Sometimes it takes that last ditch thought to get to the bottom of a problem. Nephew Brett got his sewing machine tuned up by my people in Bird Island. They pin pointed the problem and had put down a solution for him to follow up on. When my cell phone rang and I saw it was Brett . . . I cringed. The free motion foot they had put on to replace the bent one was of a plastic Mylar type until Brett would go online to order the specific foot needed from the Husqvarna Viking site which was of hard metal.
The interim foot had lasted for only several hours and it was in pieces. “Have you gone online and gotten the order in place for the appropriate foot?” “No . . . not yet.” All I could tell him was to dig the original foot out of the garbage and take a needle nose plier to it until the needle would pass through the center of it and not force the needle to hit the face plate. By the way . . . that was one of the problems as to why Brett was breaking needles.
A call later, the needles were still breaking. As I looked at my own machine doing an embroidery design, it dawned on me. I finally ask him how fast he ran the machine. “Wide open.” I was amazed. I asked him how much the machine vibrated running at full speed. You can imagine the response. What made this fellow who has expensive machines for cutting concrete and steel to think that a sewing machine needed to also have some reasonable speed control.
The last phone call . . . “It’s running like a champ.” Why I had never asked about the setting of the speed is beyond me. Never assume. You know how that ends up. “Did you put your order in for the new foot? That metal tweaked with a plier may be weakened and cause some problems if used for many hours.” “No, not yet.”
I now have a slight headache. Gotta love those who do try something that is out of their wheelhouse.
