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sewing

Changing of the... needle!!

Carla Burke

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You thought I was going to say 'guard', right?

Ok, all goofing aside, I'm super frustrated. One thing I have never figured out is how often to change the needle on my machine. I don't sew all that often (though it's something I need to push forward in my priorities!), and rarely for very long. Last year, I took my machine in for servicing (something I REALLY need to learn to do, myself, anyway!) and when I picked it up, and asked what was making it misbehave so badly, he said, "You need to change your needles more often."

Ummmm... ok... So, HOW OFTEN?? He told me every couple of hours, more, if I'm sewing fabric that loses fibers quickly, or heavy fabrics - but, I don't sew for hours. I sew for a few minutes here, a few minutes there... Every once in a blue moon, I might sew on and off for half an hour to an hour. The only way I can figure out, to track it, is maybe with a stop watch, & a running time tally on a note pad. But, I know me - is a habit that will be hard to create, simply because I sew so inconsistantly - both in frequency and fabric type. In the meantime, guess what... yup - its jamming up, again. It was fine, the last time I used it - 4 months later, I went up to use it again, and... Ugh. At $65 a pop, this is ridiculous.

Help! How do YOU decide when to change the needle?

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James Alun

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I change it every time the damn thing stops working properly after checking tension and thread routing.

In theory I change it when I change types of fabric.

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Pearl Sutton

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I change needles if I change heaviness of fabric (not type) and other than that, I change maybe once a year unless I break them. I tend to use a medium sized needle (12 or 14) all the time unless I'm doing something much heavier or lighter than normal.

I would put effort into learning to clean and oil your machine and keep the tension right. I have never had a needle make the kind of errors you are having. Personally, I'd question the advice you were given pretty hard. Might be just me and my world, but that doesn't line up with my experience at all.

To me "fabric that loses fibers quickly" means "look for crud in the feed dogs" not "change the needle."

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Judith Browning

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Ditto all of the above from Pearl and James.

I have a 1950 Franklin that uses singer needles and I can always find some partial pkgs in the sewing section at our thrift store although even new they aren't much...less than $5?

I love to sew fast so occasionally break one and that seems often enough to change it other than different density fabric.

Did you mean your needles are $65?

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Judith Browning

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I've had fabric fibers/dust/fluff gather both at the feed dog as pearl mentioned and under and around my round bobbin case...both can cause problems with stitching.

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Pearl Sutton

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Judith Browning wrote:
Did you mean your needles are $65?

I think she means the shop charges her that much every time the machine messes up and has to go get fixed.

K Kaba

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I had a 90s Singer that I used mostly for repair work. Every year or two it'd start with the oddball tension issues (bobbin barfing, reverse stitch messes, etc) whether or not I'd been using it much. According to the repair gent around here, it's an issue with machines made with plastic innards as opposed to metal innards. The plastic ones just reach the point where they have to be tweaked from the inside more often.

My current machines are all metal insides. They get a little sewing oil and a blowout now and again, but they've never had the same sort of issue.

A needle swap is fairly easy to do if you're wondering if that's the answer. Try it, and if it doesn't help, just put the old needle back on.

r ranson

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I noticed that changing the needle fixes 90% of non-fire problems on a sewing machine.

My grandmother taught me to change it at the start of every project and even though she was Depression raised and frugal enough to wash out bread bags and reuse them about 20 times before they fell apart into the food, she would never skimp on needles.

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Jay Angler

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Do you have an air compressor? Since you seem to have a sensitive machine, I'd consider blowing it out with a compressor after using it, so the dust doesn't sit there and absorb the oil and then get sticky, but not having seen the machine and the symptoms, that's just a guess.

Definitely, using too fine a needle on too heavy a material can cause the needle to flex. If it hits part of the bobbin mechanism, it can leave a rough spot that will catch the thread. I was taught to test for this with a cotton swab. If the cotton on the swab seems to get caught, I would take a bit of emery cloth, and gently rub the area, then test again, and repeat until it was completely smooth.

The flex issue can be worse if you tend to either rush or hold back the fabric, rather than simply guiding it while letting the feed-dogs set the pace. Unlike Judith, I'm not aiming for speed, which is good because for some reason, my current machine really doesn't like speed. I've learned to slow down and not 'push the peddle to the metal' but just dawdle, as my particular machine is much happier and less likely to bugger things up.

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Anne Miller

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I change the needle when:

I break the needle,

When I change fabrics,

When it seems dull as in making a mess of the fabric ...

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Carla Burke

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Judith Browning wrote:Ditto all of the above from Pearl and James.

I have a 1950 Franklin that uses singer needles and I can always find some partial pkgs in the sewing section at our thrift store although even new they aren't much...less than $5?

I love to sew fast so occasionally break one and that seems often enough to change it other than different density fabric.

Did you mean your needles are $65?

