Serger Session 3: Trouble Free Serging

Most owner's manuals and also serger classes leave maintenance as an afterthought. They put it at the very end and nobody really discusses it. But to me, perhaps it was too many years in the air force doing air force maintenance on various equipment and aircraft. I've learned that preventative maintenance is worth its weight in gold. And the more you can do upfront to keep your machine happy the more time you'll get to spend serging and the less time your machine is gonna spend in the shop. So, I wanna show you just a few quick things about maintenance. And the first thing I wanna start with is replacing your needles. And that's another reason I put maintenance up near the front of this video, is because until you really feel comfortable changing those needles you are not gonna be a happy serger because again the stitches are made by the number of threads, the thread path and the number of needles and their placement. So let's get started and I'll show you how easy this really can be. I'm using the tools that came with the machine, nothing fancy, nothing extra. And the first thing that we need to do is change the needle. So that's gonna require the screwdriver. I want to turn my wheel here, so that my needles are in the uppermost position. And if you notice my... I'm gonna open this door here so you can see a little better. My loopers are down as low as they can go while keeping those needles, up high. So it's kind of a, a compromise between where that looper is gonna be, but the key thing is, get your needles up. I'm gonna go ahead and once I cut my threads then I'm going to put that foot down. So I like to just take and pull my thread, my two needle threads. These are the first two, starting from the left, your left thread, your right thread and then your loopers are over here. So I wanna cut those, so I have some to work with and then, I just kind of take a screwdriver or even a pair of scissors and just pull that thread through and out of the way, that's my old thread. That's part of my chain here and as you can see it just pulls right out and suddenly my chain goes away I just have thread. So we've got that out of the way. Now, when you replace the needles, some machines come with a little holder that you can wheel in there and put onto your needle and clamp it and hold it while you undo your screws here. I tend to be old fashioned and hands-on, so I'm gonna show you that method and if you do want to use your needle holder if it comes with it, it's very easy to use and you can just check out your owner's manual and it'll show you how to get in there. I just get frustrated with it and I like to do it the old fashioned way. So I hold on to my needle and we'll do my left one first. And you want to unscrew, there's a screw right above the needle. And you wanna unscrew it just until you can get the needle out. What happens is that screw can come out and you're gonna be searching all over for it or it can get lost in the mechanism. It will come out cause there are some holes in the bottom of your machine where it can drop through, but why? If you can prevent it. So only loosen it enough to get the needle out. Now, these are brand new needles so I'm gonna go ahead and put it back in. I want to make sure that the flat part of the needle is to the back and I just angle it so that I'm in between my presser foot there. And it may be easier if you put it down save a little more room to work and you have to kind of futz with it and hold your mouth just right to get it in there. And sometimes you can even get down to see it and then you will feel it going in. You want to make sure and I usually use my screwdriver and very gently so I don't ruin the needle, press it up and I've got a little window here that I can look through and make sure that my needle is indeed up into the position it needs to be in. I hang on to it and I go ahead and tighten that screw back up and you just wanna go so that it's thumb tight you don't wanna over crank it because you can't strip it and then you're gonna have a hard time getting it out. And then I hold my right needle. And if you replace one go ahead and replace the other. Same thing I would take it out and then when I get ready to put it back in, I just give it a little boost up so that the two needles are even. Look in the window and tighten it. I know that's a little awkward to see with my hand here but I really need it to hold on to the needle. So now, when it comes time to re-thread that, I go ahead and take it out of the thread guide there a little mustache clip and I just pull all my threads, so that's my left one and here's my right one. And I'm setting this up for my four threads. So I go ahead and put that in. This does come with an automatic needle threader. It depends on you and if you like it or not and how well it works on your machine, for the most part I find I can just thread this just as easily without it. So I go ahead and get that one threaded. Come on under the presser foot, but not over my looper. Get that thread out of the way. And we're going to repeat the same thing with the left. Now, again, your machine may require you to thread these in the opposite direction. You need to check your owner's manual and find out which order of threading is right for your machine. With this one, it just doesn't matter and I just like not having to futz with that. So again, lift your foot up. And I find if I hold both sides, I can just slip it under, I've got to get and hopefully we can catch this. I have to get under the foot, but over the knife. See how I'm going over that knife right there. And then I can pull it on back. Once I get it threaded, I wanna make sure that my doors are closed and I usually go ahead and take all my threads, you see how easily they're pulling. Once my foot goes down, they don't pull and I just go ahead and take few stitches to make sure I've got my thread chain. And if you notice I'm able to do this without fabric there you can put his fabric under an ops check