Oil and Grease for your Embroidery Machine:

 In the maintenance field the general rule is anytime metal rubs against metal you put a dab of grease on it. Machine maintenance will prolong the life of your machine and give you more sewing time. Embroidery machines do not last forever but a little preventive maintenance will keep your machine running and trouble free.

Be aware that there are many types of oil and grease on the market, and some may not be too healthy for you machine. Let's examine the maintenance schedule and I recommend to keep you machine oiled and lubricated.

 You should follow the recommendations of your distributor and/or manufacturer. They usually have information and directions in the users manual or on their website. With that information in mind with most companies there are 3 different oiling/lubrication schedules. This of course depends on how heavily you use your machine.

Under normal use where the machine is used consistently but not constantly most manufacturers recommend a Daily, Weekly, and Yearly. If you are running constantly, as in 1000s of shirts none stop all day you may want to use 4 hours, Bi-weekly, and Bi-annual.

What are the boards and electronics in a commercial embroider machine, and how do they interact with each other?

I get quite a few questions about electronics and boards in embroidery machines. This is some basic information about the boards involved. Your commercial embroidery machine is basically a CNC Sewing machine. CNC stands for 'computer numerical control' which is a system that tells a machine to move to this coordinate and do something. then move tho this location and do something else.

You may use a CNC machine every day and not know it as a cnc machine. Your Printer is a CNC machine. Laser cutters, plasma cutters, 3d printers, and cnc routers are examples of other CNC machines.

Again basically the machine moves to a X - Y Coordinate and then does something. Your embroidery machine moves a shirt or cap to a specific location and does a stitch.

Click "Read More" to find out more information on this topic.

Rotary hooks rotate twice every time the needle comes down, so if you run your machine at 700 stitches per minute the hook spins at 1400 stitches per minute (SPM). The interior of the Hook has a rail that slides in a raceway and holds the hook together. There are no bearings, so the rail and raceway are metal on metal. This is the only point on the machine that most manufactures recommend you lubricate every four hours of use. ​Rotary hooks may need to be replaced at around 3 to 5 years, depending on use and maintenance of the machine.

Understanding and setting your thread tension properly can mean the difference in high-quality good-looking embroidery and frustrating and ugly stitches.

Think of thread tension as a game of tug-of-war between the bobbin thread and the upper threads. Two groups of kids on the playground are facing off, but instead of out pulling each other they are trying to keep a knot in the middle of the rope in the center.

If Team Bobbin pulls really hard then Team Needle 1 has to pull harder to keep the knot in the center. On the other hand, if Team Bobbin is not pulling very hard then Team Needle 1 does not have to pull hard.  

The extremes are:

• If both teams are pulling too hard you will have more thread breaks and broken needles.
• If both teams are not pulling very hard you will have loopy thread on top and the chance of more bird nest.

Information on replacing your rotary hook and/or setting your hook timing. 

How can you tell if your embroidery machine timing is off?

Hook Timing is the point in the machines rotation that the needle, in an upward stroke, passes the point of the rotary hook and connects with the thread.

Timing usually goes out in your sewing machine after the Needle and thread gets jammed or you have a birds nest.  You can tell you sewing machine is out of time when you can no longer sew, your machine is missing stitches, fraying thread, and you stich-outs look horrible. 

Most brands of embroidery machines use the same methods for timing rotary hooks, the degree that the machine is set at may differ but the method is usually the same.

Main Motor Lock or Main Shaft Error, or My embroidery machine wont turn!

This is a very common error that you may get with an embroidery machine is when the main shaft does not rotate. follow the steps to diagnose and remedy this error.

One very common error that you may get with a embroidery machine is when the main shaft does not rotate. You will get any number of error codes and phrases such as Main Motor Lock, Main Shaft Error, Sewing Motor Lock, and Z-axis not work.

This error is common in most embroidery machines including Avance', Barudan, Butterfly, Dublin, Feiya, Happy, Highland, Melco, Mesa, Meistergram, Pantograms, Pro Capsule, Ricoma, SWF, Tajima, Toyota, and ZSK.

 The base problem you have when you get this error is the main motor or sewing motor is not turning as it should. This could be the motor going out however it is very rare that the motors fail on these machines. The vast majority of the time the issue will be a broken needle jammed in the Rotary Hook. So this is how I diagnose the issue.

Read the article below and follow the steps to diagnose and remedy Main Motor Lock or Main Shaft Error

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