The Upholstery Forum

Hello everyone,
I've been looking for a solution to my problem but can't seem to find this specific one... and it's been costing me 40€ in repairs or adjustments quite recurrently... The problem I notice is that the stitches get progressively shorter and the thread starts creating these little knots on the underside. Sometimes the thread will start to bunch up underneath too. they fix it at the repair shop but the problem returns after some hours of use. I think there may be something that goes off with the thread tensioner and/or the fabric pulling mechanism, but I don't really know where to begin looking, as I'm not familiar with the working internals. I'm able to fix my car so I'm sure I can tackle this IF I know what's wrong with it. The machine is a Joy's PF2000. Any help is greatly appreciated, since my diy projects are on hold...

Cheers!

Hi @pcspinheiro Welcome to the forum!
Can you tell me what machine you are using?

I'm not to familiar with machine repair but it sounds to me like something is working its self loose slowly and causing the settings to change.
First easy thing I would check is to make sure that you foot lift height is set to a proper height for your project and make sure those screws are nice and tight and not moving after some time.
Foot height can cause a change in stitch length if its not lifting enough to allow the fabric to feed smoothly.

Also I dont feel the the repair shop should keep charging you each time they say the problem is fixed even though its clearly not. Maybe time to try a new shop?

Thanks for your reply. The machine is a Joy's PF2000. Not really a good machine, but what I could afford at the time... When I take it to the shop it works fine for a while, then it's back to short stitches and knots/bunching... I'm rather tired of paying 40€ each time for a temporary fix, could probably have bought me a low-end singer by now with the repair money... So I want to learn what's wrong and how to fix it myself. If you guys have any pointers it would be awesome.
Cheers!

When mine is giving me grief I always make sure I’ve got the right needle and the thread tensions are correct, next I dissemble and clean and oil the bottom end. If problems persist I check my hook timing and spacing and reset if needed. So far that has cured almost all of my problems.

I’d do like the others mentioned. Check tension as your thread may be too tight, also the gap between the feed dogs and your walking foot. May not be set right and not pushing the material through far enough over time.

@pcspinheiro The machine you are using is not ment for sewing heavy fabric. This may also be why your having this problem.

Thanks again for all your replies! I will do the suggested checks and try to get it running again for my "regular" sewing jobs (curtains and light fabrics). But I guess John is right, it's not meant for heavier fabrics, which was probably why I started getting problems with it: upholstering DIYs. It was still rather light upholstery fabric, but I guess I need to find me a used, cheap machine that can handle the thicker fabrics. I actually wanted to take up a new project with my home cinema sofas, entirely made by myself a couple of years ago. At the time, I use a light-colored chenille fabric all over because it seemed cheap, but after only 2 years it's starting to look "used". We watch movies with the kids almost every weekend, with a pizza too, so I wanted to reupholster using black synthetic leather. Maybe it will be cheaper to just prepare the pieces and pay an upholstery shop to sew them for me, although I would really like to do it myself, it's more satisfactory !

That's sounds like a fun project. You can usually find good industrial walking foot machines used on craigslist for $500-1000.