Our April Meetup featured an hour long presentation from Darren of Blow’s Sew and Vac that was chock full of tips on how to maintain our sewing machines between service calls. He gave us so much good advice and wonderful tips it was hard to keep up notetaking.
Here’s the highlights:
Strip To Clean
No not that–we can leave our clothes on. Darren said the best way to thoroughly clean your sewing machine is to start by taking it apart:
- Unplug your machine (safety first)
- Remove the needle (and throw it out unless you just put it in recently)
- Take off the pressure foot
- Take out the bobbin case
- Remove the bobbin hook (the part of the machine where the bobbin case snugs in)
- Take off the top plate (the metal plate surrounding the feed dogs
Clean out the lint
Use the brushes that came with your machine to sweep out all the felted lint and loose fuzz in and around these parts in the machine.
Swear off Canned Air!
When you’re cleaning out the lint and fuzz under your foot plate and in your bobbin can, do not give in to the temptation to spray it with canned air to speed up the process. The high pressure air forces the lint into the machine case where it can come into contact with the electronics and not only interfere with the machine’s sensors. It can make its way onto the circuit boards and cause them to short circuit. Don’t believe? Take a look at this photo of a board Darren pulled out of a machine — see the scorch marks and melted bits? That’s from lint hitting hot components.
Vacuuming is ok
Darren said that while blowing air in is bad, sucking air out if good. Get your vacuum out and suction out any loose particles of lint from the bobbin area.
Carefully clean the crevices
Darren was kind enough to give everyone in the audience a spudger (yep that’s what it’s called) to clean out all the crevices of the bobbin case and hook. You can buy them in hardware stores. (Here’s what one looks like). Even though the bobbin assembly may look clean to your eye, you’d be surprised how much schmutz is caught in the tight spots. The spudger is plastic and can get into all the tiny crevices.
One drop of oil is enough
Even no-oil machines still need oil. Put a tiny drop of sewing machine oil on the bobbin hook and smear it on with your finger, removing any excess. The components of the bobbin assembly have to move smoothly together without friction so a little drop will facilitate that. The second place you can put a drop of oil is on the bobbin plate (where the bobbin case sits).
Use good oil
Machine oil should be clear, colorless, and hardly oily to the touch. If it’s brown, cloudy or sticky, throw it out and buy a new bottle.
Look for Part 2 of Darren’s advice on sewing machine maintenance next week.