Let's face it, sewing machine servicing can be expensive.
And if you're machines not broken, you're probably thinking just like I used to.
Is it really worth it?
What's the point?
Well, in this video, let's take my 20 year old sewing machine.
Let's look at this.
Before servicing and after servicing.
It's not broken either.
But let's see what a difference, if any difference it makes
so we can really compare and see if a professional servicing
is really worth it.
It is delightful to see you.
Here are my sewing friends.
Welcome if you are actually just brand new.
My name's Evan Wood and here on this channel
we talk everything about garment sewing.
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in your mind.
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at the moment we are on a sewing machine type theme
and today obviously is is getting a sewing machine service really worth it.
So we are going to run through a few categories
and have a really good look at my machine here before servicing
different things that are wrong with it.
Looks how it sounds, how it sews, all that sort of thing,
get it serviced and then have a look at it afterwards.
So this machine here is my Brother NX 600 and now I bought this back in
2003.
Yeah, it is nearly 20 years old.
I know that makes me feel really old, but it is not broken.
It sews just fine.
There are a few things but that could be tweaked and we'll get to that in a minute.
But it sounds just fine.
There's nothing broken about it or anything like that, really.
And we're going to have it serviced.
I have this machine does hold a little bit
dear to my heart because I bought this when I was in fashion college.
This is only the second machine sewing machine that I ever owned.
The first one was my birthday present when I was 14 years old
and had that for a number of years. My little Tanami.
I bought this one myself in fashion college at the end
and they sold me through starting my sewing, you know, clothes
for my own business that the markets and then further on down
to sewing starting my own vintage reproduction fashion label.
This is what I got started with and sewing to a client
garments, vintage restorations, not to mention my own wardrobe, of course.
And now even teaches, you know, thousands of students of vintage
sewing school how to sew.
So this machine is very dear to me.
And although it is not currently my main
workhorse anymore, I use my duty industrial for most things.
So this one really only gets used for, say, buttonholes, exact stitching,
that sort of thing.
So it has been a little bit neglected
and it is very long overdue for a proper service.
Now I do do regular maintenance myself and you know, we've got videos
on sewing machine maintenance and I think one coming up on
things that you can do to maintain your machine.
I do all these all the time, but it it does need a servicing.
It's been a very long time. Too long.
Okay, let's get started.
Let's have a look before let's have a look at the looks.
So I didn't actually like prickliness or anything.
This is as it was sitting ready to go into the shop.
So it looks overall, it's in pretty good condition.
It's, you know, as you would expect for a 20 year old machine,
there are little marks here and there.
Mostly my fingernail polish comes off.
They like red stripes,
a little bit of dust in all the nooks and crannies.
And, you know, when you really look, you can see that the dust
in all the parts. It's been a long time since I've taken off this.
This is pretty clean.
But, you know, all in all, it looks in pretty good condition.
And I would like to think that signifies
that the operator, the owner, has taken care of it, too.
Let's look at some broken parts or things that I already know that need fixing.
Well,
my automatic
needle threaded here, this broke probably a decade ago.
And I just never got it fixed.
I remember
taking it in one time to have it serviced and I thought that repair it too.
And I think at the time he said it was going to be like $100
or something like that.
And at that time I was just like, That's too much.
And just threading the needle like manually by myself
is just not a really big deal. So I just never had it repaired.
But I think I'd like to actually
get that repaired and have that needle threaded work again.
My bobbin winder is like so painfully slow.
It is.
Oh yeah.
So the wind up bobbin, I imagine has obviously
just it's showing its age and it's going very, very slow.
So it takes a long time to wind anything.
My knee press on this one.
So one of the selling points for me was this knee brace.
So if you've never seen one of these before, this little gadget sits in here
and what you do is you put your knee here and you actually slide your knee
and it raises the presser foot at the same time. So
yeah, so
it's a little bit squeaky and it tends to kind of not stick in very well.
Like I think some things just kind of a bit,
a bit dodgy with with the knee press and how it sits in.
