Timing? Now bird's nest on the back of quilt.

[silverthimble]

A couple of months ago when I was cleaning my machine, I accidently allowed the cleaning rag to get sucked into the bobbin area. I managed to blow a fuse in the process. Once I got the rag bits removed and changed the needle and the fuse, the machine seemed to work fine. I did not re-time the machine. I checked the areas that are mentioned in the manual under timing and everything seemed ok to me. (i.e. checking needle depth, proper hook rotation, needle/hook clearance, etc.) I am now getting bird's nests on the bottom of my quilts. Also, my machine makes a "ticking" sound now. There is play in the bobbin basket. However, I understand that this is "normal". My questions are: Does your machine always require re-timing after a jam? (and I have missed something) Would my bird's nest issue be related to my machine requiring re-timing?

[Katydids]

this is just from my experience from working (in the past) in a domestic sewing machine shop/fabric store. Birds nests on the bottom were usually related to the needle thread not being properly seated in the tension disk, or in the uptake lever, not the bobbin. I've not had this issue with the longarm, so not sure if this is the culprit or not. You might just want to check that again.

As far as the "ticking" sound, mine does that too. It doesn't seem to affect anything, I think I saw somewhere that the needle actually touches the hook because these machines are "timed" so tight.

Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in here.

[mark]

Hi Silverthimble,

I have seen this be a thread problem. You might want to try a different thread and see if the problem continues. But just because you got the rag in the hook doesn't mean that you threw it out of time. And that little ticking sound is the hook point crossing the needle. It will be louder at some times depending on how the needle flexes into the hook point. Hope this all makes sense. Anyway let us know how you turn out.

Take care,