Hook Timing Written Instructions

I am experiencing thread breaks on most of the needles...not all the time just

enough to be annoying. I noticed that the thread is frayed after it is cut. I
have a 1501 SWF. Any ideas how I may correct this.
Thanks!I am experiencing thread breaks on most of the needles...not all the time just
enough to be annoying. I noticed that the thread is frayed after it is cut. I
have a 1501 SWF. Any ideas how I may correct this.
Thanks!

You may want to check your hook timing, to do so follow these steps and let me
know what you find.

1) Set your machine to needle number 8, by pressing the number 8 on the control
panel.
2) Remove the needle plate.
3) Power off the machine.
4) Rotate the main shaft wheel in the back of the machine two whole rotations
then set it to 200 degrees.

5) Your needle should be all the way down now, look behind the needle and locate
the hook point located somewhere behind the needle on the rotary hook. The hook
point will be the tip of what looks to be an open end of a pair of scissors. The
tip should line up right behind the needle, and the gap between the needle and
the hook point should be about the distance of a slender business card, or
.50mm. Push needle 8 backwards towards the hook point and see if the hook point
is resting up against the back side of that needle, if it is then the rotary
hook is breaking the needles, and you will have to adjust the hook timing.

That rotary hook spins and the hook point picks up the upper thread and joins it
with the bobbin thread, If the hook point is too close or resting against the
back of the needle, then the rotary hook point is snapping the needle as it
makes contact. There needs to be a gap as I mentioned of about a half a
millimeter.

If the rotary hook point is not aligned directly behind the needle, than slowly
turn the wheel in the back of the machine until it does line up behind the
needle, and let me know what degree the wheel is set to when the hook point does
line up directly behind the needle. Hook timing is optimum at 200 degrees, but
it can be set anywhere from 198 to 202 degrees, depending on how long the eye of
the needle is. If your hook point is lined up behind the needle less than 198 or
more than 202 then you will have to set hook timing.

Here is a link where you can watch how hook timing is to be set. Now on the
video you will see that they remove the black support bracket. If you need to
adjust hook timing, you do not need to remove this support bracket. The only
time you need to remove this bracket is if you need to replace the rotary hook,
or if you have burrs or nicks along the leading edge of the rotary hook. It is
entirely possible that your rotary hook has a burr on it, which when the thread
glides over the burr or nick, it would cut it, causing it to fray up the length.

So it might be a good idea to run your thumb nail along the outter rim of the
rotary hook, Again you do not have to remove the rotary hook to do this, just
turn your main shaft to 140 degrees and run your thumb nail along the rim of the
rotary hook, Start at the 9:00 poition and rund your thumb nail down and around
to the 3:00 position and see if you feel any nicks or burrs. If you do get an
emory board and instead of removing your rotary hook to buff out the nicks, you
can do it whikle the rotary hook is mounted to your machine. After you've buffed
out the burrs then polish it with a peice of crocus cloth.

Possible jump motor problem

Needle bar in down position on every needleIt sounds like your jump motor needs to be adjusted or replaced. The jump motors

job is to push aside the top portion of the recipricator to disengage the needlebar so the needles can return to the top of it's motion. THe jump motor has ashaft that upon receiving information from the control panel fires out thepiston shaft pushing aside the top of the recipricator, thus disengaging theneedle from the recipricator allowing the needle to go back up to the top. Totest the jump motor do the following.
1. Press the button on the control panel that is labeled MACHINE. (It has the
SWF logo on it

2. Scroll down to MACHINE TEST. and press SET.

3. Scroll down to JUMP MOTOR TEST, or it may be labeled JUMP TEST. Press SET.

4. Press the START button to fire the jump motor. You should hear a clicking
sound emanating from the left hand side of the head.

If you hear a clicking noise, that would indicate that the jump motor isworking and it just needs to be adjusted. If you do not hear anything whenpressing the START button, this would indicate the jump motor has failed andwill need to be replaced. It is not an expensive part, and replacing it takes about 30 minutes or so.

