Hoppo Bumpo (n): A children's game. Played by folding one's arms and hopping on one leg. Aim is to bump opponents, so that they lose their balance. Last person standing wins.


October 28, 2008

Janome answer?

Well, I knew something would go awry whilst the man-of-the-house was away. I just hadn't counted on the nature of the issue and how disappointingly early in the peace it might occur.

It could have been a flat tyre, overflowing gutters or a computer glitch, but no ... its my friend and ally, the sewing machine. My trusty Janome 3018 has failed me. And right in the middle of a very important Halloween project.

The machine is jamming after two or three stitches, with miles of thread getting caught inside the bobbin holder and the fabric being sucked into the feed-dogs. Its not a pretty sight - and that's just me. The computerised part of the 3018 keeps pipping furiously at me about an overload. Lo! Lo! Lo! it exclaims.

With the help of a screw driver and 5-cent piece, I have disassembled and reassembled various bits of the machine numerous times. I've careful repositioned the bobbin holder and checked its alignment with the hook race. All to no avail. The manual has shed no light on the matter.

Can you help? Have you seen this problem before? The thought of hand-stitching a Halloween costume has got me spooked!

14 comments:

  1. That is a Halloween nightmare! I hope you get it sorted out quickly.

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  2. What an evil sewing machine to do that to you while you have the whole house to yourself! Have you tried a new bobbin altogether? I know mine has done it a couple of times but only when I forget to trim the piece out of the bobbin top (does that make sense? probably not!).

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  3. I've just recently bought a Janome and yep the same thing happens, not impressed. I've found my tension was all whack attack and once I fiddled with this it corrected itself. Another thing you may try is; on the bobbin holder there is a silver bit sticking up (the bit closest to you), sometimes this silver bit is too high and can be filed down a little to stop the thread from catching. Good Luck

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  4. Yes, the last time my machine (a Janome) did that it was a tension issue. I'm not sure why the tension suddenly needed adjusting, but it did! The only other time I've experienced that was when I was using cheap, nasty cotton thread (again, there were issues with the tension because of it) and once I changed back to good quality thread it was fine.

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  5. Yep, I'll add my voice to the chorus. Tension or poor quality cotton tend to be the culprits when this has happened to me.

    I hope you get it sorted.

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  6. I agree with Lisa - every time my machine plays up like this, it is the bit of thread that you weave through the bobbin when you are loading the bobbin with thread - if it is sticking out when you sew, it gets caught up and causes havoc!

    I have a spare older machine - let me know if you'd like to borrow it. I'm happy to drive over your way :)

    good luck sorting it out!

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  7. I was going to offer you the lend of my old machine too, but I have been beaten too it as that is really the only assistance I can offer here. I am at abit of a loss.

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  8. I have a Janome too DC3050, so I think it is fairly similar.

    I would suggest removing the whole bobbin plate and the whole bobbin thingamijig and you might be surprised at what you find there. Also try changing the needles if it hasn't been changed in a while.

    Hope you get this sorted out soon.

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  9. Here's a pic to show you how much *ahem* stuff collects there ;p

    http://patchwork-of-mini-grey.blogspot.com/2006/08/clean-your-machine-girls.html

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  10. Sorry not much help here - but I hope you get it fixed HB because I want to see your Haloween delights.

    I have just been to Little Munchkins blog - that is seriously scary - must add "clean sewing machine" to my long list of stuff to clean

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  11. I had this problem recently, and it turned out that the standard sized bobbin I had bought was not exactly the right size! It fit, it turned, but not cleanly, so the tension was all awry. I marked that bobbin with paint and threw it in the bits for sculpture drawer!

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  12. Bobbin in backwards? Tension? Bobbin thread same as top thread? Fabric really thin and needs stabiliser? Need new needle? Clean (vac) inside machine? Good luck - really hope it sorts itself out! My Janome does this occasionally too...

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  13. Oh no! I'm no help, but just wanted to send you some good sewing machine fixing vibes.

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  14. keep fiddling with bobbin, tension, thread, needles...something usually works in the end (& then you can never quite remember which thing it was that fixed it!)

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