Please help with not stitiching
 

A friend in my charity group broke a needle in her machine. Said she tried everything then brought to group for me to get working. Well oiled /new needle / bobbin area clean / same thread top and bottom but needle goes down and does not catch the bobbin thread to make the stitch. Sounds fine --no idea where to look and no service place close. Really need her with machine as we are a small group.
Machine info -maybe not vintage but thought best place to post --Kenmore 30 stitch model 385-1884180
She 's owned it since new -says very old . Not old to us members.

needle facing direction?

Could be when she broke the needle the machine was also knocked out of time.
Try Steve's suggestion first though. Much easier.
Rodney

I second the knocking it's timing off when it broke the needle. I've done it before on one of my machines. With a little fussing i retimed it. If you're not sure about cracking it open and fixing it yourself then it's probably best to get it serviced.

yup - check the simple stuff first

I tend to get a lot of machines that will not sew a stitch and everything seems to be fine, only to find out they had the needle in wrong. As soon as you put it in right, everything is fine.

I get them needle in wrong, full of lint, thread strung around moving parts, tensions messed over - simple stuff but it all takes time to figure out.

DID YOU TURN THE LIGHT ON? I think that one has to have the light on before it will RUN. Oops, I see yours was running. I didn't read good enough.

....huh...???

Must be a stupid Kenmore - those don't work with the light off.