barbm Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Has anyone completely cleaned out their gear box? How do you get those last bits out? And what kind of solvent is safe to use to clean the gears? The reason I ask is this (and be warned that even the most experienced service person can have a stupid moment ) - Monday morning I was doing a thorough cleaning of my Millie, in preparation for finishing a customer quilt that was already set up on the frame. Took off the needle plate, WD 40ed, re-oiled, then came the stupid moment: laid the cleaning cloth under the hopping foot/needle bar to run the needle through to clean off the oil. Yup, you guessed it, the hook assembly became a cleaning cloth mummy. It was wrapped around so tight (even after just a moment) that I had to use scissors to cut away bits and pieces of the cloth and then unwind the shreds. Needle wasn't bent, hook assembly looked okay, so I rotated the handwheel to check movement - seemed okay. So I turned the machine back on and ran it at the slowest speed - seemed fine. But when I increased the speed, I heard a "click, click, click" sound - coinciding with the hopping foot and needle bar coming to their lowest point. Okaaay, gotta find out where that sound is coming from: took out the needle, no change. Removed the hook assembly - STILL no change! The sound was definitely coming from behind the hook area, so we're talking gear box. Talked with Dawn (how inconsiderate of Amy to have a birthday when I needed her! ), consensus was that I probably had a gear tooth broken/chipped, but that I should talk to Amy the next morning. After talking with Amy, I hauled out my head box to send my baby to the dentist in Iowa to repair her chipped tooth. Well, I still have to deal with that customer quilt, and it's all mounted on the frame, would have to be completely unloaded to get the head off for shipping. How about I try and quilt that puppy? Email to Amy, cautious reply: "risking breaking a needle, but if you're very gentle...." I figured the worst of the damage was already done and the machine was headed back to the APQS hospital already, so what the heck? I VERY gently and carefully quilted that quilt - machine behaved wonderfully, as always. Okay, the quilt's done and ready to be delivered to the customer. Getting ready to start taking handles and such off the head, in preparation for packing her up, decided to listen one last time to the "click, click, click." But the noise is GONE!!! Kinda like the sudden quiet in the other room where the kids are playing, right? Now, do I pack her up and send her to Iowa? Or do I hope that whatever was wrong has been remedied by the "quilt machine fairies"? Back on the phone to APQS - talked with Dawn, who agreed "that's certainly odd..." We decided that I would clean out the gear box and see what (if any) damage had been done to the gears, hence my question in the first paragraph - anybody done this? I've repacked gear boxes, but you don't have to clean it out entirely, just scoop out most of the old stuff and put in new. Anybody out there have experience at this? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmcclannan Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Oh my!!!!! That you were able to finish your customer quilt is incerdible. There MUST be quilt fairies living in your machine or maybe there is a qult angel watching over you but I say don't fix it if it ain't broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted September 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Well, for those of you who want to see what a (mostly) cleaned-our gear box looks like, here's a photo. Not all in focus - do not adjust your screens! After close examination of both gears, it looks like I didn't do any permanent damage - gonna repack the gear box and pray REAL hard!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted September 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 My Millie is back on her table and stitching away - thank you, APQS, for all the advice and hand-holding - and for teaching us not to be "afeared" of our machines!:cool: And thank you, Lord, for walking through this with me - amen.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witha'K'quilting Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 glad to hear things worked out. curious though...is your machine painted blue? can we see the entire machine head! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted September 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 The blue is the original sealant on the gear box - most of it peels off when you take off the cover plate. You can see the regular metal color along one edge of the photo - the rest of my Millie looks just like everyone else's! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witha'K'quilting Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 how disappointing! i wanted to see a painted millie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandraG Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Now that it is all over, yes I have completely cleaned out a gear box. It was on my Ultimate I. The machine had not been used for several years so I decided to clean out the grease and fill her up with clean and fresh!!! She just hums! Sandra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 So Sandra you could practice on mine when you come up! :P:P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustSewSimple Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 I can vouch for Sandra's Ult 1 it is fine, fine! Don't you wish you could pick the color of your machine? I'd select pink. I'm a pink kinda girl!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheri Butler Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Barb. I had that click click click ONCE. We took the bobbin housing area apart to find the tiniest, eansie, weinsie piece of thread stuck in there! Once that was out, the click click click was GONE! Unreal...isn't it?!! Something tells me that when you finished quilting that quilt, somehow...that tiny piece of fabric thread made its way "out" of that bobbin housing area!!! I never could explain how or why for me...but now that you've had a similiar situation...it's all too familiar! Glad all's wonderful and no side trip needed for your millie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Sheri, Glad your "click, click" was just a piece of thread - mine was still there, AFTER I had taken the entire hook assembly out! So I was pretty sure it was behind that "firewall," inside the gear box. But it's all better now, so I'm a happy camper.... er, grease monkey! But even after the clicking was gone and I was stitching away, I still had a pesky rattle - was still concerned that my head was going to be taking a trip without me. Then I had a "duh" moment: that sound reminded me of what the machine sounds like at a show, when we have been running it for hours, changing bobbins without a blowout, and it needs oil. Guess the "cleaning rag mummy" sucked up all the oil I had just put into the hook assembly. Once I oiled my baby properly, all inappropriate noises are gone!:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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