Repair Tech: This Maintenance Routine Will Save Your Sewing Machine (My Exact Process!)

Today we are going to clean and oil your sewing machine so that it is ready to go and sewing smoothly for your next project. I'm Lisa. I am a professional sewing machine service technician and I'm going to show you the exact maintenance process I use at home on my sewing machines to keep them running great. And if you want, I actually also have a free PDF guide. I have a Print out right here. This goes through the exact step-by-step process of everything we're going to talk about today. It has photos, it has a checklist, lots of useful information in here. Again, completely free and it is in the description of this video. So go ahead and grab a copy and let's get started. What we're doing today is a little bit different than what I do in my service shop. In the shop, we completely remove the outer plastic covers of the machine. And access all of the internal parts and gears and areas that you can't easily access at home. But that being said, there is a lot we can do between projects to make sure our machine is running its best between those service appointments. So no covers are coming off today, just this needle plate. You're going to need just a few minutes and a couple supplies. So let me show you. what we need. Oftentimes your machine may come with a key of sorts or a small screwdriver that is meant for your needle plate. If you still have that, great, absolutely go ahead and use that tool. Otherwise, I really like these little stubby screwdrivers. If you want to search for it, that's what you're going to type into the search bar, a stubby screwdriver. Then we're going to gather a few tools that we're going to use to remove lint from the machine If you have a pair of long tweezers or a set of picks, Those are really handy in this case. I happen to have this pair of craft tweezers, actually picked this up at a local quilt shop, and it looks like a little unicorn. Some other things that work really well are just some basic fuzzy pipe cleaners, the kind you can pick up at the dollar store or in a kid's craft section, really work great. And another easy household item that works really well are basic Cotton swabs. Then I also use, now not everybody is going to have these on hand, but I also really like using the little disposable mascara wands. Use something clean. If it's an old mascara wand, make sure that is Very clean before you put it in the machine. We definitely don't want to be adding mascara gunk in there, but these are new. These are clean, disposable mascara wands. Now, I don't have one with me today, but another thing that works well is a standard vacuum that has micro attachments, really small attachments that you can use to get into the bobbin area of your sewing machine. One thing you are not going to see on the supply list is canned air. Now I know a lot of people who really love using canned air you know you spray it and the lint goes flying and it feels really satisfying however what you're actually doing is pushing a lot of that lint deeper into the machine where you can't reach it and that is going to build up over time and slow down your machine and potentially cause some real damage so just please do not use Canned air in your sewing machine then also make sure you have some Fresh needles, we're going to replace the old needle and then we are going to apply a drop of sewing machine oil today. So you are going to want to have some sewing machine oil. This is the brand called Zoom Spout. This is a great brand, but the main advice that has been given to me when it comes to choosing a sewing machine oil is making sure it is clear and not yellowed in any way. If you see yellowing, that means there is impurities in the oil. That oil is going to break down faster over time. And actually start clogging up your machine which is the opposite of what we're trying to do. So make sure you have a nice clear sewing machine oil that is meant for sewing machines. And typically it's going to be labeled something like Lily White. So here on the back it says Lily White lubricant. We're not going to use gun oil or 3-in-1 oil or anything meant for bicycles or WD-40. No, if it is not specifically labeled for. Sewing machines and sewing machines only, stay away from it. And most people don't even really need a full bottle this size. You can also get an oiling pen. So this one I picked up from Wawak. It's just a nice Lily White oiling pen, has a nice precision tip. And this little thing right here is probably going to last you a while. So if you don't want a full bottle, just look for an oiling pen. And yes, I do want you to grab a nice crisp dollar bill. I'll show you what that's going to be used for in a little bit. All right, now that we have our supplies, the next thing we are going to do is remove our needle, our presser foot, and the needle plate so that we can safely get into the bobbin area and clean it. Now one thing you want to make sure to do is always use a screwdriver that really fits properly. You do not want to use a ill-fitting screwdriver because you're going to be much more likely to strip these screws and let me tell you trying to get out a stripped screw in this tight area is not fun. I can definitely speak from experience there. Alright, moment of truth here. Let's look under this needle plate and see what I'm dealing with today. Oh yeah, we've got some lint. So since I have last maintained this machine I have completed a quilt and I also finished my daughter's Halloween costume. So I've been dealing with batting which sheds quite a bit and also the costume was made out of a fleecy material that shed quite a bit. They're definitely making their presence known