbin then I fill my own. I purchase them online from Shoppers Rule...

Good idea. I usually notice within a few stitches that the bobbin is empty, but occasionally it goes unnoticed for a few yards.

This has been an interesting discussion - I never thought to listen to my machine to see if it makes a different noise when getting to the end of the bobbin thread. I will have to do this in the future. I have always just tried to be very vigilant on watching the bobbin; fortunately I have a drop-in bobbin with a clear cover so this is pretty easy to do.

My machine tells me I'm almost out and I stop and check and I'm completely out. Perfect timing.

Ask yourself: Am I less than a foot away from finishing this quilt (or this color of thread)? If the answer is yes, your bobbin is guaranteed to run out any second, but definitely before you are quite done! :D

I have 3 sewing machines and none of them have the courtesy to let me know the bobbin is empty! :-)
I don't really mind though, as my mom always said "could be something worse".

For those that mentioned their machine warns them too early and it gets annoying, you can set it till it's out. It got annoying to me too when it would say something like "there might not be enough thread in your bobbin"

If I"m on a roll I forget to look ( no indicator on my machine). I do try to look at it and when I see it getting low, I tell myself to start listening to softer sound the machine makes when the bobbin is out.

Mine is supposed to tell me, but isn't at the moment, so to the shop it will go. Yesterday, I did a whole row of chain sewed squares - at least 20 of them, before I realized I had an empty bobbin. I hate when that happens!

I sew mostly with a treadle machine...so there are no warning beeps. :shock:
The bobbin seems to rattle a bit when its getting low.
My Sapphire 875 is the only computerized machine I have has a low bobbin warning, but it doesn't always work right. If the bobbin hasn't wound evenly, it will tell me that the bobbin is low, even if I have quite a bit of thread left. I hate that!
Sharon W.

One of my machines will stop and beep when the bobbin gets low. What's annoying about this is I usually have 2 or 3 inches left to sew, and I know there is 9 or 10 inches of thread left on the bobbin. So I hit the "Ok" button, hit the gas, get maybe 2 stitches along, then it stops and beeps again, and won't start unless I either hit "Ok" or replace the bobbin. It gets infuriating.

I don't know what kind of machine you have, but mine is a Babylock Serenade, and I can open the bobbin access door after the low bobbin indicator goes off, and that will allow me to finish off the bobbin. Try that.

Check to see if there is a tiny light on the inside of the door to the bobbin access area. Mine looks like a tiny glass bubble, and the way the low bobbin indicator works, is that light shines onto the clear bobbin, hitting thread. When the thread empties out most of the way, then beam of light can then shine through the clear bobbin onto a sensor behind the bobbin, which sets the low bobbin alarm off. If a thin film of lint covers that tiny bubble light, then it can't shine it's beam of light, and the low bobbin alert won't work. Try wiping it off with your finger, fabric, or a Q-tip regularly and see if that saves you a trip to the repair shop. Certain threads are lintier than others and cause mine not to work. Other threads are fine.

Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately that won't work. The bobbin is the drop-in kind, and I can't open it while sewing.

I have to keep an eye on my seam-----------only warning system I have. I usually figure it out in a foot or two. tee hee