My sewing machine was working quite smoothly. It didn’t show any problems until the day when its outer wooden case was broken. Nothing wrong had happened to the machine itself.
I got the case mended but after that day, the machine started showing glitches. The stitches were of inappropriate size. The thread started tangling in the needle. The tip of the needle got bent and avulsed the threads of the cloth. The worst of all, the needle broke every now and then; if the speed of the machine increased first the thread broke then the needle. All this made my work irritating. The task that could be accomplished in ten minutes took hours and was still not appropriate.
I tried to adjust everything I could. I changed the belt of the wheel, did the oiling all over the machine, removed, cleaned and remounted the bobbin box. Nothing was of any use. I asked some people what the possible reason for this may be. Nobody could tell me what the cause can be. Whatever suggestion they gave I was already done with them. One of my tailor relatives said I should use the needle of some other brand. I followed the instructions but was of no use. The machine kept on showing the same problems.
I tried to figure out the problem again. Instead of examining the machine, this time I reflected on when the problem had actually aroused. I reminded it had become problematic since its outer wooden case had been repaired. I uncovered the machine and started examining its case.
An extra piece of wood was installed to support the base.
There was nothing wrong with it.
Okay, what then? I stroked my hand on the four corners where the machine was settled in the wooden box, the machine was just in line with the box.
What else? I tried to figure what change has appeared since it has been repaired. There was a change in the working of the bobbin slide. It was not pulling out smoothly as it was doing before.
It was slightly (less than a millimeter) inside at one corner.
“Eureka!”
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I found the major issue (that was quite minor). It was a little disbalanced and so all the problems appeared. Because of it, the needle couldn’t enter the small hole in the needle plate properly (it is the hole where the needle goes inside to fetch the thread from the bobbin).
The needle first stroke the sidewall then entered the hole. This continuous striking resulted in needle bending and finally breaking.
I turned the machine to check the reason for its disbalance. The wooden block providing the support at that corner had gone slightly down while the case went through the mending process. I gave a packing of a paper card to it
and then………..Zhoooooooom. The machine started working smoothly again.
This experience taught me it is very important to figure out the root cause of the problem for finding the right solution. Sometimes, we spend our resources (time and money) on the things that have nothing wrong with them. The resources only waste bringing no positive result. It is not necessary that the root cause is as prominent and big as the apparent problems are. It is our duty to examine the situation deeply to come up with a durable solution.
This is my entry for the word of the week “Eureka”
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Other images are taken by me.