Well here's me sitting down quite on the spur of the moment yesterday to see about threading up the Bernina 335. Merely pulling the threads through the two loopers and needle (threads left in place by seller), didn't go well as threads and or knots broke, so took everything out and started from scratch.
Several hours and a few hits of gin later, the darn thing was finally threaded, and am here to tell you it was one of the more exasperating sewing chores one has had in quite some time. Know now if one ever purchases another serger, a self threading lower looper is a must. Any who, after all the palaver of threading was done, set out to run test and that is where the fun started. Dang lower chain looper thread kept jamming and breaking. Three thread overlock was fine, just needed some tension adjustments, but that (blankety, blank blank) lower chain looper sent me to seek out the bottle behind the cooking sherry! Nothing is easy in threading sergers and dealing with broken threads, and this was no exception. In order to rethread the lower chain looper, the double chain needle must be unthreaded before hand, then rethreaded afterwards. GRRRRRRRRRRRR!
After several hours of this simply gave up and took to my bed. Do not think the previous owner used the machine as a five thread much if at all. One can find no hand written notes in the manuals on that subject, and can understand why as it seems lots of effort.
Doing some research found out that this problem was so frequent with this model of serger that Bernina stopped making five thread sergers. An aftermarket part was designed but many reported it did little or nothing to address the problem. So does anyone have any good suggestions, tips or hints? Am running low on gin and patience! *LOL*
Candide
"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_