I am seeing an increasing number of people who have done their own repairs. I suppose that I only see those that are not successful in doing their own repairs as those that are successful never visit me... 

This page is to help you avoid turning a simple problem into a much worse major expense that must be fixed by a trained technician that will charge for every hour of of extra work you created. 

First look at my troubleshooting page for some ideas on how to approach a problem.  Think first before you jump in and make a minor problem into a major one. Regardless well intentioned advice that you may receive from anyone (including me), NEVER make any adjustment until:

1) You know why you are making the adjustment.

2) You know how to make the adjustment. 

3) Admit when your in over your head.

There are many qualified service technicians willing to offer advice if you ask them first, and will explain why and how and the risks if they are any good. Also, you know your limitations and abilities better than some person at the other end of the phone or email. Be honest with yourself. Note that most will be hesitant to spend hours giving advice AFTER you've created major problems.

Ok, so you are determined to repair your own machine. Go to my troubleshooting page and try to locate your problem. Study your problem and try to approach it logically. Write down all the possible causes. Eliminate one by one.  if

Let's say you're in the middle of fixing the problem.... remember the three previous rules:

3) Honestly admit when your getting in over your head.

Let's add another rule: 

4) If you didn't follow rules 1 - 3 and the machine still doesn't work, then get ready to pay many extra bucks for the sewing machine technician to put everything back where it was before you "repaired" it. If you followed all the rules and it still doesn't work, don't blame yourself. Some problems require factory training to adjust or fix.

Attempted repair of complicated machines, such as sergers and modern embroidery machines should be limited to cleaning and lubrication, unless you thoroughly understand basic repair procedures and have received advanced service training from the factory. Mistakes on these models may become very expensive and very dangerous. Getting your finger in between all those loopers on a serger can be very unpleasant (fixing fingers is much more expensive than fixing sergers).