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Member since 11/16/07
Posts: 1784
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Posted on: 2/22/12 3:45 PM ET
I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas or experience with this. When I began makin gall these wool jackets this winter I started having the problem. There an aluminum flap on the bottom of my needle plate that got bent completely down while using my serger on a couple of canvas bags. DH bent it back in place and I have a new needle plate on order. However, I am wondering if this is why my needles are still breaking. After DH bent it back in place the only time my needles break is when I am working with that heavy wool. I have gone through at least 6 packages of serger needles in just a month. I am wondering if I should try changing settings on my serger. does anyone have any experience with this happening on heavy wool? I have no problem with denim or light wool. Oh and no problem with knits or that sueded silk.
  
Member since 6/24/06
Posts: 2472
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Posted on: 2/22/12 11:36 PM ET
In reply to allycovey
Needle bar timing could still be out. Place a scrap of the fabric under the foot, lower foot, open door and turn hand wheel towards you. Turn very slowly and watch where the needles are in relation to the looper. If the needles get pushed by the looper needle bar timing/ looper timming should be adjusted by a tech. Take scrap of fabric with you.
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Janome10001, Babylock ESG3, Brother ULT 2001, White 634D serger, Pfaff 1472, Singer featherweight, Singer 14T957Dc, Bernina FunLock 009DCC coverlock, Brother PQ1500S, Janome CP900.
  
Member since 5/2/09
Posts: 11280
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Posted on: 2/23/12 1:56 AM ET
In reply to allycovey
If it still works fine on lighter fabric right now, with just the same size and kind of needles, (size 12 or 14) maybe even something heavy and not supported (like your wool jackets) is dragging and pulling down on your needle tips enough to just bend them and have them strike something. It probably has a pretty strong pressure foot, but maybe not all that strong, that could not ever happen, if a lot of heavy fabric dragging down out of it.

Maybe try holding your fabric and supporting it a bit better or lay it out on a lager surface or f you have a bunch of old phone books or such stack them around the machine. If it's really kind of heavy and weighty, like a long skirt of something I'm embroidering or sewing on, I will even sometimes drape part of it over another chair back next to a machine, to support the weight and avoid drag on a needle tip just on any kind of machine sometimes.

Also, all it takes
is a sudden tight thread going though any kind of needle tip on anything, to move a needle tip over enough to strike something on a sewing machine, and even tighter there on a serger. And those loopers are moving pretty fast so close to each other. Maybe check that out too.
  
Member since 5/2/09
Posts: 11280
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Posted on: 2/23/12 2:02 AM ET
In reply to allycovey
Were all 6 packages of needles that broke more than normal for you when sewing the wool jackets really the good Schmetz ELx705 CF #12 or #14 ones or were some of them or all of them something else?
  
Member since 11/8/05
Posts: 629
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Posted on: 2/23/12 7:11 AM ET
Is the wool felted? If so you can probably just sew it on a sewing machine since it won't ravel.

I suspect the timing or that you bent something else and didn't realize it at the time. Was it you that broke the foot too? Was this at the same time that the needle plate bent? Do you have a dealer that can look at it? I think with sergers there's very little owners can do if something breaks.
  
Member since 11/16/07
Posts: 1784
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Posted on: 2/23/12 10:14 AM ET
yes I should just have the whole seger looked at. I just know they will keep it for a long time and I don't like that. Maybe it is the weight of the fabric. I have cut all the left over wool into strips and I am sewing them together to make a quilt. My first on ever, There where two particular jackets made of very loose woven and heavy wool, everytime I go over that leftover fabric, I have to go really slow or my needles break. Yesterday they broke while I was sewing slow. One of the these jackets in particular I went through my last two packages and ended up having to wait to finish til I could get more needles. I had Schmetz #12, I got three more packages of Kasse needles for overlock, and I have now gone through two of those packages. That is a package a week. I think it is because I am ryin gto put this quilt together, they are breaking when I work on it. thanks for your help I will try these different things. After I get more needles that is.
  
Member since 4/22/04
Posts: 7282
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Posted on: 2/23/12 12:44 PM ET
In reply to allycovey
I hope your serger is not out of time. Do double check that you are putting the needles up into the bar as high as they will go. I think your 1200D is much the same serger as the Elna 745.
I have an Elna 744 combo. I have never had a needle break on my serger over the years that I have used it and rarely need to change the needles so I feel you must be frustrated for the problem you are having.

Schmetz EL x705 needles came in my serger. The EL needles were actually developed for Elna machines by Schmetz and as we know are also the recommended needle for coverhem stitch. I believe it has to do with a difference in the scarf of the needle. The EL needles also came on my other brand basic serger.
My Elna can also use basic household needles 130/705H for special threads and fabrics but I have not needed to change over to them from the EL needles.
Have you tried the ELx705 needles 80x12 and 90x14? I hope you get this problem resolved.
  
Member since 1/17/10
Posts: 1252
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Posted on: 2/23/12 1:05 PM ET
For something that thick, it would be better to use size 14 needles. That makes a HUGE difference! My tech told me that most sergers are timed for size 14, though I easily use size 12 on mine.You can also use a longer stitch and/or loosen your presser foot pressure. Sorry you are going through this PITA.
  
Member since 5/2/09
Posts: 11280
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Posted on: 2/23/12 1:21 PM ET
In reply to allycovey
Ye, that Janome serger is the pretty much just the elna one. I like Klasse needles for sewing machines that nornally use Schmetz instead, and would not think twice about switching them out if I had not a Schmetz one in my hand for a sewing machine, but on that Serger, for cover stitching, I sure would want the special Schmetz El X705 ones instead.

My needle is the very most important thing about any sewing machine or serger I'm sewing on at the moment, and the cheapest thing to replace about it too. Unless you count re-threading which is just free instead :)

Once you have some kind of machine, any of them from anywhere, i's for sure yours and you can always just stick anything in it you want, and if you get good results that's great, but if not maybe time to go back to what it was calibrated for.

Also sounds like you had a needle strike to your stitch plate that started the whole thing and actually already broke out the prior metal stitch plate by doing that. For a needle to break a stitch plate sounds like a pretty forceful event. Maybe you jammed your needle bar upwards a bit or knocked a looper a tiny bit to the side. If so maybe it can even still sew most of the time, but needles hit occasionally.

Going though and trashing 5 or 6 needle paks a month would be horribly expensive, I think at about a whopping $25 or $30 a month, even to use the wrong needles and if so, and that would be getting pretty pricy at that point. Plus each time they hit forcefully on something, more chances of knocking something where it should not be I think.

If all sews well on all other fabrics though, then maybe it's just your unusual wool. You could try wrapping some clear wash away stabilizer over it, before sewing into it and see if that made any difference at all maybe.
  
Member since 5/2/09
Posts: 11280
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Posted on: 2/23/12 1:42 PM ET
In reply to allycovey
Also if all that wool is pretty thick under there, maybe while needles trying to go in and out of it, and feed dogs advancing your fabric, just sometimes the needles just might not even be able get high enough up to always clear it, and get snagged into it and then just bend and break. I'm not sure what the answer to that might be, but to maybe try to make it thinner and flatter and at least smooth surface, so less chance of a needle tip not clearing it totally, and getting caught up in it instead. One way to try that, might be to iron down that wool with steam and a lot of pressure first, to try to get it a bit flatter and more compressed, then cover it with clear wash away stabilizer to give it smooth surface with no loose wool threads/weaves sticking out of it, that are more likely to catch on a needle tip. Don't know how that might work for you, but you could always just try it and see.
  
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