Hurrah for those of you who regularly maintain your machines, a stitch in time and all that!:D

How come some people don't have to oil and some do??

That is so funny!! The other day a friend of mine (& quilting mentor) was helping me and I was using her older machine. She wanted me to test it out and get used to it before I started sewing on it. So I sewed a little, I was going fast and slowing down trying to get a feel for the foot pedal. Well I decided I was done but the machine kept going! I yelled for my friend and when she walked into the room I had both hands and feet in the air and the machine was still going! She said the foot pedal just got stuck because it hasn't been pushed that far down in a while!!!

Some of the newer machines have sealed units that supposedly need no oiling. There are only 3 spots on my Pfaff serger, but it still scares me since I am used to oiling the old ones. :-)

I change my needle with every new project, same with oiling even though I should do that more often.

I change my needle at the beginning of each new project, I use a baby food container to keep dull but not broken needles in (for emergency situations). Oil every other bobbin, clean lint and thread at every bobbin change.

On my mid arm-oil every other bobbin, needles at the beginning of each project, sometimes in the middle of a project if I notice the thunking when stitching, clean at every bobbin change and a deep clean at the end of each project.

Had my dsm in in August, and the service tech said he was surprised that there wasn't any cleaning needed.

Juki - needle changed after every full/queen quilt, or after two lap quilts ... oiled and cleaned religiously before starting a project (or as the manual recommends)

Singer (circa early 1990's) - I probably don't change the needle as often as I should. I do clean and oil it fairly regularly. It's not a picky machine at all. In fact, it's never even been cleaned professionally, and it still works like a dream. (DH does take it apart and clean it every once in awhile, but technically he's not a sewing machine repairman.) :)

I change the blade on my rotary cutter when it starts getting hard to cut or starts skipping.