it if you want. I find I can just do it without fabric and it works just fine. And then you're, I'm gonna show you here, your needle or your thread cutter on this particular machine is on the side. And I can just cut off some of that excess or if I want I can go ahead and put it up and let her hold it up there. Some of them are in the back, depends on your machine. So that's all you need to do for threading the machine. Now I wanna talk to you about cleaning it. After changing needles, keeping this machine is probably the most important thing you need to know. And one other note about needles, you want to change those after every eight hours of sewing. Don't go any more than eight hours on a needle or typically one to two projects depending how involved the project may be. But watch your time it would be a good full day of sewing. If you hear any kind of a clink-clink-clink, or tick-tick-tick kind of sound, that means that needle is long past time for being changed out. Another good indication that you've gone way too long on your needle is if you start seeing little pulls or runs in any of your fabric or like little flags that is your needle catching and pulling. You want a nice sharp needle. Needles are typically no more than 50 cents a piece. It is your most or least expensive item when it comes to serging, but it will make the most difference in the quality of your serging or sewing for that matter. So let's talk about cleaning. So you want to open up all of your doors and take a good look inside, and I'm going to show you over here first. What I want you to do is if there's a surface in there, a flat surface or any kind of a surface that you can reach, that's what you're cleaning. Cleaning only takes a few minutes and you have an assortment of tools that typically comes with your serger. I've got this one that has the bristle brushes on it. Another option is this one that has the brushes on the end and a little bottle brush on the front. That's good for getting in a lot of the little grooves. Another excellent option is a tiny paintbrush, I use that quite a bit on my sewing machine and it works well on the serger or even a small makeup brush. So whatever it takes to get the job done and you're just gonna come in here and gently go over the surfaces. And the only sewing that this had done was just what you've seen so far in the video. This just came back from service so it is extremely clean but I'm still getting as you can see here, I'm getting a little bit of dust off of that and it doesn't take much thread lengths. Even the serger thread that is a low lint, you will get a certain amount off of it. So you want to clean as much as possible. Make sure you get in here and get your, your foot get all these other little parts catching here really good. Literally anywhere that you can see you want to clean. You can use canned air if you're going to do that. And I didn't bring a can with me cause I use it rarely maybe, every 10th cleaning or if it's really really bad, but I wanna make sure that I'm shooting the air out in a way, not into the mechanism. There's an awful lot of works in here that you can't get to, and that's why you need to take it in for a cleaning and tune up once a year. I don't wanna put that dust in there and pack it in but I can shoot it this way and you wanna shoot a little ways back. You don't wanna just have it in there and give it full blast of air. So that's another trick that you can do for cleaning it. The other thing that you're going to want to do when it comes to your cleaning is your face plate. And again, check with your owner's manual. Your face plate needs to come off and typically it is held on with screws and on my machine, let me turn this around so you can see everything I'm doing. This is my foot and right back here beneath the lifter is a little button and if I press that my foot drops right off. So if I take that out and then I come in here and for this one, I will have to take the screw all the way off. Typically I can just clip this up. I just got it back like I said from maintenance, I am not gonna be able to get this one off today. I don't have the little Allen wrench for back there. Typically it's a larger screw and it looks like they may have replaced it with a screw that uses an Allen wrench, probably to tighten it down a little bit better because mine was loose. But you're going to take this face plate off and that will allow you to take the little bottle brush and get in. Let's say I show you here. It will let you get in where all of the feed dogs are and clean that out and get underneath where your knife is a little bit better. So I'm going to put my screw back in and make sure that my face plate is on, nice and tight because you definitely don't want to sewer that loose, because you can... If the face plate isn't on tight, the needles, when they come down may hit the bedhole instead of going into the hole because it can shift just that little bit. You could break your needles that can also cause problems with the timing and it can also mess up your loopers. So you want to make sure it's tight again, as you can see I just did it finger tight. Just pass that where you feel it being tight. Just give it one more little, 'hmm,' maybe about an eighth of a turn and you know that you're good. So then we're going to put the foot back on. I'm gonna clean in there. A clean machine is a happy machine and I can't stress that enough. You literally can't clean it enough. So you wanna make sure your needles are up. You're going to lift, your foot And then there is a, let me point out to you because this is how most of them are. You have a bar across your foot which is where the hook on the lever is going to come down. And that hook is right there. So we're gonna marry those two up. So I wanna get my thread out of the way. I wanna lift my lever up as high as I can go. And then I just put it in position and make sure that I'm snapped on. And sometimes just like now you have to futz with it a little bit. And I just pushed down