Feed dogs
 

Has anyone had a problem where their feed dogs won’t come up? There is a switch on the back of my Brother that raise or lowers the feed dogs. Mine are lowered and switch won’t make them come up. I have had a day today.

I had an issue with that. Found that if I turn the hand wheel to raise or lower the needle just a bit it would work

https://help.brother-usa.com/app/ans...20for%20repair.

Yep. Usually just need to rotate the hand wheel one rotation to bring them back up.

Not helping😩

If the feed dogs were down because you were FMQ - did you perhaps set your stitch length at 0? On my old machine if the stitch length was at 0, the feed dogs would not come up even with the switch. I had to put a stitch length in again. I didn't think it would work that way, but my old machine did.

Have you unplugged the machine and let it rest for a couple of minutes and then plugged it back in? Sometims the brain needs to be reset.

when I turn my machine on it automatically goes to straight stitch and regular length.

yes I tried that too…

The feed dogs on my Husqvarna stay down until I actually start to stitch, even though I have changed the setting button. Maybe it is something easy like that?

Sorry toogie.....when my mothers old 56 or thereabouts Chevy or Pontiac stalled out she would get out of the car and wack some part of the engine and it would run again. Have you tried giving it a wack??

Not yet!-lol
I did take the plates off both machines and get the fuzzies out. Mine was pretty bad but hers just a slight fuzz. I called a service guy my friend uses. He wants $99 to service Nora’s used one time machine and that probably doesn’t include any part to fix it. I will just go buy her another machine off the shelf at Walmart for $150. I can go back to using my old one, but she is heartbroken that hers doesn’t work. I told her I would get it fixed or buy her another machine. I told her I planned on teaching her sewing and about the machine while I was staying with them this week but I don’t guess I will now. She said I did teach her something. NOT TO SLIDE THAT SWITCH THAT LOWERS/raises the feed dogs! I told her you are supposed to be able to change the height as you need to. I told her it should not have broken just because you slide the switch.

When I made the comment above I thought I had ‘told the whole story’. I had a day that day as I said from the beginning. First my machine feed dogs wouldn’t raise so we got Nora’s , my 10 year old granddaughter’s machine out of the box to use. I had bought this machine for her brand new when she was 3 years old. We made a doll pillow and pillowcase then her mom put it back in the box and it has sat 7 years in her closet.
Well, I was showing her how to thread, talking about what each thing is called and I showed her the switch on the back that lowers and raises the feed dog. Well as I was demonstrating the feed dogs lowered but then HERS WONT COME UP! My goodness all I did was slide a switch. Nora was visibly upset. I told her I did nothing wrong. I said that’s why you have the switch and you are supposed to be able to slide it without anything going wrong. I told her I would have it fixed or buy her yet another new machine.🙄 what is the chance of both switches giving out? I could understand if mine was worn out. I sew almost every day but her machine was used one time 7 years ago…..

The mechanism that lowers and raises the dogs probably gave out. Yours is probably a heavy duty spring that popped off. The other machine probably has a plastic mechanism and plastic starts to deteriorate in about seven years. That's why car seats have an expiration date and that plastic is pretty sturdy. After seven years the plastic can crack and break in an instant. Some last much longer but the chance is there.

I have questions.
What model of Brother is this?
What does the manual say? Both the instruction part and the troubleshooting part?

After a quick google, there is a lot of places mentioning that you have to have the needle in the highest position by rotating the hand wheel one complete rotation towards you and then raising and feed dogs and again rotating the hand wheel a complete rotation. Might be worth a try.

toogie, per https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...n-t321075.html you got them both working again, Please tell what you did to finally get them both working.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)

Oh both machines are sewing again! I am so happy!!! I went to YouTube ( my kids and grandkids will be so proud I remembered to-lol) I watched this lady and thought I think I can do that myself. Well I did what she said and got my dogs up. Put my plate and everything back on and went to sew but fabric wasn’t moving through. I guess I got nervous then and called my friends son. He is so smart when it comes to ANY tech stuff. He likes taking things apart and seeing how they work. Well he was eager, because he likes a challenge and never worked on a sewing machine before, so came right over. He took all the plastic off my machine so we could clean all the lint out. This is just a $400 sewing/embroidery machine from Walmart I’ve had about 10+ years and has never been serviced so fuzz was everywhere. We cleaned it all and he adjusted the dog like I had done until it was correct. Put everything back together and I sewed forward backward etc to make sure it would feed both ways. I almost hugged him!!! Then he did Nora’s adjustment with just taking the throat plate off. I bought it to her this morning when I came. I’ve been staying all week with the kids while my son-in-law works because my daughter drove the bus with the church youth to camp. Anyway, Nora’s eyes lit up when she saw her machine back. She is making something as I text. I told her she is doing really well, keeping her top stitching straight, even and close to the edge. Look her at her strap tab for a little pouch she made.
Needless to say we both are extremely happy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVMUwqJbawU

:thumbup: Good for you. Congratulations. I looked at a video about getting plastic machines apart and looked like quite a process. I'm glad you got them both working as they should.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)

I love guys and gals who love to take things apart and know how to put them back together so that they are working. Good job at finding the right help. Have fun sewing.!

I started to say “when all else fails go to YouTube” lol