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pwayne10  
#1 Posted : Friday, February 18, 2011 6:37:38 AM(UTC)

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I just purchased a Brother PE770 machine 3 days ago.  At first, it worked perfect then all of a sudden the thread started getting wadded up on the underneath side of the hoop.  It doesn't seem to be pulling the bobbin thread up either because the "wadded" thread is just the upper thread.  I have re-threaded it I don't know how many times but it just keeps doing the same thing.  I am using stabilizer.  I have changed the needle, cleanded the bobbin case, etc.  Can anyone help!?

pat71896  
#2 Posted : Friday, February 18, 2011 7:35:11 AM(UTC)

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Since you are still under warrantee, you need to discuss this with your technician. Being a friend to that person can be the most helpful thing you ever do in your embroidery venture.

This is called 'birds nest' and has happened to everyone of us. I had it happen 1 hour ago. I removed my upper thread completely and rethreaded. Then I rethreaded my bobbin as well. I also used a flashlight to look at the bobbin case area and found a couple of pieces of lint/snippets that were very buried. I removed them with my tweezers. Frankly, most of the snippet was caught VERY tightly. I moved the machine wheel about 15 degrees at a time and finally got it all out. Remember that that thread got caught and release can be difficult.

You should have a 'slug' looking piece of equipment the size of a nickel but about 3/8" thick and on the heavy side. You should tie one end of the bobbin thread (which is encased in the bobbin case) and take the bobbin case and place the flat side against a wall.  Allow the slug to drop and see how it does. It should be able to move somewhat, but not fall to the floor. If it falls to the floor, the bobbin case tension is too loose.

Other options -

If changing the needle doesn't fix the problem then change the bobbin.  The bobbin can be wound too tight or too loose.  It can also be lopsided or out of balance.  Any of those problems will throw the tension off.  Try a different bobbin to see if that fixes the problem. 

 

Check the thread path from the spool to the fabric and everywhere in-between.  Once the needle is threaded you should be able to pull thread through the needle with a slow gentle pull and the tension should feel the same as you pull several feet of thread through the needle.  If it gets tighter then looser as you pull on it, or stops completely as some point, then there is a problem in the thread path inside the machine.  If you can look inside for any obvious problems and see what is causing the thread jam up then you may be able to fix that yourself.  I found a piece of plastic had cracked inside one of our machines and the thread would get caught in the crack.  I'm not a repair technician but that was easy enough to fix at home.

 

Look at the plate that the needle passes through under the presser foot.  Sometimes a needle will be pulled off-center enough to nick the plate where it passes through and put a bur in that plate. The bur then grabs threads as they go through and puts more tension on the thread at random.

 

Now check the tension!  If you have a "bird nest" on the bottom then either the bottom tension (bobbin tension) is too tight OR the top tension (color thread) is too loose.  The two tensions must be in balance in order to get designs to stitch out correctly.  Look at your machine owner’s manual to find out how to set the tension on your particular machine. 

Or ask your dealer to show you how to do it.  Adjust the tension and try your design again.

 

pwayne10  
#3 Posted : Friday, February 18, 2011 10:23:26 AM(UTC)

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I can't thank you enough for the help!  I took the bobbin back out (for probably the 10th time!) and looked with a flashlight.  There was a 1/4 - 1/2" piece of thread in there.  I don't know if that's what was wrong or not but now it is working fine :)  I had just another quick question.  The embroidery looks pretty good but it seems a little tight to me.  If you look really close around the border of the embroidery (letter) you can see where the fabric is kind of being pulled.  Does that make sense...I don't really know how to explain it.   Is this normal?  Thank you again for your help!  I have only been sewing for about 1 year and embroidery is new to me! 

pat71896  
#4 Posted : Friday, February 18, 2011 10:45:50 AM(UTC)

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You are miles ahead of me, I can just barely sew a straight line!

I have been blogging here - only discussing whatever I recently did - because I am no expert, but I love talking embroidery.

However, what you described is a failure of stabilizer. You will learn as you go what stabilizers you need to use. I have said this before and I will try to say it again - it is difficult to overstabilize a project, but it is common to understabilize one. What that means is that you need to up the ante on the stabilizer. For instance, if you used a medium tear away, try a medium cutaway. Tear away is a paper type of component and cutaway is much more - well, stable.

You might be interested in my blog on loosely woven fabric. I don't mean to toot my horn, but I had so much trouble with fabric failure and finally found the solution. Then I could not wait to share my find.

The digitizing could be at fault, but frankly, unless you got it free from someone with limited knowledge of digitizing, that is not a significant issue. If your issue looks like my photo in my (again, my blog) on outlines/badgemaster then you had stabilizer failure. Try using a temporary adhesive or in the case of free standing lace, Badgemaster (IMHO) the best of the best for FSL.

Geeze, I am humble and directing you to two of my blogs - hmmmm. . . .  What the heck, read any of my or the other blogs here and I promise it will be time well spent!