Change the colors shown on your LCD screen to match those in your design

Usually the most used colors are on the machine, Red, Black, White, Navy,Emerald, Gray, Yellow, or Athletic Gold, and usually another jewel tone orearth tone. But on the newer machines that have the LCD display, you have apallete which you can set up to reflect the colors that are on your machine. Ifyou go to SETTING, NEEDLE SETTING, you have the top portion where you assignyour color changes for the design you are sewing, below that you have a needleconvert which nobody uses, and below that you will see 15 color squares that areyour pallete. these can be set to reflect the colors you have on your machine soyou do not have to look at the thread tree and count what needle a specificcolor is on. Also it is a good tool to use where if you press the SIMULATION button, you cansee in 3D what the design will look like with the color changes you set. To setthis palette simply go to SETTING, and then go down to NEEDLE SETTING, andthen hit your don arrow to NEEDLE COLORS, once there simply press the SET buttonand a color wheel will come up and then using your arrow buttons you simply movethe cursor in the color wheel to match the color you have on that needle. But on the older machines you have the LED type display which does not have thisneedle palette. So I usually put the standard use all the time threads on there,then use the other remaining needles for specialty color to be used for a specific design.

Knives not set properly

My B-T1501 stopped trimming the threads this morning and I have not been able to find the cause. The blade is moving fine but it just doesn't cut anything. As a consequence, every time there is cut command Iget the 206 error, but it goes away if I manually cut the thread with

my scissors.

I tried to adjust the blade tension without any result.Remove your needleplate to be able to fully inspect the knives. Under the needle plate you will find a silver articulationg knife and a black knife thathas SWF engraved on it. Look at the leading edge of the black knife and inspectit for any burrs or nics. Use your thumb nail to detect if it has a nic on it.If it does then it will have to be replaced.If you swing the silver knife out from under the black peice and loop a peiceof thread around the front of it, push it slowly under the black peice all theway and see if the thread trims, If it does not then the angle of the blackopeice is not set correctly and will need to be adjusted. It would be like thescrew comming loos on a pair of scissors would not allow you to cut paper, thesame lies true with that black peice. If the angle or height has changed then itwill not cut at all.For both of these scenarios I would highly recommend either you send the knifeblock in for adjustment or if there is a nic in the black peice then I wouldalso suggest you send the knife block in for repair, as setting the angle andheight of that black knife has to be set exact. A trained technician could dothis in about 20 minutes and without ever seeing one you can very well be at itfor days. Setting the angle and height and then remounting it to the machine putthe needle plate on and test the trim. If it fails then you got to remove itagain and try a different setting. You can see how this would build to afrustrating matter real quick.

movable cutter not returning

The movable cutter, located in the bobbin area, might not be returning completely
I had the same problem and it was the movable cutter that was not returning
to its original place and was causing needle breaks. If you take the needle
plate off you will see that the cutter should be sticking out about 1mm and
in my case it was not going in under the cutter that doesn't move. I hope
you understand what I am trying to say. We then removed the plate that is
behind the needle plate - also silver and the plate that is right at the end
of the arm and there is a black rod that controls the cutter and this could
have come out of alignment. We then adjusted the cutter that only 1mm stuck
out. The adjustment screw is right at the end of the black rod. Lisa hope
this makes sense.

Needle went down and stayed down, breaking on the tip

I bought a SWF 601C. I've had it for a couple of months and it has worked great. yesterday i replaced a needle on #6.... nothing felt out of the ordinary. it was shredding the thread so I replaced it and finished the design no problem.
the next jacket, same design, when it got to #6 the 1st stitch the needle went down and stayed down, breaking on the tip

now the #6 arm won't raise up. the wheel in the back is not at 100 degrees and won't turn, like everything is in a bind.