No - sorry for the confusion. The servicing was $65

Carla Burke

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This I *should* have mentioned, in the OP:
This is a purely metal, mechanical(no computer), heavy duty Janome, built for heavy weight denim, canvas, etc. It ran beautifully, the first 3 years I had it. I can't help wondering if I've somehow skewed the tension. The mess is always on the underside, sometimes jams the bobbin(yup, I've double & triple checked it, to make sure it's in correctly). I'm not new at sewing; mom started teaching me when I was 9 or 10, then I took sewing in junior high - yup, I'm 60 yrs old, and was in school when they still taught home ec. Unfortunately, the first three machines I had turned out to be lemons (2 given to me free, because they didn't work right, one bought at a garage sale, from someone who admitted she wasn't sure where the needle was supposed to attach, who also bought it at another yard sale, lol.)

I just apparently need to learn how to do the deeper maintenance on it, myself - more than just blowing/ brushing the dust out & oiling it. Thank you all for your help. I just knew that guy was being too ambiguous. You've inspired me to bite the bullet & learn the real workings of my machine!

Judy Bowman

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I agree with James, Anne and Pearl. Almost all stitch and tension problems can be traced to 1) improper threading, 2) improper needle positioning. I bought a Singer Featherweight from a lady for $50. I questioned her repeatedly about the price because I felt so guilty. Got it home, turned the needle 180 degrees to the proper insert position and the little thing sews like a dream.

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Randy Butler

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Wife does the sewing - mostly quilting. I get to do the maintenance!
She has 3 Janome machines for different project types - including one small one for transporting to classes. We've "tuned" all of them but only rarely.
First, please DON'T use a compressor. What little dust bunnies you have growing under the needle plate will respond much better to a good vacuum and small soft brush.
Your thread bunching on the bottom side sounds like a tension issue. Try opening the needle plate, pull the bobbin housing and vacuum everything you can reach.
There is a good video online (don't recall exactly) showing how to test the bobbin tension. Once that is set, then you can adjust the thread tension.
She changes needles at the beginning of every project. The rare occasions when I sew, the machine starts "ticking" more than usual - that's my clue to change the needle.
Most Janome machines take just one or two drops of oil on the wick.
It's a pain, particularly as you sew intermittently, but try to clean the machine before you sew and you may well avoid future visits to the repair shop.
Good luck.

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Anyone know what wears on the needle that fast?? Does it just need sharpening? Does the eye get rough?

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Carla Burke

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Thanks, Randy! I plan to put all of everyone's ideas to the test, very soon. I have a few cabinets that hubby ordered "full assembly required", and one of my own(a for my serger), and once all these builds are done, I'll be cozying up to my recalcitrant Janome, to see if she'll share what's troubling her, and how I can help.

Carla Burke

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C. Letellier wrote:Anyone know what wears on the needle that fast?? Does it just need sharpening? Does the eye get rough?

That's just it - the needles don't truly seem like they're the problem, which is why it seemed like I was missing something about when to change them - especially since they're all new, good quality needles. I'm going to try all the other suggestions, and see where it takes me.

C. Letellier

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Carla Burke wrote:

C. Letellier wrote:Anyone know what wears on the needle that fast?? Does it just need sharpening? Does the eye get rough?

That's just it - the needles don't truly seem like they're the problem, which is why it seemed like I was missing something about when to change them - especially since they're all new, good quality needles. I'm going to try all the other suggestions, and see where it takes me.

I just have trouble believing a good steel needle will fail that fast. Now some other possible if it us crud down inside the bobbin area can we vacuum it away. For baler needles they put a fan on but I don't know how to that in a closed cavity. The only other think I can think of is in MIG welding we put a cleaner pad on the wire before it does in the whip. For thread something that mildly lubricated with wax while wiping the thread maybe. Or maybe wetted the thread slightly while wiping it.

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r ranson

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The main problem is humans desire to help and guide the fabric into the machine. And sometimes we need to like for turning corrners or complex tension like if one fabric is feeding in faster than the other. With each needle pass, it puts pressure on the needle which over time bends. The tolerance for most sewing machines are usually measured in 100ths of a mm, so it doesn't take much.

Passing through the fabric slightly blunts the needle each time. Needles have very specific shaped tips and when that shape changes, well, it's like trying to slice tomato skin with the back of the knife. It takes more effort and is more likely to make a mess.

But how much difference does that make? It's just one tiny stitch?

My easiest pattern to sew is my skirt.
At 20 stitches per inch
22 plus yards for a simple version which makes the machine sewing 800 to 1000 inches of seams.
Plus resewing mistakes that need ripping.
Plus pockets.
Plus back stitching
Plus button holes
Thats at least twenty thousand times passing into the fabric and out of the fabric for the simplest of garments.

After a skirt, I can feel the needle isn't as effective as a new one, so it gets moved to the "it doesn't matter if the stitching is perfect" needles.

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Ela La Salle

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It may sound silly but...I would replace bobbin case and also, check every bobbin as those could be slightly warped, could be slightly wrong shape.
This happened to me in my old, all metal and my partially plastic sewing machines.
As for the needles, I use universals (from a Dollar store) on fabrics that don't need special needles. Those last for a looong time and lots of sewing.
On a side note about the needle, make sure it fits all the way in its place, otherwise it will bog down stiches etc.

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