How long does a needle last?

[smeggy345o]

I took the cover off the take off lever cam and watched it move when I was changing needles. I noticed that when it tried to go from needle 2 to needle one, there is a copper bushing like thing that it bumps against and does not allow it to go to needle one. Is that a bushing and should it be inside that black round thing to the right?

[smeggy345o]

I can't believe it, but I fixed it somehow. I did every single lubrication ever necessary. And now it is working. The last one I did was the presser foot cam and upper bearing lubrication. - mary
PS - I still hate their diagrams! This only took 5 hours because I could not understand where things were.

[Juli in Kona]

That is great! And on a holiday weekend, all by yourself. Don't you just get the warm fuzzy feeling? Congratulations.

Do you think it was the lack of lubrication that brought on the trouble in the first place?. Everyone keeps telling us how important it is to lub, lub lub.

I'd say to relax and enjoy a nice holiday dinner, but I suppose you have to finish your big job. Or at least get a good start on it.

This is the Easter you'll surely remember.

Juli in Kona

[mudslinger]

See this is why I love this board, I always get great info here I would of never thought to oil the ones next to the one doing all the work and the extra set of pinch rollers is a great idea to speed that up,
thanks everyone

[Body Cover]

Mary, someone else, like one of the techs, can probably answer this better, but when it says its blocked I beleive it refers to the sensor is sending a signal saying the tooth of the comb is blocking the signal. on my old amaya there is a square "C" shaped sensor "C" meaning it is a square block with a slot on its side, then there is a long bar with little teeth on it that attaches to the needle bar that slides through this slot, I belive it is probably an infra red sensor like a remote control, it has a light at the top and a sensor at the bottom, and when the teeth of this comb shaped br slide through the slot th light is blocked from the sensor for a brief moment and that's how the machine can "count" where it is at on the needles when doing a color change. it is important to use canned air to blow out that sensor because lint can build up and block the light telling the machine that the needles aren't moving and stop the action of the needles changing color. sometimes
when it is between two needles and sometimes not.
but if the sensor says blocked and it is between the two needles then I would try to clean the sensor it it should just magically begin to work again, as for where to find it, look in the manual for the color change sensor diagram, because that can be very difficult to describe!

Hopefully I haven't confused you to much, and hope that the info is correct, it is mostly my best guess assumption.

Ron

[Oregonian1a]

In regards to an automatic lubrication system, I used to help design machinery that employed such systems. On the machinery that I helped design, it was acceptable for the oil to drip off the guides and down into the coolant tank.

I would not want the task of designing that sort of system for these machines. Calibrating them to deliver just enough to properly lube but not enough to start dripping would be a nightmare. Anything can be done with enough R&D and resources I suppose (think $$$) but I think the expense added to this machine as well as the likely problems that would be introduced would not make it practical.