meg_marsh Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Help - Hook Retaining Finger broke!! am up and running... Update: Need to share my story........... once I received the retaining hook (thank you John!!! & Shana for suggesting to get in touch with John), went to take the broken one out - no way - the screw would not budge!!! grrrrrr!!! To make a long and very frustrating story short...... many phone calls here and there (Barb M & DH, Mike, were so wonderful with my frustration - she is the best!!) ........... Anyway, finally had to resort to drilling a hole in the screw and use a screw extractor (thanks Mike and John). Had never heard of a screw extractor before. I continue to be educated. Took forever to do but finally did get it out - whew!!!!!! Then after all is said and done, did have to re-time - couldn't get the hook assembly to rotate properly - called John and he reminded me about the 2 screw driver method. Worked - and finally could get on with the job of a full re-timing. I am proud to say that I finally ran my Millie for a short bit tonight and it worked............ But I am dead tired after 3 hardware stores & 2 trips to one of them...... frustration, and finally success........ and lots of craziness in between. This all took from noon until 9 tonight......... The timing was easy, the removal of the screw - NOT!!!!! and getting the hook assembly was a bit difficult until I talked to John, but .....I will never be nervous about re-timing again! So, all of you who have not done this before, it was not the difficult part of the process........... Oh - I finally did have a couple of drinks towards the end and now I feel sooooooo much better. Relaxed and Millie is happy again. As an added note - at one point I was going to have my golf cart mechanic come over to take the screw out - but luckily for him I got the screw out before he showed up - you might guess that I was getting very frustrated with the the whole thing. That would have been a good story - having a golf cart mechanic work on my Millie:P:P And of great importance - tomorrow - Wednesday - is Barb and Mike Mayfield's anniversary - send them some good wishes!!! Thanks for listening (reading) my overly wordy story but I am so much happier tonight. Tomorrow PPPP and then soon and finally to quilting after a long break......... I got to the desert about 12:30 last night - very long but good trip. Anxious to get back to quilting. Set everything up today ..... first stitch, needle broke. Went through everything and finally called Barb M. We determined that my hook retaining finger is broken. Picture says a thousand words - if anyone has one and could overnight it to me, I would be eternally grateful. Will send a ck to you ASAP to cover part and shipping. If I do not get a response to this by Monday morning, I will be calling APQS. thanks, Meg meg_marsh has attached this image: IMG_0787 b.jpg - 16.22kb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltmonkey Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 See??? Even girls can do stuff with screw drivers and power drills. Way to go, Meg!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewlinzi Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Clever girl, I'm very impressed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matildanme Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Good Job Meg, Well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyLake Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Congratulations, Meg! I admire your perseverance to get your machine back working again. I hope the experience gives you a boost of confidence that you know your Millie better than anyone and won't let problems stand in your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheri Butler Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 WTG Meg! I too re-timed my machine a couple weeks ago and it was so easy to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Good for you Meg. Frustrating for sure but you did it! Happy Anniversary Barb & Mike!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankiequilter Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Oh, Meg, not a fun way to start your two week break in the desert! I'm glad you got the problem solved. Way to go with the tools! Now, happy quilting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBQLTN2 Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 WTG Meg, May all your quiliting time for the rest of the 2 weeks productive and wonderful!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Meg, What is the two screw driver method for retiming? TIA, Sandra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meg_marsh Posted September 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Hope I explain this correctly. When you have to remove the hook assembly (where you put your bobbin), sometimes it gets hung up on the shaft. This is because the set screws really do seat tight after awhile. To get it off, you use 2 long, flat tipped screw drivers. You come up from under the machine, place the tips of the screwdrivers between the hook assembly and black collar on either side of the shaft and then gently turn the screw drivers in the same direction which puts equal force on either side of the assembly allowing you to gently nudge the assembly off the shaft. Using this process helps the nudging of the assembly to be equal in pressure so that it does not become crooked and then almost impossible to remove. It is very easy to do & learning & knowing this tip makes all the difference for easy and successful removal. I think it should be in the manual. After John reminded me of this technique, I then remembered that Amy showed this at the Innovations class last year. Hope you understand what I have just explained..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustSewSimple Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Meg, it is stories like yours that makes me glad I own an APQS machine. One of the reasons I decided on an APQS machine was because everyone said you could work on it yourself. Sounds like you now could work for the company!:P:P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinnamon7 Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Meg, your post has really helped me. I've waited 2 weeks for help from the APQS techs but they didn't tell me how toremove the hook assembly. I got it out in 10 min. after reading your post.hmmmm now what? guess i'll buff and retime. What an experience I haven't even done a full quilt yet!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meg_marsh Posted September 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Cinnamon ............. glad I could help. Remember - any questions you have - post here, someone is bound to have some sort of answer. It is a great site. Send me a U2U if you need any more help...... I ck my stuff a couple times a day........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.