Hey everybody, it’s Rob from Man Sewing.
And in today’s quick tip we’re going to talk about cleaning out and reassembling the
bobbin area in a drop in bobbin sewing machine.
That’s right.
So many of today’s sewing machines have gone into the top load or drop in bobbin format.
And it’s very convenient and very easy for you to see when your bobbin is running low.
But they do tend to build up more fuzz inside.
No problem.
Easy for you to clean.
But what I find from some of my quilting buddies is they have a hard time reassembling all
the parts and pieces.
So I’m going to actually spend most of my time showing you how to put it back together.
But we are talking about a drop in bobbin assembly here.
And a couple of quick things about safety.
Now of course I don’t do this at home but I’m going to tell you to do this.
Unplug the sewing machine so you don’t stab yourself.
I’m going to take the needle out.
I do actually do that one.
So let’s get in here.
The needle is now out of the machine, ok?
The machine is unplugged, powered down obviously.
I’m going to also now take the presser foot off.
We’re going deep into this area here in a few minutes.
It would be a wise choice for you if you’ve never done this before to pay attention to
what you’re doing right now because you’re going to be reassembling this stuff.
But I took the presser foot and the entire shank off.
That’s mostly just so I have the room to work.
Now check out this tool.
Many of you probably have this thing in your tool box and have no idea what it is.
Like you’re frustrated because you thought it was a pair of earrings but you only got
one.
That’s only good for guys like me that have one earring.
It’s not an earring at all.
It’s a screwdriver of all things.
So what this does, is it drops in right here.
And it’s designed to get these very wide and beveled screws out.
And I don’t like scratching my screws if at all possible because that could cause drag
on your fabric.
So I don’t know if you noticed but I basically broke them loose and then I took them out
with my fingers just by spinning them.
So I’ve got a couple of screws that are coming out here.
Set that aside.
I’m going to open my little bobbin door.
I’m going to take the bobbin out but we certainly could get it out in a few minutes
if we needed to, right?
Now all of these drop in bobbin machines are similar but also different.
This happens to be a Baby Lock that I’m working on right now.
And so the stitch plate and the bobbin cover area are going to come off in one piece.
I’ve seen them come off in two pieces.
Again you know this is also probably going to be information in the maintenance section
of your owner’s manual.
So if I remember correctly, this one I just kind of pick at it from the back at first.
And I’m going to wiggle these two parts loose here.
See how easy this is.
I actually have been playing with it a little bit so I kind of left this loose for us there.
So they’re going to come out in two pieces.
Now we’re going to do some inspections because we’re checking for things that will cause
frustration and problems down the road.
So first thing I’m looking at is in my stitch plate, that cool little half, that’s a frowny
face.
Let’s turn it upside down for now.
Now it’s a smiley face.
That little smiley face opening is where the needle goes through so I’m looking to see
if I’ve ever hit it with the needle and left a little burr.
If I’ve gotten a burr inside of there, I want to take a little screwdriver or a nail
file or something and just kind of soften that and smooth that as much as possible.
Burrs in your stitch plate will catch thread and possibly cause your thread to break.
Now as we’re getting in here closer, the next thing that comes out is your drop in
bobbin, bobbin case.
And some machines you actually have to turn the hand wheel a little bit as you’re wiggling
to take this piece out.
This piece also comes out.
And I’m inspecting again for needle strikes.
These pieces are usually made of a real high density plastic.
But the needle will pierce right through and that will cause your thread to hang up.
The common places, if I can hold it just right, are going to be right in here as well as right
in this area here.
You might see little holes where the needle has pierced.
And if that had happened, you can often see that from the back as well.
I take the top side and I use my fingernail just to push that plastic back together.
I don’t replace it until it becomes problematic really.
Now come on over here in close.
What we’re going to start doing, is I have one of these little nylon brushes.
You can see this is well loved.
And I’m going to start getting some of the fuzz and dust out of there.
Look at all that stuff that’s coming out of here.
I mean it’s just huge, right?
And this is just a machine that is often well cared for and often maintenance but with these
drop in bobbins we get a lot of fuzz that builds up inside.
So I’m just kind of wiping as I go when I’m rotating the hand wheel as I go.
And I’m just kind of cleaning around.
Now one of the things I don’t ever do is I don’t use those cans of spray air.