on that, that was my little futzing. And now you can see that my lever is on or rather my foot is on. Again, it depends on your machine, that's something you wanna check with your dealer and or your video or your owner's manual and it will show you a little bit better, exactly what you need to do to get your foot on. Now, the last thing that I'm going to show you today is how to replace your knife. Your knife is one of those things that you will know when it needs to be replaced. It's kind like your kitchen knives when it's hard to slice the tomato, the knife probably needs sharpening. If you find that it's not slicing easily through the fabrics, it's time to replace it. I can't give you a good timeline because it really depends on the type of fabrics, the thickness of fabrics that you're going through and how much you're using the machine. I think I replaced mine maybe once a year. So they do last quite a long time. So to get to the knife, you want to go ahead and you can either have this up or down, whatever you prefer. And right now my knife is locked so I wanna go ahead and bring that knife up. Let's make sure that's out of the way. Okay, the knife is up and right here, I have a screw and all I have to do is loosen screw, again, hold your hand under it so that you're not going to lose it in the mechanism. Although you can chase it down, but this one you will have to take off completely. And it kind of depends on if you like to take it out all the way with a screwdriver or not. You can buy magnetized screwdrivers, I don't have mine with me today, but that is an excellent little tool to have, as any mechanic will tell you, because the screw will attach like a magnet to that screwdriver and you won't drop it. So once you have the screw off this knife, let me see if I can get it for. Just simply comes out you can do it with one hand and you're going to replace it with your new one. Since this is a brand and you can see the dirt on there that's what I'm wiping off. Since this is a brand new knife, I'm going to put it right back in. And where it's lining up as you can see, right here, the little hole where the screw went in that's what I'm gonna line the hole of the knife up with. And you wanna make sure easy to do, you wanna make sure that the face of the knife is pointing forward. So we're gonna put that in there. You can see it lining up. You need to... Actually, I'm gonna do this a little differently and I dropped my screw but that's okay, cause I can show you that you can usually find it right underneath. There's a little hole there. So let's go ahead and we're gonna put the screw into the knife first that might be a little easier. Like I said, I only have to replace it once a year or when I'm giving a class. So it's not something that I do too often. Once you have it in position, go ahead and screw it on down. Same thing with face plate. Make sure it's definitely snug, but don't over-tighten it. So I usually will come back just to make sure and then go to where it stopped and then maybe an eighth of a turn more just to make sure it's there. You also don't want to be stripping a screw. So be very careful as you're doing that. That's one you can definitely do yourself, it doesn't have to go into the dealer. Changing the knife is absolutely easy. The other thing that you may have to do is oil your serger, that depends on your manufacturer. Check your owner's manual. This one in particular, I really don't have to oil unless I hear something kinda odd and then I can call either baby lock or my dealer and ask if I need to oil it or not. Typically when you oil any kind of a machine you're looking for any moving parts that rub next to each other. So what I've found is usually if I'm going to be oiling it's right here where my looper is coming up out of that well, so to speak and I want to use a high quality of sewing oil, a very lightweight oil and you want an oiler that has the needle on it. It will make it much easier. You are not going to soak this. All it takes is one drop and you're going to just put it in there where the parts go up and down. You can actually see where I've got that oil there. And then I just go ahead and turn it a couple of times to work it in. And then you can wipe it off with a cloth if you wish. And that's all you have to do. Again a lot of times with these newer machines they don't require oiling because of the type of parts that they're using, they don't rub as much. They use different types of materials. So check and see if you need to oil. The only other thing that you can possibly do on this machine yourself is change the light bulb. It usually requires a special tool that you'll have to buy. I've had this serger for... I can't tell you how many years, probably about 10 years and I've yet to change a light bulb. So if it needed to be changed I would probably just take it to my dealer, although in the maintenance book, it does tell me exactly how to replace it. So if that was something I wanted to do I could like say my dealer's nearby and I would probably just run around the corner and let him take a look at it for me. Mostly because the light bulb is up and back in here and it's just really awkward to get at. So I tend to be a little bit of a fumble fingers and klutz. So I'm gonna let my dealer do that. So now that you've seen how to do the maintenance on your machine it's very simple and there's really no excuse. I recommend as you see the limp building up during a project at least brush it out. Or as a minimum, please clean this machine at the end of the day, when you put your project away it just only takes a couple of seconds and it just makes things go so much better for you. I wanna talk a little bit about troubleshooting. Remember in the last segment I told you that if your doors aren't all closed, all three of them. Are closed and literally tight your machine won't start. So if the machine isn't starting, if nothing is moving that's probably the first thing to check. It may sound simple, but in your book, the first thing they're