Quiltingboard Forums - Should I overhaul my Singer 401A or purchase a Janome 2012?

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If you really want to quilt, one thing you should give serious consideration to is the harp size of the machine. I believe the 401 has a larger harp than the Janome.

The 401A is a wonderful machine. What makes you think it needs repaired? If it hasn't been used for awhile it needs to be oiled good. The manual has good instructions for oiling. My 401A is 53 years young and still humming along. You have jewel there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by piepatch (Post 5597913)

What needs overhauling on the 401 to the extent of $179.00? My 401 never needs anything but cleaning, oil and lube, and you can actually do that yourself. If you take it in to be serviced, it usually doesn't cost more than $75.00 in my area.

The needle bar is sloppy, skipping stitches and the thread is looping under the fabric.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigigigina (Post 5599972)

The needle bar is sloppy, skipping stitches and the thread is looping under the fabric.

Skipping stitches/thread looping might be cured simply by a good, thorough, down deep cleaning of the bobbin area. Also, running dental floss back and forth through the tension disks has been known to clean them out a bit without having to disassemble the tension knob.

The needle bar is supposed to have sideways 'give' due to the designs offered by the cams and knob settings but an overly 'sloppy' needlebar might require taking a closet look inside to make sure a screw or two hasn't backed off a bit.

Too bad you're so far away from me otherwise I'd take a look at it.

Shari