Needles maybe

I _think_ I have a needle issue.

Once in a while my Pfaff 130 takes a fit and decides to wrap thread around the spindle that turns the bobbin.

My usual response is to take her down, clean her out, oil the open points, and change the needle. Sometimes that works, sometimes I have to do it more than once and it works.

It has occured to me that I never have a problem when I am using a specialty needle. My general use needles are just tossed into a tin box (in their little plastic cases!) and live there in a happy jumble of brands. Almost all my speialty needles are schmetz.

Am I going to have to start sorting my needles by brand? or am I going to have to call my sewing machine guy for a tune up?

NightMist ever thankful for a sewing machine guy that makes housecalls.

Reply to
NightMist
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Spouse's machine was always failing, the service man showed him how to transform the efficiency by clearing out the fine lint under the footplate.

He hasn't looked back since then.

Not saying this is your problem but it might help someone.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Stop treating your needles like so much trash. Do not commingle needles in fact if you have used them for any length of time as in 6-8 hours of sewing toss them. If you actually think they are still in good condition put them back in the original container. Take a look at this

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Reply to
Ron Anderson

If you sew a lot, buy your needles in bulk. Good quality needles are relatively cheap that way, and you don't feel the need to get every last bit of service out of them. ;-) Look at what the machine cost, what the fabric cost, what the pattern cost (if you use one), and what a needle costs. Toss the needle, save the machine, fabric, pattern, and your nerves.

Reply to
Pogonip

I never put general use needles back in the original container. I chuck them into the sharps disposal tin. And I change them regularly. What I have in a merry jumble in an old maroon tin Singer box are unused needles in their little plastic cases. Somebody has a sale on I get some and tuck them in the box. I want a size 10 singer needle for a project I am sewing on the singer 99, but can only get an assortment that contains a 10. The packet(s) with the other sized needles goes in the tin. etc. etc. I have an old recipe box with dividers for storing packets of specialty needles.

What I am wondering is are all universal needles really universal?

99 percent of machine needles available locally are Singer. If my Pfaff just hates Singer needles, then I can just as well start mail ordering all my needles. I already have to do that for specialty needles anyway.

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist

Actually I have been thinking of starting to do that. For that I may give my service guy the option as he carries some supplies, including needles, in his wife's shop. Universals at least. If he told me he could get me fines for silk and leather needles in quantity at a decent price, I might just kiss him.

Currently ten or so packets of needles at retail would cover what the Pfaff cost me. Another seven or ten packets would cover her introductory visit to the sewing machine guy. I wanted to make sure that that linen timing belt was in good shape (it was). I have been very lucky with finding sewing machines (G) I do know what the old girl would cost to replace though! She is gold and treated as such. Matter of fact I will be going over her cabinet some time in the near future with an eye to tightening it up. It is original and more than fifty years has definitely taken it's toll on the hinges and where they attach.

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist

I agree. Needles are disposables, if they weren't they'd be built in.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Schmetz, Klasse, and Rhiein* are all German made needles and all come in bulk boxes of 100 Universals in size 70, 80 and 100. I save about 7p a needle buying them like this. I also look for the larger packs of Schmetz jersey/knit needles. Almost all my needles come from these three brands as I only buy the others if I'm desperate! I've had to toss a whole pack of Singer needles... NOT a good brand in my book. I use Schmetz in all my old Singer machines without a problem. The only machine I may need to bu6y odd brands for is the old Jones Family CS, which takes a needle size now only used in commercial bartack machines and the like!

*I've only ever seen their needles in the bulk boxes: I believe they make the Bernina brand and maybe also Elna.
Reply to
Kate XXXXXX

Like anything else you get what you pay for most of the time. Schmetz is about as good as it gets for needles. They will work in most all makes of machine, are available in all matter of size and type. I have never like the Singer needles personally but I do not sew I just repair. I without fail use the Schmetz in the European machines, but do admit to using Organ brand for most everything else.

Reply to
Ron Anderson

I've got some machines like that. A Pfaff 360, for instance. It runs like a fine watch, and didn't cost me $50, even having to buy a bobbin case for it. Then there are the Singer 401s, 301s, 66s, 99s, and a precious 115. I'm not crazy for the 128s and 129s, but I have a few. I love the old machines, my husband likes the cabinets, which are really fine furniture - especially in these days of MDF, plywood, and laminates.

Reply to
Pogonip

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