Troubleshooting and Maintenance Tips for Embroidery Machines

It's easy to keep your machine in perfect working order if you regularly lube it and replace parts as needed.
November 01, 2007

Commercial embroidery machines are amazingly resilient. They require little maintenance and have very few parts that need to be replaced regularly.

They are similar to automobiles in that you should maintain proper lubrication and replace parts when performance falls off. For a car, these parts include tires, spark plugs, wires and such. On an embroidery machine, these parts are generally needles, trimmer blades and the occasional sewing hook.

LUBRICATION

Keeping a machine cleaned and oiled is the best way to ensure it runs properly. It also extends the life of your machine. I've often worked on machines that needed major repairs simply because they were not oiled properly. It reminds me of an old commercial for a brand of automobile oil filters. In the ad, a mechanic talks about the benefits of the sponsor's filters and the importance of regular oil changes (including a new oil filter, naturally). The tag line was, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later."

This applies to embroidery machines in that each day you can devote a few minutes of down time to lubrication and a little more time once a week for cleaning. Alternatively, you can spend a lot of down time waiting for a major repair to be done. You also can experience a loss of production from a poorly lubricated machine. Embroidery machines are precision-tuned pieces of equipment. Lack of oil causes them to break thread more often.

Do you get the idea that it is very important to oil your machine? If so, you can move on to the second part of the maintenance equation — keeping it clean. If you didn't get the lubrication message, go back to the beginning of this article and start again. It's that important.

CLEANING

In general, embroidery production is fairly clean. As such, embroidery is different from screen printing in that printers get ink all over themselves during the course of a work day. However, both decorating techniques share a common trait: problems caused by lint from the garments.

Lint can build up in several different places in and on an embroidery machine. It can work its way into moving parts and cause premature wear. Lint also can get sucked in by the machine fan and cover the electronic circuit boards, causing them to overheat. Most obviously, it can find its way onto clean garments and cause embarrassing moments in front of your customers.

It is a good idea to clean your machine at least once a week either by blowing it clean with compressed air or vacuuming it with a shop-type vacuum cleaner. You particularly should clean out the hook area, including any lint and waxy buildup that accumulates on the hook. About once or twice a year, you should clean out the area where the electronic circuit boards are located.

So if you keep your machine cleaned and oiled it should be good to go with no problems, right? Wrong!

Sometimes bad things happen to good machines. Usually, problems with embroidery machines result from some type of mishap. It could be a birds-nest, a needle hitting a hoop or another type of problem caused by a particular garment. There are numerous causes for sewing problems. The important thing is to find out what the problem is and fix it. This is where having good troubleshooting skills comes in handy.

The keys to troubleshooting are: Be observant, look for the obvious and narrow down the possibilities. Let's explore each one of these as it relates to an embroidery machine. For instance, if a machine is breaking thread, how do you find what is causing this problem? Using some basic troubleshooting techniques, we'll look at the possibilities.

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED

First, pay attention to when thread breaks occur. If it is a multihead machine, does it happen to just one particular head or to several different heads? Does the problem center on just one needle or does it happen with all the needles?

When in the pattern does the thread break? Does it break right after a trim? If so, it is most likely not a sewing problem, but rather a trimmer-related problem. The blade could be dull or something along those lines.

If a design breaks thread in the same spot every time, there is probably nothing wrong with the machine. It is more likely a problem with how the design is digitized. Too many stitches in a particular spot will cause thread breaks.

It also is important to note when a problem first arises. What was going on just before the machine started malfunctioning? Sometimes, that makes it obvious where the problem originated, like when you hit the hoop. Other times, it may be less obvious. Maybe you just cleared out a knot and restarted the machine when it began malfunctioning. Or it could have happened right after changing over to another design.

One thing I have learned from my years in technical work is not to discount an operator's knowledge of the machine. If an operator says the machine is making a funny sound, then something might be wrong, and it is just a matter of time before it shows up.

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

Most of the time when a machine acts up, it is a simple problem: The thread is not in one of the tensioners, a needle is in crooked, etc. Once you have observed where the trouble originates, there are a few obvious places to look for a solution.

