LoupEsprit

Mine is a drop in. I've tried everything to make it work. I honestly don't want to look at it right now, I'm so frustrated. I have projects to finish! 😞

GailG

This is probably the most sensible thing to do
, but........it would probably be better to get an estimate before you chuck the old one. Depends on what you can get away with.

Prism99

If you want to stay under $200, take a look at the Brother machines at Walmart. Lots of quilters on the QB use them and like them. I would buy one as a backup machine, but my main machine is a 15yo Bernina.

Knitette

I had this once and took it to the repair shop. Mine was like yours - I could see the bit underneath moving, but the case wasn't. It would move a little and stick - wouldn't pick up the thread at all. Turns out, when I replaced the case, although I was putting it in correctly, the hand wheel was in the 'wrong' position.

All it needed was to be moved a half turn or so and the bobbin case re-inserted

The same thing happened again recently, but this time I was able to fix it by just moving the wheel until the bobbin moved correctly.
Good luck!

quiltedsunshine

The bobbin case isn't supposed to move around, only the hook underneath it is. If you've broken a needle, and the thread isn't picking up, you've knocked the timing off. Usually on those machines, the needle bar needs to be put back in place. Your local shop is likely to charge you around $85 to do that simple thing. I'd put that money into a better machine that will hold a timing setting.

And throw away the big "quilting" pins, and get some fine or extra fine "patchwork" pins. They don't knock the timing out when you run over them.