gonna ask you is are the electrical plugs properly connected. It could be that this plug here is partially loose. So it may just be that you have to retake it out and recede it, which is nothing more than pulling it out and putting it back in, or it may just be part way out so I go ahead and take it out and just plug it completely to make sure. Again, something simple but we're all guilty of it is your power switch on? Go ahead and make sure it's on. A lot of times if you aren't getting power to the machine it could be the circuit that you're using, the wall plug. Perhaps you've blown a fuse, go check your circuit breaker box. And from there, you're pretty much set to go. If your thread is breaking, that can be from several different issues. It could be old thread. It could be cheap thread. And I mean, cheap not necessarily in price, but in quality but typically price is also an indicator of quality. A lot of times we'll get the less expensive thread and it's made with very short fibers as opposed to a long fiber, so it's not as strong it will break easier. Are the needles in properly? If you've got it turned wrong, if it's not straight in with that back flat side against the back, it doesn't take much. It will cause your thread to break. It could be that your needle is bent and worn. What I tell people is the first thing to do is rethread your machine. The second thing to do is change out that needle. If it continues, throw it out and just put in a new one, it's not worth fighting it, it's only 50 cents. Is the stitch selector on the proper settings. So check your selector here and make sure that you're on the right setting for what you want to do. You also want to make sure that the presser foot is connected correctly and that the pressure on the top is correct. You also want to make sure that if you don't have the right needle, if you're trying to do let's say a narrow stitch, but you've put in for the wide stitch, you've put the needle to the left instead of to the right, that can cause thread to break. Or if you haven't followed the thread path properly. You also, when you're serging, you do not ever want to pull your fabric. A lot of people do that with their sewing machine, it makes me cringe because you're putting pressure on the needle, which can cause it to bend and break. You're also not letting the machine do its work and complete the full cycle of up and down to create the stitch. That is magnified on the serger because of all the moving parts that you have and for the speed of the machine. So all I want you to do is guide it, do not pull it. That can cause skip stitches. It can also cause thread breaks. Most of the things that I just told you about that cause thread breakage also cause skip stitches. Some other problems can be that the fabric is not feeding through correctly. Again, are you set up correctly? Is your presser foot down something so simple but I've been guilty of this, especially late at night. I get ready to go and because that presser foot is so low to the bed of the machine, there's just maybe an eighth, just a little over, maybe three 16th of an inch there and it's hard to see, especially at night. And sometimes you think your presser foot is down and you get ready to go and nothing happens the fabric won't feed it's because you didn't put the presser foot down. Again if it's not feeding through, it could be that, that knife isn't sharp so it's gumming up at the front end where the fabric should be cutting and moving through. That becomes a roadblock so make sure the knife is sharp. Lint in those feed dogs, will keep the fabric from moving through. And again, with a high speed that you're going at, you really wanna make sure that those feed dogs are lint-free. Another thing could be the stitch length for what you're trying to do and the thickness of the fabric just like on your sewing machine, if you've got it set at a very, very tiny stitch length, it's just gonna back up and not move. So check your stitch length. Maybe you just need to lengthen it just slightly. And all of a sudden your fabric will go through nice and neatly. And if it's not moving, it could very well be that old face plate that I was telling you about, that you wanna make sure is snug and that it's well aligned with those needles. Always check and make sure that, that face plate, that those needles can go down nice and easy into the hole. Check it here don't do it with the presser foot, with the foot pedal because you're gonna have too much speed and as soon as it hits the metal, if it's off the least a little bit, your needles are gonna break. If your stitches are unbalanced, if you don't like how your stitch looks, and I'm gonna show you what a balanced stitch looks like in the next segment. It could very well be that your machine is not threaded correctly or threaded for that particular stitch you may have forgotten to use a different thread path. So check that and make sure that the stitch selector, again is on the proper setting and that everything is good to go. You wanna make sure that your thread is well seated. You do receive some little inserts for the larger cones that you can put on. And then, if it's just wobbling around too much or it just seems really loose that can determine how evenly the threads coming through. So you may need to add that or put on one of the little firm holders for it. And finally, just take your time and go through your little checklist. Don't get frustrated nine times out of 10 it's something very, very simple that you can correct at home. It's probably not the machine's fault. It's probably operator error and just something simple from the thread to the needle to maybe switchology as I like to call it. So don't be afraid to get your fingers dirty, get in there clean your machine and know the tricks of the trade for what can possibly go wrong. You don't have to memorize it. You've got it right there in your owner's manual. So keep that owner's manual handy and you'll find that you're on your way to trouble-free surging.