Does it happen with you that you clean your sewing machine regularly yet cannot enjoy the expected performance? Then, where does the problem actually lie? To be straightforward, the problem lies in your little knowledge of cleaning the machine that is dangerous. For the expected outcome, at first, you must learn how to clean your sewing machine effectively.
Yes, you can’t simply clean the machine in your own way and expect a satisfactory performance. For this, professional cleaning is a must that we have presented below for you. You must check this out to save a lot by not hiring a professional sewing machine cleaner.
How to clean your sewing machine?
Cleaning a sewing machine is not a childish game rather it’s a professional field that requires your focus and time. To make you understand the entire process, we have divided the write up into several segments. Hope, this will help you learn without any stress and confusion!
Have the proper tools
To have your sewing machine clean and make it perform just like a new one, there is no alternative to the following cleaning gadgets:
- Cotton buds
- Pair of tweezers
- Soft rag pieces
- New needle set
- Vacuum cleaner with complete attachments
Scan the machine manual
You must have heard that popular saying of Abraham Lincoln “If I had nine hours to cut down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening my axe”. That’s to say before you jump to any task, it is a must to be well up of it before.
From this connection, we suggest you to scan the machine manual well before starting the cleaning process. Go through each page of it to understand the machine’s parts and their connection. This will ease your disassemble and assemble process of the machine parts.
Clean the bobbin area
In the first instance, switch off your machine manually unplugging it from the electric socket.
Release the needle and the foot along with it.
Take out the pressure foot and needle plate. These two may seem to be insistent but don’t pull them up hard. Deal with softness.
Do your machine feature lower feet teeth? Then, remove that as well.
Release the screw of the needle plate
To lint off the feed teeth, you can adopt a clean brush. Take a piece of old needle to clean the feed channel.
Is there any ball of dirt? Then, use the tweezers to remove that ball.
At the end of this segment, you are to wipe the excess dirt with cotton bud.
Switch to under the bobbin zone
First of all, unseal the bobbin holder and remove the lint following the ways mentioned above.
Clean the hook race being highly conscious. To clean it effectively, you can adopt the vacuum cleaner.
While using the vacuum, maintain at least a 4-inches of gap between the hook race and the nozzles. Otherwise, the moisture that the air contains may cause corrosion to complex parts.
Again, be careful of the fact that you’re blowing the lint out not inside the machine. Therefore, having a specific angle is a must.
Clean the tension discs
Does the machine’s thread path feature a side cover? Open it gently.
Raise the pressure foot. Take a dental floss or a piece of thick cotton thread. Run the floss or thread back and forth in between the thread channels.
Blow out lint from the tension discs. Be aware of the moisture of your breath that may cause damage to the discs. Therefore, we suggest you to wear a face mask.
Reassemble the parts
After cleaning the tension discs, now, it’s time to reassemble the parts. But, wait! Before you reassemble the parts, it’s always wise to plug in the machine and start the engine. In this way, you can make sure whether everything is performing naturally or not.
However, in case, everything goes well, switch to the main reassembling segment.
At first, turn the hand knob back and forth for lining up the bobbin case and place it correctly.
Slide the needle plate, set screws as those were before. Forgot their placement system? Don’t panic, simply recheck the manual. It must have a brief upon the topic.
Set back the pressure foot and install a fresh needle.
In the end, tighten the thumb screw. For this, we recommend you to adopt a screwdriver.
Clean the exterior
Is the reassembling done? Okay! But, don’t end the cleaning here. Instead, clean the exterior well using a clean and soft rag piece. Once the outer dirt is wiped away, take a wet rag piece to polish the structure.
Tips
Always recheck the power connection before jumping to the cleaning segment to avoid any unexpected accident.
Don’t try to clean a large area at a single attempt.
Don’t disassemble all the parts together. You may face a great issue for assembling those.
If you oil the machine, make sure that you apply it to the porta suggested by the manual. And, don’t dare use any oil not manufactured for sewing machine.
Whatever you do – brush, blow or wipe, make sure that you aren’t pushing the dirt inside.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the cleaning process applicable to any brand of sewing machine?
Ans. Yes, the cleaning process is always the same but disassembling system of the parts may vary. In this case, simply check out the machine manuals.
Should I maintain the cleaning sequence you have provided?
Ans. Yes, you should obviously. Most importantly, to some extent, you can’t even break the sequence.
Can cleaning cure the noise problem?
Ans. It is 90% guaranteed that noise problem vanishes after an effective cleaning.
Final words
In the end, we cannot but say that it doesn’t matter how good your sewing machine is, if you cannot maintain it properly, it may be unable to serve you in the best possible way. And, for a proper maintenance, learning how to clean your sewing machine correctly has no alternative.
