Sticky situation

A co-worker had me take a look at her Bernina recently. The problem? She was unable to disengage the needle to wind a bobbin. The Bernina 1008 requires that you turn the inner portion of the handwheel towards you in order to disengage the needle. This thing wouldn’t budge. I decided to clean out the machine and sew on it for a bit. One new shirt later, the thing still wouldn’t budge.

I emailed our local Bernina dealer at Sew Much More and he said to bring it in. The good news, the stuck handwheel wasn’t as big a deal as I thought. Apparently if you place a spool of thread under the pin that holds the needle in (see picture), you will get enough leverage to unstick the inner wheel. (hint to machine owner: Do not over tighten the inner wheel after winding bobbins).

Unstuck
The trick also works with machines that are older and require getting the inner wheel positioned just right. (I had to test that theory out on my new machine today).