Pat, The Avid Embroiderer

(I really do love talking embroidery)

stacie0866  
#5 Posted : Friday, July 22, 2011 1:39:37 AM(UTC)

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I have the EXACT same situation. I had an SE350 for 2 years with no prob's. The third design I did on this one, the problem showed up. I have had it for4 months, and have not been able to embroider one design without problems since early April.  Had it in to a tech and he couldn't find any problems, but EVERY time i do a thread change, the bobbin thread doesn't work, and the upper thread jams up all under the design.  If I do a simple one color design, with no stops or changes, it's fine. It's when it has to automatically feed the bobbin after a thread cut.  IF I reset the bobbin with a color change it's fine 90% of the time.  I just attempted a 41,000 stitch design with 18 color changes. I had to reset the bobbin every time. This ends up eating up a LOT more time.  On the last 3 color changes the problem resumed even though I did the bobbin reset. Now the design is ruined and I spent all that time (a whole day!).  I have an appt with a tech to sit with him today. I am very disgusted with this machine. I wanted a larger emb. field, but the SE 350 was a dream compared to this mess.  I have googled "problems with PE770" and found your post. There are other similar comments out there, so I suspect there is a global problem with this machine. I am printing your posting and showing it to the tech so he knows it's not just me.  Thanks!

pat71896  
#6 Posted : Friday, July 22, 2011 12:52:30 PM(UTC)

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I have had 5 machines (I cannot believe it. . . ) and the same issue occurs from time to time.  Here is the paragraph from my above response:

This is called 'birds nest' and has happened to everyone of us. I had it happen 1 hour ago. I removed my upper thread completely and rethreaded. Then I rethreaded my bobbin as well. I also used a flashlight to look at the bobbin case area and found a couple of pieces of lint/snippets that were very buried. I removed them with my tweezers. Frankly, most of the snippet was caught VERY tightly. I moved the machine wheel about 15 degrees at a time and finally got it all out. Remember that that thread got caught and release can be difficult.

I just want to reiterate that a piece of lint can cause this issue.  I have never had this issue except where I find a color of thread that I have not used for a number of color changes.  When I find blue but have not used it for a long time, I just shake my head and clear it out.

Be extra vigilant with that flashlight.  Open the area as much as you are able to do so, and look and then look again.  Remove anything that does not belong in the bobbin area. 

thatsahm  
#7 Posted : Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:01:13 AM(UTC)

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I traded my SE-400 for the pe-700II a week ago and have wanted to rip my hair out!  I have had trouble getting the hoop to click in and have not had one design go right.  Error message: Check upper thread and re thread...My embroidery looked more like a rats nest than a birds nest! 

Having said that ....

There is hope.  Finally I called the dealer and found that you can have thread stuck in a particular area that you can't see or know that you can get too.  If you look at the thread guide numbered #2 on the top of the machine there is a screw holding that cover on.  Remove that screw, pop the cover off and remove any thread using tweezers.  It worked and was back in working order right then!

Hope this helps anyone who couldn't get it to it despite going through 1 million steps ;  )

thanks 1 user thanked thatsahm for this useful post.
mydigitaldiva on 10/18/2017(UTC)
pat71896  
#8 Posted : Wednesday, September 7, 2011 6:11:44 AM(UTC)

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You are so right!  I had the same issue and the smallest piece of thread can do this to anyone of us.

I always make sure that my flashlight is available because it is challenging to say the least to see some of the thread.

Pat, The Avid Embroiderer

mydigitaldiva  
#9 Posted : Wednesday, October 18, 2017 6:15:58 PM(UTC)

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Originally Posted by: thatsahm Go to Quoted Post
...Finally I called the dealer and found that you can have thread stuck in a particular area that you can’t see or know that you can get too. If you look at the thread guide numbered #2 on the top of the machine there is a screw holding that cover on. Remove that screw, pop the cover off and remove any thread using tweezers. It worked and was back in working order right then!...


My tall thread stand took care of pulling my hair out, as I got caught in it a few times while contorting myself in and around my machine taking it apart and trying to find the culprit. While there were plenty of tiny lint and threadlet pieces in and around my bobbin case/race — which I spent over an hour cleaning and recleaning — the problem was not lower thread, it was, in fact, my upper thread path to blame. Specifically what’s behind DOOR NUMBER TWO!

I have a new PE-770 and I’m attempting to get a new Etsy shop off the ground. While I’m new to machine embroidery, I have been machine sewing (and hand embroidering) since I was in grade school. Ergo, I know my way around a sewing machine.

I experienced my first bobbin “bird’s nest” about a week ago (with daily, fairly heavy use). Cleared it and moved along. Today, out of the blue, a massive bobbin bird’s nest developed. When I say “massive,” I mean it took me a good 20 minutes to cut (with an Xacto blade so I wouldn’t ruin any of my small scissors) and tweeze out. I thought small insects might fly out.

But once I got going again it would immediately reform. Cleaned again. And again. And again. Three different tweezers, Q-Tips, you name it.

Read initially on another sewing blog that mysterious bobbin issues are actually upper thread path problems. And then I read the above. (Keep in mind I had already removed the obvious upper thread path cover to check for threads.) Sure enough, once I removed the cover over the upper path #1 & #2, there was an obvious mass that was easy to remove.

But at that point I was not in the mood to reassemble and fail again, so I busted out the mini book light and got to looking. Sure enough, there were tons of black threads (black from grease, as I hadn’t used any black thread) wound around the whatever-you-call-it that rotates inside with the wheel.

There were so many! I had experienced a lot of upper thread breaks before getting my spool stand (and ditching that useless horizontal spool under the cover), so they had been building for who knows how long. It took a good half hour just to tweeze those out.

Problem solved. After three hours.

Then I promptly made myself a gigantic margarita rocks, loaded a small hoop for testing, and watched it go. Margarita is almost dust, but my project is back on track.

(This is an old thread, but it came up second on my Google search, so hopefully this is helpful to others with Brother PE-770s who are as vexed as we have been. THANK YOU Ann The Gran!)
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