Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Oiling your free motion foot... have you done it?

Now, this is a strange post. I was FMQing Sedona, and over time, I found my quilting getting increasingly squeaky. I actually wish that I had taken an audio or video of it  - it was REALLY loud. I tried everything - the usual changing the needle, rethreading, changing out the thread, removing the bobbin, cleaning out the machine a couple of times, and oiling it in the well underneath my bobbin case, which I try to do every week or so.



Then... I figured out that the squeaking happened when the spring on my free motion foot moved down. So... I figured, why not? I used a couple of drops of sewing machine oil on it. And it's fine now... =P

Does anyone know if this is normal? Lol. Even if it wasn't, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I needed to. I couldn't find anything online about oiling actual sewing machine feet!

10 comments:

  1. I've had to oil one of my walking feet.

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  2. But doesn't the oil eventually work it's way onto the fabric?

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  3. My walking foot squeaks - might need to try oiling that!

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  4. Hmmm...never heard that. But I can see it makeing sense.

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  5. That has happened with at least 2 of the 3 FMQ feet I have/had--I take them off the machine to put oil on them so it doesn't drip anywhere and then carefully wipe any extra oil with a paper towel. I think it's normal, especially considering how much lint and dust are created when quilting!

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  6. Mine has started squeaking too... I should oil it before my next round of quilting begins!

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  7. I've oiled my walking foot. I haven't used my FMQ foot that much to notice yet.

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  8. My FMQ foot was squeaking, too. I put a couple drops of sewing machine oil on it, then let it sit on its side on paper towel in a bowl for awhile. I noticed some dark in the oil on the paper towel. So I took a Q-Tip & cleaned the crud off of the FMQ foot, then put it back in the bowl & gave it a couple more drops of the oil. I'm going to let it sit overnight, but the squeaking has already diminished a lot!! I think it was just dirty!! Thanks for your blog & answering this question!

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  9. Thanks for this! I was at my wits end with my squeaky foot. A couple drops of sewing machine oil and it's quiet as can be!! I loved everything about this foot except the squeak. :)

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  10. I do a lot of free motion quilting making t shirt quilts and I regularly have to oil the spring. I did have one break and am always half expecting that to happen again. Just signed up for your newsletter and enjoying the blog

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