The tip of the needle that broke off is jammed in the narrow gap between the inner basket of the rotary hook and the rotary hook itself.

The rotary hook assembly is made up of two components. It is also where the bobbin holder sits into when on the machine. The two components that make up the rotary hook assembly are the inner basket and the rotary hook. If you think of it like this, it will help you understand, the bobbin thread spool sits into the bobbin holder, the bobbin holder gets placed into the inner basket, and the inner basket is sitting inside of the rotary hook itself. The inner basket is the shinny portion of the rotary hook assembly and is stationary as the rotary hook spins around it. Since the inner basket sits inside of the rotary hook assembly and as you embroider, the rotary hook spins around the inner basket, it is possible that when the needle breaks during embroidery, it is possible that the broken tip will get lodged between the narrow gap between the inner basket and the rotary hook assembly.

Once something stops the rotary hook from rotating around the inner basket, it also stops the main shaft wheel from spinning as well, since they work together. The main motor of your machine has a black belt around a pulley that is affixed to its shaft, this belt then goes around the timing wheel (the dial on the rear of the machine usually set at 100 degrees) and the other end is attached to the lower shaft which your rotary hook is mounted to by 3 set screws. If the rotary hook is jammed, then the motor cannot spin the lower shaft which will lock up your main shaft wheel dial on the back of the machine. This is why your take up lever is stuck down because the machine jammed up before it could get to the 100 degree mark. At the 100 degree mark the take up lever would be all the way up even with the other take up levers and the needle itself wuld be about half way dow to the needle plate. To fix this try the following.

Pull the bobbin out of the rotary hook assembly, Then see if you can locate the broken tip of the needle lodged in between the narrow gap between the inner basket and the rotary hook. You should be familiar with this area since it is the gap where you are suppose to oil every 4 to 6 hours. Inspect all the way around this small gap and see if you can find the broken needle that is jamming it up. Once you find it or if you cannot find it do this next step anyway.

Put a good amount of oil in the gap between the inner basket and the rotary hook, just like you would normally do, and I would over oil it as it will help us dislodge the broken needle tip. Next go to the back of the machine and I want you to gently rock the dial on the back left and right a few times then catutiously and with some slight force turn the dial clockwise as you are looking at it from the back. Then left right rocking motion then forcefully Clockwise again, until you are able to turn that wheel all the way around without fail.

By doing this we are trying to froce that broken tip out of its narrow gap, If forcing it clockwise does not work out the needle tip, then rock left and right and try going counter clockwise a few trims, This procedure usually works, If you can locate the needle debris before rocking the wheel in the back, then you can pretty much figure out which way to force that dial on the back to be more advantageous to you to loosen and dislodge that needle tip. Just force it out towards the closest opening, If it is clockwise then rock left and right and with some fore spin clockwise to dislodge it,  Same thing is you have to spin it counter clockwise to dislodge it.
 

If this does not work, then you will have to remove the rotary hook assembly and dislodge the needle with it off of the machine, then remount it and set your hook timing after the needle is removed. 

Needle number changing

I have entered my needle numbers (same ones I have been using for 2 days), and it is 643643366.  Needle 6 sews out and it shows on the screen that Needle 4 is next BUT after 6 sews out the 4 turns to a 5 and 5 starts sewing. I have tried deleted them all and re-entering and it doesn’t help. Why is my embroidery machines needle numbers changing.

The first thing you will need to do is to remove the cover from your Color Change Assembly, If you look behind the head just forward of your oil resevoir you will see a metal cover that will have 4 Phillip screws to it, You will have to set your machine to needle 1 to get to one of these Phillip screws, and then go to needle 15 to get to the other screw.

Once you have that cover removed, on the left hand side of the color change assembly you will find the Potentiometer, it is black in color or it may be royal blue and yellow, (depends on the machine)l. It is this component that we will adjust so your machine behaves correctly on color change.

