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[John]

I realized today that a lot of you might not know what a safety clutch is because I have never talked about it before. Most machines have them, but not all. Basically it is a devise the protect the machine from damaging if some thing gets bound up or out of time. When its tripped it disengages the hook drive in the lower portion of the machine. When this happens it will cause your machine to act like the timing is completely out of wack. To reset it or check it there is a little silver button on the bed of your machine. Press this down and rotate the hand wheel back wards. You will feel the button engage at some point ant the machine stop. Continue to push backwards with a fair amount of pressure. If you feel something click back in to place then the clutch is reset and that was your problem. If it doesn't click the clutch is already good. If it just keeps spinning backwards with out locking then there is a little part on the clutch that is broken and needs to be replaced.

Here is a cool video show how the clutch works.

[BigRig]

NIGHTMARES!!!!!!

John, when my machine was going haywire it was throwing the safety clutch off all the time. I was ready to junk the machine. The silver button does not work on mine so I had to lift the machine and reset with a screwdriver.

Good call on the video many people getting into this who buy and old machine may think their machine just DIED when the clutch is thrown.

[John]

@BigRig Did the service guy you took your machine to tell you what was wrong with it?

[BigRig]

I had a mechanic come to the house first of all told me my machine was garbage. I messed around with it for week trying to locate a mechanic and parts and was just spinning my wheels and had to quit my studies. I did get a list of things wrong when I got it back, missing parts, out of time mostly mechanical. I have the list somewhere. I was relieved to get my machine operable. It could still be classified as garbage but I am determined to produce some nice work with my garbage machine for now. It used to be a double needle and was converted to a single needle.

[BigRig]

Oh Bobbins tension spring was haywire on it I remember.

[John]

That machine isn't garbage! Maybe it just needed some love but those old consews are super reliable once you get em running smooth.

[BigRig]

I am happy with it now, its going to do everything I want it to. I would just get confused with new sewing machine technology.

[BigRig]

Hey guys got lazy winding a bobbin, my needle thread wrapped into the hook and SNAP goes the thread and safety clutch gets thrown. I was actually getting panicked because I could not get the machine operable and I am working on a deadlined project. I went back to my Apprentice Course and reviewed cleaning my machine (which was due) and got my machine operable again.

Lesson learned!