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diane1950

Skill: Intermediate

I am having trouble threading my sewing machine I am older so fine print is impossible to see. Either I forgot how to thread machine or maybe the tension is wrong but I have not changed it. Sewing machine will start sewing ten thread will break. Please help I have promised many face masks and neck coolers .

beauturbo

California USA
Skill: Advanced

Posted on: 7/18/20 11:59 PM ET

Since it has an odd and unusual (but good) kind of top tension device with no round metal tension disks in it, and more a rubbery roller bar instead, that more electronic wise meters out the top thread, when you pass the top thread through the top tension device area, don't just quick swipe it through there. Do extra. Instead hold the thread in one hand (your right one) and pass the thread through with your left hand. Now with hands on both sides of that thread, pull in, in towards you a bit and see saw it back and forth, to make sure it really got in there all the way and good. I think that is the best way to do it.
There are several ways to thread. One is to thread up the top tension device and then stage the top thread at the top of the machine. Then ask the machine (with fingers on the LED screen) to let it's robotics do all the moving and pick up that top thread from the staging area, and get it and move it all the way down into the machine everyplace it needs to go. Like all in one fell swoop. But if that is not working for some reason, you can still do it manual with your fingers if you want to instead. that is in the book, if you got a magnifying glass. In that case, you got to flip the left side cover open to do that with your fingers. Or just have that cover flipped open anyways to watch, even if using the built in robotics way. But because of it's unusual robotics, if you use those, it does not thread up exactly like any other machine except for maybe some matching to it Singer XL5000 or XL6000 one really.
If the thread breaks right at the start of the sewing, and all the time, maybe try not using the automatic needle threader at all. Or use that, but before you start sewing pull more top thread down and out of the needle, so the thread that has gone through the needle to thread it, never has to go through there again. Because if the needle threader hook is kind of old and bent up, I do think it could nick the top thread and then when that same place of thread goes though the machine again to really sew with it, it might break, or get more unraveled there.
Even though Janome owns Elna now, Janome is not very interested in or supportive of that machine anymore, because it's not one of theirs that they ever made for elna even. it was Juki made instead for elna, maybe around 2004 or 2005 instead. So, I don't think you can get a .pdf copy of the manual for threading directions off the elna website anymore. Sears still has one though, on their website for the Singer XL5000 or XL6000 which is about the same machine though, so if you have to, because you can't see some paper printed thing, look at that one there in your computer, after you download it for free, and that way, you can make the printing and the diagrams as large as you want, for threading help, just since it would be on a computer monitor instead.
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/manual/6qg8879x8x-001232/singer-xl-6000-electronic-sewing-machine
Also I think it has to be pretty well oiled on the places the robotic arm has to move up and down on, to thread it up for you, so if it seems real dry there, give it a couple drops of sewing machine oil on all the places the robotic arm has to move, while you got the left side cover flipped open. That might help too. Such nice machines, I still really like those a lot though.
-- Edited on 7/19/20 at 0:07 AM --

Mufffet

Vermont USA
Skill: Intermediate

Posted on: 7/19/20 9:11 AM ET

Sewing with Pfaff 1222E, Elna eXcellence 720, Brother Innovis Pacesetter PS500, Brother SE400, Janome 8050, Brother XR9500PRW, Brother 1034D.
'Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.'
--Dalai Lama
https://eyeletsintheseams.blogspot.com/

diane1950

Skill: Intermediate

Posted on: 7/19/20 10:04 AM ET

what is the robotics bar where is it. Also where do I oil the machine. Thank You

diane1950

Skill: Intermediate

Posted on: 7/19/20 10:07 AM ET

Hi my machine is 9010 not 9020 are they both the same when threading ? Thank You

Mufffet

Vermont USA
Skill: Intermediate

Posted on: 7/19/20 2:42 PM ET

Sewing with Pfaff 1222E, Elna eXcellence 720, Brother Innovis Pacesetter PS500, Brother SE400, Janome 8050, Brother XR9500PRW, Brother 1034D.
'Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.'
--Dalai Lama
https://eyeletsintheseams.blogspot.com/

beauturbo

California USA
Skill: Advanced

Posted on: 7/19/20 4:21 PM ET

The 9010 and the 9020 are pretty much the same thing, just the 9010 was first and the 9020 was second. Sort of like the Singer XL5000 was first and the Singer XL6000 was second. They all share almost all the same parts and such. The embroidery units, and hoops and just about all else, are interchangeable with each other. The threading path is the same for all of them. for regular sewing. The Singer ones had an extra thread exchanger gizmo that could fit into the top of the machine that the elna ones did not, (which could be used or not as you wish) but that was for hoop embroidery, not regular feed dog up sewing.
Early 2000's was a real long time ago. If the machine has never really been oiled and greased or serviced since then, and you never did it yourself either, I would be kind of really surprised if the robotics for the threading still all moved easy or the embroidery unit pantogram still even moved good actually. Since it's kind of super way past time for something like that. That should have been happening at least occasional all a long. But anyways, if those things can't move right, because they are all getting stuck, and dry, they also are probably making some pretty bad noises by now, as they try to move even.
I think under normal times, you could just pay someone maybe $150 or so to do it. And they would do the embroidery unit too even. It's kind of not normal times though, just right now, in the middle of a Covid 19 panedemic, if places are closed and you just happen to want to make a whole bunch of masks, suddenly, at the same time, and that has not been done for years and years and years.
But yes, all along you should have been giving it one drop of real sewing machine oil in the race area, when you took the stitch plate off and the removable bobbin case out, to even clean that area, and take the thread lint out of it there. Maybe every 20 or 30 bobbins worth of thread you used up, or if it sat someplace unused for a long while. If you did not service it for a couple of years, then you should have at least been giving it a drop or two of oil on the needle bar, in between. So if that has really not been happening, do it now. To give the robotic arm some little drop of oil, everyplace that metal moves on metal, when it does it's stuff, you can just see that and where by watching it move, if you got the flip open door open on the left side over the thread take up, and you ask it (by your fingers on the LED Screen) to pick up the staged thread on the top of the machine, and thread it all for you.
I service those machines, and when I do, I do actually take covers off and such and that is how it's supposed to be done, of course, under optimal circumstances. 15 or more years later after they were made and in the middle of a big panademic, things are probably not always optimal though. But, you can't expect a machine to run good or work good forever with no lubrication at all either. That is totally unreasonable. That is just not going to happen. I think they are kind of too nice of a machine to trash, by just never lubricating it. They were expensive and expensively made too- not cheap or cheaply made at all.

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