You were right about cleaning it. Have found that cleaning and oiling everything that moves corrects many things. Sew-Classic.com had the new, solid state controllers that are light and no moving parts. They don't have the old, resistors set in ceramic bases that have nichrome wires wound therein. Best money I ever spent. ISMACS.com has manuals for many machines. Don't know about Domestic though. Have never seen them on Ebay. I bet Cathy has one or knows about the threading. Most are similar, except the left to right and right to left aspect. The flat side of the needle could go a different way. One of the QB experts can help there. It is a lovely machine and the price was low. Good job.