here in my feed dogs and in my hook race. So this is what mine looks like. Yours may have a lot more or a lot less lint. Absolutely no judgment. The important thing is, is you are here today and you're getting this cleaned up and we love that. All right. So the first thing I usually do is try to get out just any of the big pieces that are really kind of standing out. The tweezers come in really handy for this. So you can see I did get a little chunky piece of lint right there. I'm going to go in with the pipe cleaners here, kind of floss around the feed dogs and I can see a lot breaking up here. So really got quite a bit. Pipe cleaner is nice because you can kind of bend it and form it into the shape that you need. Having clean feed dogs is going to make sure that your fabric is gripped nicely and feeds smoothly as your machine is running. I'm just I'm just going down in here now and Just seeing what comes out. Gentle and I think quite a bit of lint here. It's already starting to look so much cleaner. Now if you have a little brush like the mascara wand, you can go ahead and use that as well. These are really good at getting into those little teeth of the feed dogs and really kind of picking up and pulling out. um anything that's left behind here. Hopefully you can see this but for my folks who have a top loading machine like this, make sure you leave that little piece of felt in the center alone. That is not lint or build up, that is actually a wick that's going to draw the oil down where it needs to be and that is actually where we're going to apply a drop of oil here So I'm just going to wipe all that lint out of my bobbin case here. Q-Tips Work really well. One thing we're always going to look for while we're doing our maintenance here is I'm going to check for any needle strikes or what we call burrs, any bumps or imperfections in the bobbin case. These burrs can actually cause quite a few headaches. What could happen is if there is little bumps along the ridge, it can kind of cause your bobbin case to bounce around and lead to things like thread jams or skip stitches. If you do find a little burr or bump oftentimes you can take a small piece of fine grit sandpaper to smooth them out. You really want to be very careful there. Over filing these things can also cause problems. When in doubt take it to a technician or if it's bad you can usually just find a replacement part for your bobbin case online. Another place to check for burrs while we are here is on your needle plate and I see a couple places where I may have had a needle strike here so I may want to go ahead and file this down just a bit to make sure that no threads are going to snag on it when I'm sewing. Now that this bobbin and hook area is nice and clean this is when we're going to apply our drop of oil. So today I'm going to go ahead and use my oil pen here and we're going to apply oil in two spots. The first is in that wick I pointed out. Just one drop is going to do it and always make sure if you're applying oil that you're doing this after you've cleaned everything. You don't want to add oil when you have lint in the machine because that's actually going to cause everything Starting to gum up and slow down even more. And then the second spot I'm going to add a drop of oil is on this ridge on the back of the bobbin case. Just one drop and then that oil is going to distribute as the bobbin arrives along the hook race. So I'm going to just put that there and pop it back in. To the machine if you have a side loading or a vertical bobbin you are not going to apply a drop of oil in that wick because you're not going to have one. However on the back of the hook that holds the bobbin if you take that out you're going to apply one drop of oil to the back of the hook. And there's also a photo of this in that checklist pdf so be sure to reference that if you need to. I'm going to go ahead and get this needle plate back on and then we're going to take a look. Alright, this next spot is the one that most people forget about, so go ahead and grab that dollar bill because this is how we're going to clean our tension discs. Our tension discs are a very important and often forgotten about part of our machines here. The purpose of the tension discs is to control the amount of tension that gets applied to Thank upper thread. What could happen is that over time those tension discs can get dirty. There's lint that comes off of your thread as it passed between the discs. Sometimes there's like wax coatings or other things as well that eventually just gum up those discs and it can be a little tricky to access. you. This is a tip that I learned in Sewing Doc Academy. Sewing Dock Academy is the online training program where I learn absolutely everything about sewing machine service and repair. And this tip is a great one. So to clean those tension discs, we're going to raise our presser foot. Raising the presser foot opens the tension disc. This is also why it's so important to lift your presser foot when you are threading your machine, by the way. And then we're going to take our dollar bill and we're actually going to slide that in. As far as it can go and then you can actually close those tension discs and you can feel that there's some tension being applied to the dollar bill but it still glides smoothly and the dollar bill is nice because it's not going to shed a bunch of lint. If I was to use this shop cloth for instance even though they say they're low lint or lint free um There's still some shedding. There's still some lint and gunk that can come off of those. So the dollar bill, though, works really well. Alternatives to using a dollar bill are using unwaxed dental floss. Make sure it's unwaxed. Or also pearl