The trick of setting the potentiometer is simply this. We must make sure that the potentiometer is synchronized with whatever needle is currently over the needle plate hole. In other words we must make the electronic component match the mechanical information currently set on our machine.

First make sure you are in the C/C Settings windows of your control panel, To do this follow this instruction:

Power on the machine, and as soon as your machine starts to make the series of beeping tones on the power up, you need to press the IN/OUT and the SETTINGS button at the same time  Doing this correctly will bring us to the VERSION INSTALL screen on your control panel.

Once you see the VERSION INSTALL screen appear use your green arrow buttons to go to the option C/C SETTINGS. And then press SET, the information on that screen will be a diplay of the needle number that should reflect the needle that is lined up over the needle plate and a half turn sensor indicating ON. Yours will most likely say OFF which would be the incorrect setting and is why we will need to tweak the potentiometer so that the half turn sensor lines up correctly.


  Remove the potentiometer from the half turn sensor which looks like a silver hat. You do this by loosening the one set screw that is deeper set into the half turn mechanism. There are 3 set screws, two lie on the surface of that silver hat, and there is one that is deeper set into the silver hat or half turn mechanism, only loosen the one deeper set,

After you've loosened that set screw slide the potentiometer out, Now turn the manual color change knob which is located behind the head and to the right. Now turn that so that you are between neeldes 14 and 15. In other words over the needle plate hole is no needle but it is between needle 14 and 15. Now turn the shaft of the potentiometer slowly until the screen on the machine reads (NEEDLE 14) then start to turn slowly so that it JUST changes to 15, The number should be flickering back and forth between needle 14 and 15. When you see this then turn the shaft back in the other direction just 1/8th of a turn. Use the groove at the apex of the shaft to determine the 1/8th of a turn.
  
  Once completed gently insert the shaft back into the half turn sensor, being careful not to rotate the shaft upon insertion into the half turn sensor, now tigtn the small set screw that secures the potentiometer to the machine. Then turn the
 color change dial  so that needle 15 lines up over the needle plate, When turning that dial you'll notice that when the needle is over the needle plate, as your turning that dial you should feel that there is an area when turning that dial that there is no restriction in turning the dial like you feel when the head transitions side to side, It is like a free play area of the dial. If you know what I am referring to set needle 15 over the needle plate and then slowly turn the dial until you are at the middle of that free play area. Now look at the control panel display it should read;
  
  Needle: 15    Half Turn Sensor: On
  
  If it does then rotate the dial the other direction to needle 14, make sure you get into the free play area of the dial so that needle 14 is directly over the needle plate hole and you are at the center of that free play area of the dial, The control panel should
 display:
  
  Needle: 14      Half Turn Sensor: On
  
  Continue to do this all the way to needle 1, and then when you see needle one say Needle 1 and half turn sensor ON then exit out of the C/C Settings by pressing the PREVIOUS button and then scroll down to EXIT using the green arrow buttons and then press SET.
  
  Now press the Number 2 on the control panel to see if the machine goes to needle 2, and then upon completion of that transition press number 3 to go to needle 3 and so on all the way to needle 15, then go from needle 15 to 8 (the middle needle) and then from 8 to 1, then 1 to 15.
  
  After you have proven that everything is moving correctly, go ahead and put the covers back on the machines color change components. Make sure that you watch the very thin wires to the rear of the potentiometer when putting the cover back on.

These wires are for the half turn sensor, and if the cover pulls or pinches those wires then you will get the symptoms that you are experiencing now, erratic recognizition of the needle that is over the needle plate, weird color change and chronic error 300's etc... If you feel that your issue that you are experiencing today is due to thise wires possibly being pulled or pinched after you went ahead and replaced the covers to the machine after you initially installed the potentiometer, let me know. If your machine test good on color change with the covers off but becomes erratic after you mount the covers, then it would be indicative that the half turn sensor wires have been damaged and they will need to be replaced