Sewing Machine Service
How Often

How often should your machine be serviced? Most home sewing machines have a top steel shaft and bottom shaft that run through steel bushings and they need annual lubrication to prevent them from freezing up (seizing up). The motor works harder to turn the shafts as they dry up and puts a strain on it and other parts in the machine. The motor can burn up, get hot and prematurely wear out the brushes. Newer machines today have a composite washer or felt to hold the oil longer but still needs to be recharged every year. By having your machine service annually you will ensure a much longer life for your machine and trouble free sewing.
When we service your machine we also do a lot of preventive maintenance such as oil and grease all moving parts, power air clean inside, check & adjust belt tensions, belt condition, brushes in the motor, remove any burrs on hook, check needle bar and bushings, presser foot alignment, inspect and clean build-up in gears, check and calibrate tensions, adjust tension release, check needle plate for burrs, check hook timing and adjust, check and adjust reverse, check bobbin winding, check light, and much more. All of this will keep your machine running properly and give you the best sewing experience. Most manufacturers require this to maintain your warrantee. Even though your manual may say it doesn’t need oil that means the operator doesn’t have to oil it on a daily basis, ALL MACHINES NEED OIL at some point. If your manual says it does need oil, it is only referring to what you as the consumer can oil such as the hook one drop for every two whole bobbins but the inside still needs to be oiled by a service tech annually. If you haven’t had it serviced it will break down just like a car without oil!!
Most machines today, the manufacturer doesn’t want the consumer inside the machine because of the electronics and circuit boards. They don’t want oil on the boards and in some of the sensors, ect. Not any dealer can service machines anymore. The trainings that we go to teach us how to make adjustment to the electronic components and calibrate them all. An average machine today has 4 to 5 motors in them that control such things as the zigzag, stitch length, bobbin winder etc, this eliminates many moving parts and makes the machine more reliable and more precise. The new Bernina 830 has 9 motors in it all controlled by the electronics. It is truly the ultimate sewing machine.
If you have embroidery machine the emb. Module also needs to be serviced. We only charge $15 to service the module. The arm moves in the X & Y direction and has two different motors to move it with each arm on a shaft that needs lubrication. There are also gears & belts in all modules that need grease.

Tech Dept.

What’s New & Technical
If you move a module from one machine to
another (200, 730, 430, 435, 440, 630, 640)
you must recalibrate the large hoop with the
appropriate grid (purple for 200/730 and orange
for 430-640).
The module calibration is slightly different on
some of these machines and if they are not
recalibrated when swapped or if the wrong
grid is used the module will not perform correctly
and you may also get error messages.
Some issues that may come up are the machine
stitching in place when in embroidery,
mega hoop designs do not go to the correct
section or embroidery sews in place, the embroidery
foot bumps the edge of the hoop, etc.
Once the machine and module have been
recalibrated the embroidery should function
normally

When removing the thread from an 830 be
sure to cut it at the spool and pull it from
the needle through the machine’s tension
unit. If you pull the thread from the spool
end it goes backward through the tension
unit and could possibly damage components
within the tension unit and threading
mechanism. We have replaced check
springs, complete tension units and the first
thread guide on machines that have had
thread pulled through them incorrectly.

This really should be done on all bernina machines the way they are designed at the take-up lever.

Ron

Many of the new Bernina Quilt Frame owners have questions on loading it as the instructions fall short. I have taken it upon myself to put something together that fill help you until Bernina puts one out. Bernina will have something soon.
1) The bottom rail is for batting and it doesn’t matter which direction it comes off that rail as I leave the ratchet turned off.
2) The next rail is for the top of your quilt and the quilt should come off the front of the rail and I also leave the ratchet off on that one (optional)as friction on the top front rail is usually enought and gives you the chance to reposition it.
3) The top rail is for the backing of the quilt and it does matter how it goes and it needs to come off the top going toward the roll under the machine (upside down of course).
4) The batting lies on top of that and the top lies on top of the batting to form a sandwich.
5) Attach Velcro to the front and back rails and then attach leaders to both of them with the short leader going to the back rail. This gets the short leader because you want to keep this roll as small as possible. Use small flat pins when pinning it to the leader, no heads on the pins!
6) All three them go to the last roll and go under the roll and up from behind. These will get pinned to a short leader that is held down by Velcro. Once loaded engage the ratchets of the front and back rail.
7) If the don’t ratchet the correct way then swap them to the other side which will reverse the way they ratchet.
8) These two rolls ratchet away from each other the back roll to the back and the front roll to the front therefore pulling the fabric tight.
9) The back roll now wants to be just sitting on the machine with no drag. If it is too high the fabric will flag. If it is too low it will cause the machine to move hard.
10) As the roll under the machine gets bigger then you must raise that roll.

See diagram at the bottom of this post.

Another tip is when you run out of space, leave the needle in your quilt and index the fabric back and because the Bernina Quilt frame is so smooth the machine will travel with the fabric and you will be able to start exactly where you left off.

we also have a class coming up in April on the 23rd at 9:30 am for a small fee but you must sign up and pay ahead of time as this class will fill up.

Have Fun
Ron Blake
Cote Brothers Sewing Machines

We have 2 remaining upgrade kits for the bernina 180E to upgrade it to a 185E that will give you a larger hoop with bigger sewfield size and will also allow your machine to take the new giant megahoop. It also has more memory. If you are interested in doing this, give Ron a call for pricing.