May/June 2019 Marine Fabricator - 24

How does stitching turn out poorly,
as in the photo above? According
to Faith Roberts, owner of Banner
Canvas in Ham Lake, Minn., it's
caused by a tension disk (left) that
gets loaded up with thread residue.
Regular sewing machine cleaning
is critical to its proper operation.
Photos: Banner Canvas.

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24 Marine Fabricator | May/June 2019

Roberts says she has found that she
needs to replace the spring hook on her
bobbin case regularly, every two to three
months. "And if I'm running certain
threads, like monofilament, it's going to
wear a lot faster," she adds.
While quality sewing machines can be
found at many price points, Balabuck says
he runs into fewer problems now that he
uses a higher-end machine. "It's just built
so well," he says. "I think less expensive
machines aren't always made to the same
tolerance and can need more fiddling. I
don't want to spend all my time fighting
with the machine-I want to make what
I'm trying to make.
"The biggest key to me is that when
something goes bad, I'll hear it before I
see it," Balabuck explains. "There will be
just a subtle change in the way the machine sounds, caused by anything from a
dull needle or broken thread or the tension being off.

"The tendency is often to hope the
problem goes away," says Balabuck. "Of
course, it never does. I've learned the
hard way-if it sounds funny, stop what
you're doing and figure it out."
Sloan says he sees issues with users
"popping" the safety clutch on their machines. "They don't know how to start
out properly and they pop the clutch,"
he says. "That gets thread all jammed
up in the machines. Fifty percent of our
calls are helping people get their machines unjammed."
Today's high-tech threads, such as
polytetra fluoroethylene (PTFE), also
can cause problems. "You need a lot
of tension to sew PTFE thread," says
Sloan, "so we put special springs in the
machine to make it sew PFTE. PTFE
is also rough on parts-it's like dental
floss. You need to make sure your tension disks are clean and don't have cuts
in them. You can crank the tension all
you want, but it won't work if the parts
are worn."
Make time for service
One important advantage of purchasing a
sewing machine from a reputable dealer,
as opposed to buying one online, is the
service a dealer can provide when things
go wrong. "My guys are on the phone
probably three or four hours a day helping
our customers," says Sloan. "People who
shop only price forget about the service
that's going to be needed after the sale."
And there will be times, no matter how
hard a fabricator tries to straighten out a
balky machine, that it's just not going to
"sew nice," to use Lange's words.
"Especially in the spring, when you're
really busy, you don't want to be messing
around trying to fix a machine," Lange
says. "If something goes wrong and we
can't fix it, I call our repair shop. We need
our machines up and running."
Jeff Moravec is a freelance writer from
Minneapolis, Minn.
http://www.marinefabricatormag.com
May/June 2019 Marine Fabricator

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