When to change your machine's needle?
09-07-2011, 06:15 PM
#43
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Michigan
Posts: 591
Originally Posted by DogHouseMom
Yes, there is the "between each project" but one can go from a table runner to a king size quilt ... and a lot also depends on the type of piecing you are doing - little pieces (lots of seams), but pieces, paper piecing??
Other teachers will tell you after X hours of sewing, but of course the rules above will still differ to a degree what can be done in X hours. And the type of fabric, I think batiks are rougher on needles than a more open woven fabric. I'm not sure if heavy starch makes any difference or not - I guess it's possible.
So instead of counting hours and taking all of the variables into consideration ....
... I use my ear. I can hear the different sound an old needle makes as it pierces the fabric (soft thunk or pop) compared to a new needle (no sound or a very soft pfft).
Other teachers will tell you after X hours of sewing, but of course the rules above will still differ to a degree what can be done in X hours. And the type of fabric, I think batiks are rougher on needles than a more open woven fabric. I'm not sure if heavy starch makes any difference or not - I guess it's possible.
So instead of counting hours and taking all of the variables into consideration ....
... I use my ear. I can hear the different sound an old needle makes as it pierces the fabric (soft thunk or pop) compared to a new needle (no sound or a very soft pfft).
09-08-2011, 05:05 AM
#46
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Illinois
Posts: 9,018
when I hear a popping sound I know I should have replaced it awhile ago, so I do it then.......I once heard a story about a woman who brought her machine in to the repairman saying it "just would not stitch!" He looked at it and asked how long she had had the machine, she couldn't remember how long, just a "long time", then he asked when she last replaced the needle...you guessed it--never had--needle no longer had a point......
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