I have a singer stylist 518. It was breaking off many needles, jamming up thread in the bobbin and thread was breaking off when I sewed stuff. Finally the feed dogs quit moving, so I called a repair man. One of the latex ? gears broke off underneath. He said it waa a bear to fix. When He took it to his shop to check it out further, the hook, bracket and the 2 metal gears needed replaced also. The hook is involved with the bobbin and it was bent by the needles hitting it and also this broke off a tooth on the metal gear, which made the latex gear break. He said that I was using 30 year old singer stylist aluminum needles #2020 and needles are made in steel now so they won't break off as easy.He told me to use Schmetz brand steel needles #90/14 or 110/16 and said you can't buy them in sewing stores, only in repair shops. I already had a schmetz 130/70 double needle...have to ask him if that is okay to use with this model. He said the new fabric coatings caused them to have to make stronger needles, about 20 years ago. To get back to your question, now that the other problems with the bobbin hook and gears are fixed...that caused the problem with increased tension which kept breaking the thread in the middle of sewing. I don't know if you have the same problem. It cost me $147.48 with the two sets of schmetz needles to repair. Plus about$35 to pick up and drop off the machine and take out and put in the cabinet. Hope this helps.You have to screw off the bottom, but he said it is hard to do this stuff.
donna, May 2006