The cans of spray air are actually CO2 propelled.
And after every three or four bursts, it shoots moisture in there.
And so funny enough, you don’t want to spray that moisture into a camera, a computer, or
a sewing machine.
And the only places I know to buy that spray is a sewing store, a camera store or a computer
store.
So I’m recommending you don’t.
But if you want to take this outside and take the giant air compressor that’s out in the
garage in your other workshop, right?
And blast it with an air compressor, I am cool with that.
So I’m going to go ahead and take another couple of minutes and inspect and clean as
I go around here.
Some of your machines will say you should oil, some will say you shouldn’t.
I’m not saying a thing about that.
I have my opinions of course.
Cleaning all of that.
Now here comes what I consider to be a little bit more of the tricky part, putting it all
back together.
Now on our drop in bobbins, there are going to be sometimes little markers.
Like on this cool Baby Lock, there’s a little white arrow you see.
That white arrow is going to line up with a part.
This little nub is going to line up with a part.
So as I bring it in here close.
Try to do this slow for all of us.
Get some of this fuzz out of the way.
I’m going to lay this in with my hands in your way.
And then I’m going to show you what I’ve done.
So when you’re looking real close, the white arrow on this is lined up with the white dot.
So there’s a dot and there’s an arrow there.
And then that nub I was pointing out goes against this little spring.
That little spring is actually what is considered a position finger.
Your thread will come through there.
Funny enough.
That’s actually what makes a little bit of noise.
Your machine will run quiet, almost silent without the thread in it.
You thread it and that spring going boing, boing, boing, causes the noise while you’re
making a stitch.
Right now this is very loose because the back end of the stitch plate here has got a locking
mechanism that is going to hold that in place.
You do not want your bobbin case moving around at all.
Oh that’s not fair, it’s going to have just a teeny bit, like a two or three degree
of play in there.
Like it might move this much.
But it’s not going to really spin.
If it really spins you do not have it set in there correctly.
And that’s how you’d poke it with your needle.
Once you’re sure that you do have it in perfect though then on this particular machine,
a lot of times both of these parts come out together but they go in individually.
So we start with the metal.
And the metal is going to drop back in here.
And now the cool thing about the metal, and I should have pointed out, I’ve dropped
my feed dogs.
I lower the feed dogs when I’m working on the machine this way.
It keeps me from scratching the feed dogs or scratching the stitch plate.
And these little screws here, let’s see if I can do this, have a little bevel to them.
And so I put in both screws at the same time and I finger tighten them until they’re
both in place.
The bevel helps cause that metal plate to really get lined up perfect so that your feed
dogs are not dragging on your stitch plate.
So I’m just going to finger start that.
And the reason we finger start things is we don’t, we don’t want to strip out the
screw heads.
If you start using a screwdriver, you can apply too much pressure.
So that’s why people always say, Oh just finger tighten it first.
There we go.
Now that I have it finger tightened, then I get my earring with its missing companion
here.
And I start to tighten that up.
I’ve tried to position the machine so it looks just like it looks for you which means
I’m working backwards here.
And I’m getting better and better at it all the time.
But it does make me feel like I’ve got three left hands.
There we go.
So that’s locked in.
That’s not moving at all.
Now we’re going to be able to bring in our bobbin cover.
And on this one, it kind of sets in the front of the machine and slides towards me at the
back of the machine now.
It would be sliding away from you because you’re sitting at the machine.
At this point, I’m going to quietly listen, making sure I’m not hearing anything weird
happening at all.
And then I would be replacing this with a brand new needle.
And I often have a hard time getting the needle in from the back of the machine.
So let’s see how we do here.
Cross your fingers.
Oh, and almost like I had been practicing that.
And now I’m going to go ahead and rotate and listen again.
And I want to make sure I’m not hearing a twang, twang, twang sound which means my
needle is hitting something because I’ve been working around in there.
I don’t ever want to hear that needle hitting anything.
Once that is all locked back in place though it’s as easy as: get your bobbin back in,
get your foot back in, get your iron heated up, get your rotary cutter sharpened, get
your fabric all chosen, and you are ready to be making a killer project on your newly
cleaned out sewing machine.
And while you’re busy doing that, I’ll be making cool stuff for you here at Man Sewing.