Victory over "The Man"

Another reason for less productivity - my "quilting" machine, a bottom-of-the-line Brother CS6000i, decided to stop sewing a couple of weeks ago.

Now, I mostly have "old" machines. As in, older than I am. These machines were made for the owners to do regular maintenance on them. Not so the newer machines.

Since this "new" machine was over a year old, so out of warranty anyway, I decided to go ahead and hack into it. To compare: My featherweight has a single thumbscrew on the bottom plate which allows you to access 90% of what needs to be done. All the screws are accessible. The Brother: Five or screws later, I can crack the back of the machine open maybe an inch. I jam my checkbook box into the opening so I can work in there. MAN, was it full of fluff. Including one big bunch of fluff which was snagging up the gears. So I clean out all the fluff and clean off the gears.

This necessitates another adventure: Hardware stores to get lubricant for the [plastic] gears. The Home Depot guys treat me like a "girl" and clearly have no idea what I'm talking about when I tell them I want silicone grease. Don't have it. Strosnider's Hardware didn't have it either, but at least the guy there knew what I was talking about. I found PTFE lube at the local hobby shop on the way home from work and greased up the gears.

Taking off the stitch plate was another adventure, requiring an offset screwdriver (!). More fluff pulled out, then everything put back together.

AND IT WORKS!!

Still, I think what I really need is a Singer 301 or 201 for quilting.