In praise of the old Baby Lock/Juki BL3 408
 

I rescued a couple of these sergers for a song. One is frozen, which I will work on later this week. The one that wasn't I cleaned up well, threaded (which wasn't horrible once I found the first hole on the lower looper), then adjusted the tensions according to the manual. That little serger did an almost perfect stitch first time running! I then tried a 3 thread rolled hem - very easy to adjust as the manual was very clear. Held my breath and another perfect stitch! Sure the tensions need adjusting a tad but to be able to have success first try? Wow!

I'm so impressed with the ability of this little 3/2 serger!

My friend asked me to fix her BL/Juki 436 a few days ago because it is frozen. She hasn't used it in years! I cleaned out all the fluff and put about 20 drops of oil in the furthest up hole, then oiled all the metal/metal parts sparingly. It groans loudly and turns over very slowly - I'm afraid to push it much, because I don't want to burn out the motor. I've never worked on serger before and don't know how to get inside, or what to look at if I do. Can you give me any suggestions? The only thing I can think of now is taking it to a fix-it guy, and that would probably cost $100 or more. Thanks in advance!

Take the covers off and oil again. Slowly turn the hand wheel by hand until it's turning freely. Oil all areas where moving metal meets metal. I use Tri-Flow for this purpose. If you see rust, you can use a copper scrubber gently or use a paintbrush dipped in a bit of evapo-rust. Usually you only use lubricating grease in a motor. I've also used a thin artist paint brush to get oil into little crevices around the needle bar which helps to unfreeze it.