So that's definitely something that
yeah, okay, let's see how this actually sews.
Now I can tell you a few things already,
in my opinion, already knowing it's a little bit, well, clunky.
So the stitches are fine and it all works, you know, sort of fine.
But it is, it sounds to me clunky.
Let's have a look.
So as I said, stitches are fine.
Just kind of sounds like the bobbins a little loose,
and it just kind of rattles a little bit and, you know, and
sewing it, it probably
doesn't like thick fabric too much, like going over really thick parts.
Maybe we'll do a little experiment with that.
All right.
So we went over some really thick stuff here
and it like it does manage, but it really requires me to kind of push
and really maneuver it in and it definitely didn't sew straight
because it was sort of wobbling around.
And the only other thing with sewing is that it doesn't like reversing
on a zigzag stitch.
Now, I can't say whether that's just
been the case all the time or whether it's just now.
I can't remember,
but that's probably the only other little thing that I've notice about it sewing.
But other than that, it's so it's really just fine.
Like there's nothing wrong with it, right?
So okay, this time, pack up this little baby and it's time
to take her to the sewing machine mechanic and we'll see what happens.
Oh, let me get that one out
and we'll see what a difference
a sewing machine service can actually make.
It's a several weeks later, but I have my little darling back from
the machine repair shop and I am actually really excited
to actually sew with it and see what a difference it has made, if any.
We're going to test it all.
We're going to go through the same categories
and have a look at how it performs and looks now versus earlier.
All right.
First up, looks well,
it's been cleaned up really nice.
So it was very nice.
There is like it's been all rubbed down, even all the little nooks
and crannies, all the bits of fluff and dust and everything,
little fingernail, red stripe marks is a couple of those still,
but it looks really nice, which is really nice, isn't it?
Kind of like
when you take your car to a car mechanic and they wash it for you at the same time.
Oh, you know, you're going back there, right?
Okay. Next is
the broken parts.
Let's have a look.
I remember the needle thread out was one of them.
Okay. We did it in the shop and it worked.
Let's see, I'm a little bit sideways. Hopefully it still works.
It's been a very long time since I've even used this
because it was broken for so long.
Apparently it was just the alignment that was out.
It didn't need a new part at all.
It was just a little bit of an alignment.
Let's see how it goes.
All right.
Maybe I should have got that thread cut of sharpened.
It worked.
Oh, wait.
I pulled the wrong side.
Here we go.
Okay, well, that was really nice to have that option.
As I said, for me, threading it was never such a big issue.
But, you know, maybe it will be as time goes on.
It maybe isn't what it used to be.
All right.
Let me plug this in, because I've got a few more things to test.
Okay.
So one of the other things was the super slow bobbin winder, actually.
He mentioned
that it didn't seem to be anything sort of wrong with it,
had to play with it, you know, just tweeted a little bit about it.
So that might just be the same.
It might just be me being impatient.
Maybe I wouldn't put that past it.
So either way, that's not a big deal.
I'll do that after, since they're all threaded, I think, and ready to go.
What else was there? Oh, the neat dress.
So this was a little bit wobbly, so let's give this a try.
So he did actually say that he's tightened the screw this
he was very technical in explaining where and what it did.
And so it should be better.
But this actual piece here has worn off and so there's play in it still.
So it's never going to be entirely absent, still wobbles, as you can see. So
yeah,
it doesn't squeak anymore, which is really nice.
Be nice for all my videos, that's for sure.
And what about some things that maybe weren't good that I didn't know about?
Well, his analysis of my machine was that
it was very clean and tidy and well kept so good for me,
and there wasn't really anything super wrong with it,
so to say he just gave everything a little tidy up, a clean or,
you know, fluff oil, just tighten all the bits and pieces.
He did say that there was, again, some technical terms about the mechanics,
a little something back here in the back here that was kind of loose
that he sort of had to readjust and tighten.
I think that's why the bobbin was a little bit readily sounds like it.
Anyway, we'll soon see.
And just a general clean and tidy up.
