Oh, no! I spun a bearing and seized my crankshaft.

**p0key** · 07-15-2013, 18:47

The crankshaft on my sewing machine seized up on me last night. It's a hand me down, but thankfully it's still under warranty. Trouble is, I was litterally a foot away from completing my first hammock. -Well, ok it's my wife's hammock really. She asked me for one, and then I found out you can camp in these suckers! I'm all in. But it's the first one I've tried making.- As I was saying, I'm a foot away from being done, and this machine is locked up solid, and it won't be back from the repair shop until after our camping trip. I'd sew it by hand, but I know for a fact how bad I suck at that, and this thing is nearly perfect. I'd bring it to a pro, but then I wouldn't be able to say I made it. And I have sew many other cool ideas that are on hold now too. Oh, well. Such is life.

**gmcttr** · 07-15-2013, 19:27

If you haven't taken it to the shop yet, open up the bobbin area and remove the tangled thread that is probably causing the problem. It only takes a small bit in the right place to lock things up.

**p0key** · 07-15-2013, 20:16

It wasn't just thread. I disassembled the machine as far as I could, and I didn't find anything. It was seized up by the motor, not down near the needle and bobbin. I could tell by the way it felt when I tried to spin it by hand, that there was nothing flexing between the hand wheel and the jam. I do appreciate the advice, it's just not what's happening with this machine. It's a moot point anyway, since it is in the shop already.

There is a silver lining though! I was reparing an old Singer 237 Fassion Mate, that I was getting ready to give up on itwhen the Janome came to me. This (minor) crisis has given me new motivation to fix the Singer. I had previously replaced a handful of small parts, but the motor wouldn't turn it. Well, I oiled it up tonight and stepped on the gas and it ran like a bat outa hell. It turns out that it was just dry, and the belt was over tightened. It runs about twice as fast as the Janome, and it is just wonderful to watch it go too.

While I was tinkering on it, I also found the lable of origin. Turns out this Singer was made in Italy. No wonder it's so fast! It's like the Ferrari of thread welders

**gmcttr** · 07-15-2013, 21:54

Yep, they gots to have their oil.

The Singer 237 is a good machine...one of the last before plastic gears came into use.

**p0key** · 07-16-2013, 13:12

Yeah, I really like it. The arm that holds the needle is big and has a long stroke, so you can watch it work through it's entire cycle. It's really fun to watch it dance out a zigzag stitch.

**p0key** · 08-15-2013, 13:04

I got my Janome back. Sears tried to give me the run-a-round about the warrantee, but they covered it in the end, so all's well. The Janome is a lot quieter than the Singer, so it'll probably see a lot more late nights.

**SteelToe** · 08-17-2013, 18:46

Well, that only took a month

, glad to hear it all worked out for you

I use a Janome Sewist 500, so "knock on wood" that mine keeps running like a champ. Only issue I had that tied up the works real bad like you describe was from a piece of fabric (hanging chad) that gun pulled down by the needle and immediately intertwined with everything. Locked up like a bank vault the instant it happened (luckily I wasn't stomping the gas at the time). I was about two minutes from either junking it or calling up a repair shop when I finally got the little bugger free--these machines are not particularly maintenance friendly.

TCB

**p0key** · 08-18-2013, 20:34

They said it just needed to be lubricated. It would be nice if there was a way to do it! I'm quite mechanically inclined, and I couldn't get the thing open to look at it, let alone oil it. When I couldn't get it open, I figured they must be built with sealed, maintenance free bearings. There is nothing at all in the owner's manual about lubrication.

**Ramblinrev** · 08-18-2013, 22:01

My wife's Janome specifically cautions against end user oiling. They are built with sealed blocks. When the lubrication is worn out it requires a full repair to correct that. Yeah it sucks, but the machines are very high quality. At least my wife's is.

**p0key** · 08-19-2013, 07:54

Yes, it does seem to be a high quality machine. I was just surprised that it seized up with less than 100 hours of use. I got a bit of a run-around at Sears about it, and suspect some shenanigans on their part, but if it has any more problems, I'll just take it to the local guy.

I like my Singer a little better anyway, so the Janome will probably only get used for special stitches. I don't like the little button that you have to hold down to do a backstitch on the Janome. You have to take a hand off of your work to operate it. I havent done a good backstitch with that machine yet.