can this machine be saved?
 

I have a 2 year old Brother 9000. It has worked hard and well for an hour or two each weeknight and up to 20 hours of sewing on weekends. For a while now when I start to sew it takes off with large basting-type stitches. I stop, rip (just takes a pull) turn off, turn on, try again and it's fine. Been doing that a couple of weeks now. Tonight it did that, but I could never get it to fix - kept up the basting stitches. THEN it stopped advancing fabric - just stays in one place and sews.

I've rethreaded top and bottom, taken apart and cleaned, changed needle, feed dogs down then up, turned off, turned on, changed stitch length up and down, and changed tension. Nothing changes.

Now what? I don't even know where a service place is around me that works on these.

Call your local quilt shop. They may be able to point you in the right direction.

Did you take the plate that covers the feed dogs? If not take that off and look very hard between and under the feed dogs. You could have a bunch of fuzz there. I've seen it so thick it looks like a felt pad.

Toni - yes I did. I clean that pretty regularly and even at that sometimes I think I'm making felt - especially when I'm sewing with flannel.

Well, now it works. I did not know that Brother is the same company that makes the copy machine we use at school! :) Tell next time ......

I also messed up the dial (mine is on top) that regulates the pressure of the feed dogs. It got moved to a different number and my brother should be on "3" for piecing cotton.

I have a Brother as well. Can't remember the model # but it did the same thing. It also ran in reverse without my having to push the reverse button. I think something happened in the computer, but I returned it to Walmart and got another one and it has run fine for the past few years. I did call Brother and asked them about it, but didn't really get an answer. You might try that and see what they say.

i lost my feed-dogs the other day on my old bernina. i had turned the dials to "darn". i finally got them to come back up when i reset the dials and manually turned the wheel - is that the name for the part that is on the right of the machine that when turned makes the needle go up and down?

It sounds like the computer is going in it or it has a loose or faulty connection on the motherboard. If you were able to get it to reset by turning it off then on like we do when we reboot a computer that is acting up it is a computer problem. I'm not familiar with the model of your Brother. If it is a higher end one they are worth getting fixed. If it was purchased at a big box store it has reached the end of its useable life. I'm sorry.
The bright side is you get to machine shop!

I remember the first time I did this, too, and had a moment of panic, LOL! We tend to forget on these oldies but goodies that they are not computerized and require the turn of the handwheel, either by hand or by the sewing pedal, to make the change happen. They all work this way to the best of my knowledge.

Jan in VA