Plain and simple, my serger is possesed. If it had teeth I swear it would bite me. Its a White 1300 DE impulse purchase. Had I known I could pick up a good used premium machine for the price I paid for this one new I would have. ( Hindsight is always 20-20 aint it?) I cant keep the tensions right, the left needle thread will not even stitch into the material. I have re-threaded it more times than I care to think about. New cones, new needles, a trip to the shop to retension clean and oil. $120.00 later, works fine for a week then back to the same trouble. My journeys with this thing have been nothing short of a massive headache. I'm just about to go buy a Huskeylock or Babylock. Any suggestions? I need to buy a good used one as I only have about $800. to spend.... In the mean time, say a prayer, or send an exorsist....
I have a Huskylock 910. It WAS a VERY GOOD machine, but I wore it out on more and heftier projects than it was really designed for (remember that I sew for customers). I liked it for the free arm and the stitch quality. I now have a new Brother 1034D, which has the free arm and is a great little machine. I'm about to buy a Bernina 1150MDA as a workhorse machine: it's in the same price/quality bracket as the Huskylock, so beefier than the Brother (which I bought to replace my Toyota serger that had no differential).
My experience is that the Huskylock, the Bernina, the Toyota and the Brother all do exactly as they say on the tin, and are worth their prices. Don't expect a cheaper, lighter machine to stand up to sewing plate armour - they really are domestic and for lighter use than I usually give them. My Brother will be the secondary machine, bought primarily as a back-up for when the Bernina will be in for servicing, and for occasional porting (I take the sewing room with me on holiday!) and free-arm use. The Bernina will be my main on-the-bench machine for the bulk of my work.
Be aware that *here in the UK* Husqvarna's after sales service is not as all singing, all dancing as it was five years ago, due to major management shuffles. Nor is Toyota, at least for dealers: they seem to do better for customers who contact them directly! Brother seem to be pulling all the stops out to please their customers, which is good to hear after some of the disasters that have hit this group's members in the past. Bernina are just carrying on with their usual high quality merchandise and service, with the occasional hic-up, much as usual for the past umpty-ump years, so no worries there! :)
If at all possible, try before you buy: you may find a particular machine suits better than the one you first considered.
Thanks Kate! As usual, you are a wealth of info which is sorely appreciated! I MAY have found the problem. If this is it then it is my own silliness. After going through the manual ( LOL, RTFD) I may have the wrong needles in it. I was using Schmetz Universal 130/705 H 15x1 H 80/12. What the OM calls for is HA x 1SP or HA x1 (130/705H) My question... is there a difference between the H and the HA?
It's quite likely that if this is an older, pre-loved serger, that it uses something normally found on an industrial machine. The Huskylock and other modern machines use the standard 130/705 needle. But order some of the ones in the manual and try them: if they work, you know to use the right ones, and (possibly!) keep some in stock to use this as a back-up machine for the new one! ;P
Hm... Years since I used a Babylock in earnest, and I don't remember changing the needles. I got a standard pack of Schmetz with the Huskylock 910 in 1998, and with the pre-loved three thread Toyota I had before that. Same with the newer Toyota I got a couple of years back (which I swear had been in a shop window and never used - the dials were faded in one spot, and all the kit [including the dust cover] was still sealed up in the bag, but it had no box!), and the brand new Brother.
The only machine I have that uses odd sized needles is my 1909 Jones Family CS, which uses a needle now usually found only in industrial bar tack machines! Maybe that White machine you have was made by Babylock, which is why they have a common needle.
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