The most common sign that pinch rollers need maintenance is that the thread will walk to the side of the roller and create a "bird's nest". This is typically flagged by the software as a thread break, but when you look at the top thread, it doesn't appear to be broken. However, when you look under the cloth, you find a mass of thread under the needle plate.
Maintaining these rollers is part of the normal maintenance timers, but if you are experiencing trouble with bird-nesting, clean and grease the rollers.
Cleaning & Greasing the Pinch Rollers
To clean and grease the pinch rollers,
- Lift the thread feed arm.
- With one hand, steady the lever. With the other hand, pull the pinch roller to the right and off of the hub.
- Next, with the roller tilted, pull the arm slightly to the left and pull the roller straight out from the machine. The arm has a small amount of flex to it, but if pulled too far to the left, it can be damaged.
- With a cotton swab, clean both the hub and the pinch roller. Take care to avoid getting grease on the pinching surface of the roller.
- Apply EMB Polymer grease to the top surface of the hub and on the outer surface of each of the three tabs inside the pinch roller.
- With the roller tilted, pull the arm slightly to the left and reinsert the roller straight into place.
- Tilt the roller back up. Gently rotate the roller to help spread the grease before snapping it into place.
- Press the roller to the left to snap it into place.
- Line the thread up with the v-notch on the thread feed gear cover and press the pinch roller arm back down.
