It still amazes me the number of people who don't know to clean their machines.

I never thought about cleaning my Viking. Of course, I had never quilted before. So seven years go by and my sweet machine starts acting up. I take the bobbin area apart...lo and behold, I had enough to lint to make batting for a baby quilt!!! LOL

Happened to me, too!

I have finally gotten in the habit of removing my needle plate every time, I put in a new bobbin of thread. I am amazed at how much lint gets under it. It really is good to clean out the lint.

I bought a new vacuum, used it a few times, and it quit. I took it to the dealer's to see what the problem was. The first thing he did was check the bag. It was full and packed down the tube all the way to the rollers!! I was so not used to a vacuum working that well that I didn't even think about it being full so soon. I was really embarrassed :oops: , but now I check it every time I use it and no more problems :D

I've heard stories of people going in to the dealer and asking to buy another one of those "felted things" that they removed from their machine. Turns out it was just lint, packed in real tight.

A Bernina dealer to me that all machins should be "de-linted" every other bobbin refill. That sure will be hard to remember as I get so focused on the project I don't want to take the time.
Maybe that is why mines been at the hospital for 3 weeks.
Will try to remember also.

When I got my new Viking, the dealer told me to clean out the lint after each day of sewing. I'm not that concientious, but I clean it at least once a week.

note to Brother users: use a good quality artist's flat brush to clean the bobbin area and not the flimsy brush that comes with your machine. my Brother kept throwing an E6 error message and no matter how many times I cleaned the bobbin area and rethreaded the machine I still got the message. let it set a few months and did some research and found the suggestion about the artist's brush. it found a teeny, tiny piece of a broken needle that the machine brush never found in all the cleanings I did. My little Brother runs like it's brand new again. I am one happy quilter again.

I had a customer bring in a new to her sewing machine. Not too much lint, but lots of seeds. We dumped it outside and later I had lots of stuff growing in the garden. Seems some mouse was storing the bird seed in amongst the lint.