cotton. Pearl cotton also fits into those tension discs as well. you. And even if your machine doesn't look like this one where the tension discs are behind the covers, this hack still applies. You can still slide that dollar bill between the tension discs of your external tension unit and get those nice and clean as well. All right now the last place we're going to take a look at together is inside the needle bar area. We're only going to do this step if your machine's needle bar area is easily accessible or if your user manual gives you clear instructions for how to access this area. If there's any uncertainty do not remove any screws. It can definitely cause some major damage if you remove a screw that isn't supposed to be removed. All right so once we have our needle bar area opened up One thing I'm looking for is if there's any caught threads. Fortunately, I'm not seeing any stuck threads in here today. If you did find a stuck thread, you can grab your tweezers and see if it easily pulls loose. Now, if that thread doesn't easily come loose, we are not going to pry it. What we're going to do is take our sewing machine oil, and we're going to soak that thread. Let it soak for a good while. And then come back and try those tweezers again. Usually what you'll find is the thread then is much more pliable, easier to break free. And if that still doesn't work, I really recommend taking it to a technician. You don't want to force or pry anything. If you break one of the delicate joints in this needle bar area, it could be a very pricey repair. Cotton swabs work really well in this area and my needle bar area is looking pretty clean. There's not a lot of lint up here. Most of our lint it ends up in the the bottom area but sometimes we'll still get lint up here so make sure to to give everything a good dusting. Just whatever you can reach. Again don't pry anything but we're going to get out whatever. Lint or sometimes you may find some dried up oil or some other crud in there. Now if you're wondering if we are going to apply any oil in this area, the answer is no. And that's not because this area never needs oil, but this is one of the areas that the service technician is going to oil when you take it in for regular service. Many modern machines are what is marketed as self-oiling, meaning these joints don't need as frequent oiling. And in fact, if you add too much oil You're going to start attracting lint and causing more issues. So this is not an area that we need to oil every time we do basic maintenance. Once your service technician takes a look at it, they will determine which joints, if any of them, need oil when you take it in for service. That being said, the big caveat here is always check your user manual. Some machines, including many vintage ones, will give specific oiling instructions for this and other parts of the machine. So to recap, when it comes to oiling a machine, it's that one drop to the hook assembly and in the center of the wick if you have it. That can be done on any machine and is safe to do regularly. However, any other oiling points... Check your user manual first. If it doesn't give you specific instructions, that means it is a job for the service technician and it'll be taken care of at your next service appointment. Final thing I want to show you up here is how to check your check spring. This is a spring on many machines. It's going to look something like this. It's going to be close to your tension unit and where the thread meets the take-up lever. The take-up lever is this part that goes up and down over here as you sew. And what we're checking for with the check spring is that it can spring freely. Sometimes we'll see either some lubricant buildup or a lot of lint that gets caught up here. And what will happen is if you get gunk or buildup in this area and it prevents the check spring from being able to move freely, it's going to screw up your thread tension. So again, mine's looking pretty clear here. But if you were to find some gunk and buildup, and I think I have a couple of photos I could show you of some bad buildup in this area, but go ahead and clean that out as well. Of course, we're going to put all of our covers back on and reattach our foot. You might also want to take a look at the foot as well, dust that off if there is any lint or debris there. And then of course we're going to insert a fresh needle. In most modern machines the flat side of the needle goes to the back but that is definitely not the universal rule. So make sure you know which direction your needle is supposed to go when you put it in your machine. So now our machine is cleaned up and ready to go for our next project. Now keep in mind though that what we were able to access and clean today is really kind of the tip of the iceberg We maybe got. 25-30 percent of the total amount of lint that's actually in this machine and in fact this machine here hasn't been serviced in close to a year and a half so I really should get this on my workbench soon. I'll remove the covers and make sure all the lint is away from the computer boards and remove any old grease from the gears and get everything cleaned and lubricated really well. So if it's maybe been a few years since your machine has had a proper tune-up It may be time to get that on the schedule soon but in the meantime what we did today is going to keep things running much smoother until you can get it into the shop. And the last thing I need you to do for me is I really want to know what everyone is working on so please tell me in the comments what project you have up next. Maybe this is the year that I finally get the Christmas Christmas stockings done that I started three, four years ago, so wish me luck.