So there wasn't anything really
other than than that.
One thing that was quite funny to note is when he pulled this out
and pulled the shuttle out to look at it, as were there, you know, before,
he's like, What's this? Right?
What does that on the plastic part of the shuttle is?
And a scratch mark from the needle
site not you know what?
He's just joking. Of course.
And so that was rather funny.
So you can't hide anything from a well trained mechanic who knows instantly,
even a tiny little scratch on the plastic part was obviously some day
I did something naughty and it came down and hit everything we had.
Funny, you know, of course it's going to happen.
So I found that quite amusing anyway.
So don't, don't lie to your sewing machine mechanic, because I think they'll know.
They'll know. They'll see through it.
Okay, I'm
just going to leave this as is, and let's see how it sews.
I'll just trust that it's threaded all correctly.
And let's have a see.
It sounds nice. It sounds really smooth.
The stitches look really good.
Yeah.
I mean, this is his little test part, so let's test
the zigzag stitch.
Oh, that's interesting.
And I reversed doing the zigzag even fairly fast. It.
Oh, it actually went over the exact same stitch like it's just double.
I don't think it did that before, that's for sure.
It was always like a mess, like it did this.
The reverse zig wouldn't be over the top of the other one.
That is really nice.
So I think it's definitely had a little bit of an alignment.
Adjustment has made quite a difference there.
Definitely on that zigzag stitch
straight stitch again
yeah, everything
feels pretty good.
Yeah, it's
yeah the stitches look good.
Let's do one more
but let's use the knee brace.
So actually one thing I noticing
I had manually with my hand
lifted the foot up and so it's in the up position
when I use the knee press just now to lift it up and back down.
It went all the way down before.
It didn't do that.
It would still stay in that like it would go up
but come back to the upright position.
This is actually like engaged it to come like to use this entirely
and come back down that is really handy. Wow.
I didn't even know that it was doing that.
It should have been better.
They go,
okay, well, what is my conclusion?
I think it definitely has made a difference.
It doesn't sound clunky or twisted at all.
Obviously that was a very short use, but still in that limited
use, that kind of rattling the clunkiness is definitely gone.
The zigzag stitch in the reversing and obviously the
alignment
adjusted out of stitches has greatly improved,
which is wonderful and it's all nice, clean and tidy and I kind of know
it's in good working order and will last me a long time.
So is it worth it?
Well, for me, yes.
Stephan Ali, it was worth it.
Everything feels better than me, presses better, the stitches a bit more aligned.
I know it's been like worked out and I know nothing inside
is about to break and ruin so yes I was word of a caution with this
the servicing and everything obviously the cost involved
is that well it's worth it maybe for me it is but and looking for yourself
if you have a machine that is possibly
designed to be maintained and serviced.
Yes. For example, your you know, the lower quality, like the lower end, like
the $99 machines are generally not made in a way that are designed to be serviced.
So even Col was mentioning this, we're talking about it there.
So they're just not just like like you can't get into them
to actually do any repairs to them to tighten it.
Like you can't get into all the spaces and you absolutely can't get parts for them.
They don't exist.
And so there comes a point.
Maybe if you're looking at yourself, what whether it's worth it
or not, might depend on the type of machine that you have.
So anything like my vintage Bernina, not like the old older ones,
they are designed to be old, you know, they still get parts for them
all and be able to be serviced and maintained.
That is how they're designed.
So that would be the only cause of concern I think that may be is to consider
system is the servicing
with or not would depend on the machine and what your budget is
and what you're hoping to get out of your machine.
I want this one to last me another.
I think this is 19 years old.
So by servicing it, keeping it clean myself
and then the odd service every few years, it's definitely worth it for me.
I'm greatly improved and cannot wait
to keep sewing some more on this and testing it.
So let me know in the comments down below.
Have you had a sewing machine service and noticed remarkable differences like this?
Do you think they're a magician like I do?
I would love to hear your experience down below as well.
And until next time, sewing friends, happy sewing by.