Serger owners please help, lol

[SailorEarth]

The tension discs on my serger have rusted and I think that's what's causing my stitches to come out looking like trash. Someone suggested running waxed dental floss in them to try to clean them but that didn't do any good. I used a small paint brush to wipe a little machine oil on them hoping it'd help the thread to slide past the rust burrs but no luck there either. I thought about sliding a piece of fine grit sandpaper in there but I don't know how much good it would do. I'm probably going to have to have it serviced but I thought I'd see if anyone else had other suggestions first.

[melodys_angel]

Is this for a sewing machiene?

Any way to replace the rusted part?

[SailorEarth]

It's a serger but it can also be called an overlock machine. It uses 3 or 4 threads to finish edges and is commonly used on ready-to-wear garments because it produces a very sturdy stitch. It can't do all the things a standard sewing machine does, it's fairly specialized.

It's got 4 sets of tension discs and I can't see any way to get them out without dismantling the whole thing. I also can't seem to find anywhere to buy tensions discs. It only cost $200 to begin with so I don't want to drop too much cash to get it fixed but it looks like it's either that or buy a new one. Stinkin' southern humidity 

[kaoskat]

No help here I'm afraid. I do want to wish you luck though.

[Kiwi]

I remember playing with my grandma's once... but I was like 10 and pretty much only figured out how to thread it, and then how to stitch together a couple scraps of fabric to play with it (made a neat little pouch the fits a pair of glasses).

[SailorEarth]

kaoskat- Thanks! ^_^

Kiwi- That's actually pretty impressive that you could thread a serger at 10! They can be so fiddly sometimes 

I may give the sandpaper a shot and if that doesn't work I'll have to take it in for repairs. Maybe it could be a tax return project if all our other projects don't eat up our return first 

[Pokestine]

I'll ask my mum when she gets home, we've had ours for years and it still work perfectly so she's probably got some ideas that would help.

[SailorEarth]

Thanks, Pokestine!

[ZennaBug]

Shoot, it's been years since I used a serger.  My grandma has one, but I always asked her to fix it for me when it started acting up    Good luck!

[SailorEarth]

Shoot, it's been years since I used a serger.  My grandma has one, but I always asked her to fix it for me when it started acting up    Good luck!

lol, funny you should mention that. I already took mine to my granny and she can't make it sew properly either. If she can't fix it I know the machine's out of sorts 

[skyrocketneko]

I've had one for 5 months and still haven't figured out how to thread it yet. Hahaah. 

[wolflair]

sailor Earth I am afraid you are going to have to take it in for repair.  The rust may have damaged the metal so badly that the sandpaper won't help at all.  You will probably have to replace the discs.  Find a reputable repair shop that knows your machine.  Good luck!  And once fixed have a lot of fun with it!