Always check the thread path first to make sure it is threaded properly. Maybe replace the needle or swap the cones of thread around to make sure it isn't a bad cone of thread. You may even try sewing a different design that you know runs well.

The way I look at it, you might as well try the simple things before calling the machine manufacturer's technical support desk. The tech people are going to ask you to look at these same things. It will save time if you have these things evaluated before you even speak with a technician. You might solve the problem without having to call. Even when grappling with more serious problems, always look at the simpler possible solutions first.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

The true essence of troubleshooting is eliminating possibilities for a problem, which is what the previous two steps are meant to do. Observing the machine and watching when and where it malfunctions eliminates several possibilities. You may start out saying, "The machine is breaking thread all over the place." After observing, you may figure out that it is not breaking right after a trim, so it is not trimmer-related. Upon further observation, you may determine that it is either one head (on a multihead machine) or maybe it is one needle on a particular head.

These observations keep narrowing down the possibilities of what can cause a problem. Simple troubleshooting like changing needles, thread cones or designs eliminates those elements from the list of possibilities. As you keep considering more serious possibilities, use what you have observed to continue to narrow down the cause.

Very rarely does a multihead machine have a problem that results in all of the sewing heads breaking thread simultaneously. A more likely scenario is that you may have different problems on several heads at the same time.

Once you narrow a problem down to a head (which is very easy to do if you have a singlehead machine), see if it is one needle or all the needles on the head that are problematic. This really reduces the possibilities. If it is only one needle, look for the things that pertain to that needle.

By now you should have already checked the thread path and possibly changed the needle and/or cone of thread. The majority of the time, these solve single-needle problems. If not, the problem may lie with that particular needle bar. Try oiling the needle bar or checking its height on that needle. If that doesn't work, check the o-rings and washers for that needle to make sure they are intact.

Many times, a problem with a particular needle is a bent or scarred presser foot. Presser feet are fairly malleable. If they are bent, usually you can just bend them back in shape. Make sure the needle is going through the middle of the presser foot. If it is close to the edge, it can pinch the thread or deflect the needle.

A scarred-up presser foot or a burr anywhere in the thread path can really cause a lot of problems. A particular spot of thread will pass in and out of the needle eye, and therefore through the presser foot, 40 to 50 times before it is laid down on the fabric. It is easy to see how a burr can literally saw the thread in half.

If a head breaks thread consistently on all the needles, there really is no need to look for things that pertain only to a particular needle. Instead, you should focus on things that are common to all the needles. Trimmer problems will affect all the needles unless it is tension related. Most problems that are common to all the needles on one head are at the needle plate and below.

This is where the action is when it comes to sewing. The needles go in and out of the needle hole; the sewing hook grabs the thread and carries it around, wrapping it around the bobbin thread.

For thread breakage on all needles, start with the needle plate. Like the presser foot, it can scar easily. Use an abrasive cord (available from many commercial embroidery suppliers) to polish it. Also, check the bobbin case to ensure it is not the source of your problems.

Clean the sewing hook and oil it. A dry hook will make a machine break thread excessively. While you are looking at the sewing hook, feel around the edge of the hook for nicks or burrs. If you find one, polish it with a very fine emery cloth.

Once you have eliminated all these possibilities, look at the possibility of mechanical adjustments such as the hook timing. You can see that this is way down the list of possibilities. Hook timing usually is the last resort when looking for thread break problems, which reiterates the K.I.S.S. principle.

PREVENT DEFENSE

The best way to solve machine problems is to avoid them in the first place. Following the oiling instructions that come with the machine and keeping it clean go a long way toward preventing problems. Being careful while using the machine helps prevent more problems. If problems do arise, use your skill of observation. Check the simple things first and narrow down your list of potential suspects. If you do, you will find the problem in no time.

Steven Batts, a consultant with 15 years experience in the embroidery industry, owns Righteous Threads Embroidery, Greensboro, N.C., which offers digitizing, embroidery and machine maintenance services. Steven regularly leads seminars at ISS shows and is an industry speaker and consultant.

To comment on Steven's article, e-mail him at rthreads@bellsouth.net.