Anyone with Sewing Machine Diagnosis and Repair Knowledge here? - Solved! Thanks

#1

I have a Janome 419S sewing machine but seems to have a couple of problems with it.

Recently made a bag on it, sewing through multiple layers and broke a couple of needles in the process, some of which deflected through the material and hit the stitch plate leaving little marks which I assumed to be the cause of the thread snapping.
I hit this with my dremel followed by a needle file and fine grit sand paper but still having the same problem of snapping thread when making some pillow cases, it manages maybe 10-15 revolution then snap…

There also seems to be a problem with timing somewhere or another as it happened that I managed 10cm ish or sewing without the thread snapping only to find the latter 8cm had about 1 stitch every 2cm…

Have been pondering taking it all apart and putting it back together but chances are it won’t fix anything so would rather not waste my time…

Anyone had a problem like this before that could help out? Can reward you for your time!

#2

Heavy materials/multiple layers can be a bit of a test for a domestic machine, though the Janomes are solid little units. Were you using suitable needles? Also, are you letting the machine pull the material through, or are you trying (maybe subconsciously) to push it?

The damage to the plate shouldn’t be an issue as all the action with the thread occurs underneath.

Without being all “have you tried turning it off and on again” I would double and triple-check you are threading top and (especially) bottom correctly. It’s easy to miss one corner somewhere and it sort-of works but gives poor results. Oh, and remember the presser foot must be up when threading…

Tension problems can cause your latter issues but for pillowcase type projects everything set to auto should work well.

#3

I’m not an expert, but I have managed to resurrect my Brother machine which had some weird timing issues. In that case, the timing was wrong (and so the needle kept hitting the bottom hook), and also it was insufficiently lubricated so the bottom part was sticking slightly when it went back which led to the timing fluctuating quite a lot (which added to the intermittentness).

I’d start by re-calibrating the timing then giving it a good lubrication in the correct places with machine oil …

1 Like
#4

Yes to suitable needles.
There were points where I’d hit a point in which it needed a little push - where hit an extra 2 layers in the case of side pockets.

Has definitely seemed better since filing the plate as it was pretty scuffed, few sharp bits but perhaps I’m just justifying energy spent haha!

It was about 6 months ago that I finished the bag, have tried using it so many times since, and thus threaded so many times with different threads that I don’t think it could be a threading problem.

And yeah, everything auto and still giving me grief…!

Thanks for the reply.

#5

Thanks for the reply, will definitely give that a go, found a hopefully suitable wikihow on timing.

#6

Does it still do the thread snapping when you operate the needle manually?

#7

Thanks for the advice, a timing and oil seems to have sorted it!