The other day, I received the following email from a patron of The Sewing Machine Shop:
I accidentally dropped a needle down through the needle plate hole and I can’t find it! What do I do? I live an hour away from your store, I really don’t want to have to bring it all the way to the shop!
I realized that I receive questions about this subject fairly often, both for the case where someone drops a whole needle into the machine, and for the case where the needle breaks and the broken half disappears inside the machine.
There are various Reddit threads discussing it, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with the answers I found there, so I thought I’d share my opinion in this edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter.
I hope you find it helpful.
—Cale
First, stay calm. I know it appears that we have a big problem on our hands. The needle disappeared down into the guts of the machine where so many important parts are located—— the feed dogs, the bobbin & bobbin case, the hook system, the automatic thread trimmer.
What if the needle lodged itself into an undesirable space among these critical components?
If I try sewing again, I’ll break my machine, right?
The truth is, there is a very small chance that the needle has landed in a location where it can harm your machine. If you dropped your needle inside your machine, or if the needle broke off inside your machine, and you cannot see it when you go looking for it, then it is highly likely that the needle has fallen all the way down to the bottom of your machine and is resting harmlessly on the floor of the machine’s cover.
Thank you, gravity!
Ask any seasoned sewing machine technician—— when we open up a machine for service, it is very common that we find pins and needles and other things resting harmlessly on the floor of the machine’s cover.
If your needle has disappeared into the recesses of your machine and you cannot find it, and you want peace of mind that it is not in a space that can damage the machine, there is a simple way to troubleshoot.
Simply turn the machine’s hand-wheel toward you so that the needle goes up and down a few times.
Pay attention as you turn the hand-wheel. Does the machine turn over smoothly? If so, then you’re in the clear.
Remember, we are afraid that our needle has found its way into a spot that can disrupt the proper operation of the machine’s internal components—— the feed dogs, the bobbin & bobbin case, the hook system, etc.
If the needle was to find its way into an undesirable spot, we should be able to feel it when you turn the handwheel. It would feel like a jam or a bind—— something of that sort. And if you do feel that jam/bind, then you probably need to take your machine to a sewing machine technician.
The one place where I have found multiple broken needle tips is the hook race. I can imagine that this is not a spot sewists will look at when searching for their broken needle tip.
The hook race varies slightly depending on the type of hoo system the sewing machine is designed with:
On a machine with a horizontal rotary hook (AKA drop-in bobbin), the hook race in the thin metal ledge on which the bobbin case basket sits.
On a machine with a vertical hook system (rotary or oscillator), the hook race is the thin metal ledge on which the hook itself rides along.
Modern Bernina machines (e.g. B770, B740, B570, B475) are designed the B9 hook system, which is a very unique vertical hook design. With the B9 hook system, the hook race is magnetic, and over the years I have found broken needle tips stuck onto the hook race due to this magnetism.
Fortunately, the engineers at Bernina are very clever and designed the machine to give the sewist an error message on the screen if there is a potential obstruction in the hook area. The error message shows the image of gears with a red X, and the machine won’t let you sew until you remove the hook, clear the obstruction, and re-install the hook properly
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—Cale
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