Threading an OLD Serger I Found at a Yard Sale! How to Thread a Singer 14U52A

Hello, and welcome back to Pindrop Shop!  Today, we're going to be focusing on the Singer Serger, the model 14u52a.  So this is an older Singer serger that I found at a yard sale yesterday, and I'm just going to take you through threading it and oiling it, in case you have this machine as well.  So the first thing I  noticed that's different about this machine is it only has three thread spools, and where the tension disc would go for the fourth one, there's just nothing.  So that's the first thing that's kind of interesting.  The next thing is, it doesn't seem to have a power switch.  It's just on when you plug it in.  And it also doesn't seem to have a light.  It doesn't have a differential feed, and it doesn't have a way to move the knife.  So it's very basic, which i think is actually good in some ways.  It just does what it does, and there are fewer things that you can mess up as for settings.  So I went ahead and labeled the order that these threads are threaded in, since most of them do go in this order but some of them go one two this direction so I just went ahead and labeled that.  I found a good tension where the stitch looks good.   So let's just go through threading this.  So I'm going to cut these threads off and we're going to start over.

Okay so then when you have cut your threads off, you can get the thread out of the machine two ways.  You can either hold the chain, and hit the pedal, and chain it out like this...

Or the way that I like to do it is, you can raise the presser foot and then you can turn the hand wheel backwards as you hold on to the chain, and it'll release.  It'll come right up.  Okay so let's just look at the parts of this real quick.  So here is our knife.   We're gonna go ahead and deactivate that.  So you're gonna push in right here and you're gonna twist back on that black knob.

So just twist it out of the way for us.  Okay and then I'm just going to turn the wheel so the needle is up, so we can reach that eye.  Okay so this is a pretty simple machine and it has a threading chart right here, so that's great.  I also printed the manual, so you can go to singer.com and find the manuals for probably all their machines and print them out.  Most machines, the manuals are available online.  Okay so we're gonna start with this one here.  So you always bring these from back to front over the thread stand.  Okay, and then this one, of course, we're just going to ignore.  They probably just put that there so that when they make different models that are kind of the same sometimes you'll still have the features of the other one even though they don't work.  So we're gonna start with this one - number one. Let's look at our threading chart here.  So see how it goes threaded through the front of that silver thread guide?  So that's what we're going to do.

Okay so thread it through the front and then it comes around this little slot and down the first channel.  So we can double check on our little chart and make sure, yep looks like the chart.  Okay and then they even make a special note to be sure to pull the thread down between the tension discs.  So this is a common issue.  When you thread your serger, and you think you have everything right, but it just won't change, a lot of times, it is just as simple as this: your thread is in the right place, but it's just like laying there on the tension discs, like that.  You have to take it with both hands and kind of like floss it in there.  Make sure it's in there.  Okay, so it's in there.

All right, let's move on to down here.  Okay, so after we've come down this channel from the tension discs, then you can look at your picture here, and you can see how many guides there are, and where they are.  So we're gonna have a total of, looks like four guides, before it goes into the looper.  Okay so and they're also going to be marked with an orange dot.  So our first one is going to be right here.

And it's just this thing.  The dot is kind of off to the side, but it's talking about this one.  Next is going to be this one right here, and if you are wondering how it goes in, just look at your threading chart.  So it's going to come down, and it's going to go at a 90 degree angle to the left, so that's what we're going to do.  Going to go down the angle to the left.  Okay next one's going to be this little orange one here.  It's kind of covered up by the silver thing, but the orange dot's right here.  And you can see it opens from the bottom, so that's an easy one.  Just pop it in there, and the next one is an easy one too.  Just pop it in there. [Music] Okay so now we have to put the thread into the eye of the upper looper.  So that little hole on the looper, so you're just gonna stick it in there from front to back, and then it's helpful to use tweezers to reach behind

the looper, like right behind the looper, and grab that thread.  So you can pull it backwards like that, gripping very well, but there we go.  You've just got to get it any way you can, back here.  So then see how the thread is actually on top of this little silver part of the presser foot?  You want to make sure it goes under the presser foot, like that.  So that can be a hang up because oops, a lot of times, if you have everything threaded right, but it's just getting jammed up when you try to chain, it's just because your thread is on top of the presser foot,  when everything needs to be under the presser foot.  Okay, so the upper looper is threaded.  So at this point, you just want to double check that everything looks good.  It's in all four of our guides.  It's in the upper looper.  Okay so let's move on.  So again with the lower looper, we're gonna go up and over, from back to front, over the thread stand, and then our little thread guide up top here.  We're going to thread it through front to back like that.

Okay and then it's in there.  Front to back.  So get it from behind here, get it out of that handle, and then bring it forward to come down this channel.  And then again, you want to grab it with both hands and make sure it goes in that tension disc.  You can kind of even hear it and feel it go in.  It wants to be in there.  Okay then we come down here...

So let's look at our picture again.  So we're going to have one, two, three, four guides again, before it goes into the lower looper.  There's our lower looper. Okay, so let's see with the yellow dots, we have one, two, three, and then the four is going to be this coiled wire thing.  You can see the picture there a bit coming off this arm that the lower looper is part of.  It's not marked with yellow, but that's what we're going to go into, so let's do that.

So into the first guide, oops behind it, there we go, and the second guide, like that, and like that, and then I'm going to turn the wheel, so I can maybe... no, that's as far right as it goes.  I was hoping I could get it to come over a little further, but that's okay.  So I'm gonna stick it into [Music] that little loop created by that coiled wire.  I'm gonna cut my thread, because it's frayed.

Very good, there we go.

Okay, so now the next part... the lower looper is always just a little bit of a weird process on every machine.  So on this particular machine, let's just look at our picture here.  So there's the lower looper, and you can see that the thread is coming into a spot on the left of the lower looper, and then it's going into the eye.  Okay and I'm actually going to show you the image on the manual as well, just to really illustrate this point.

Okay, so here is the lower looper.  Okay so there's a hole in the left side of the lower looper, as well as the eye that's on the right side of the lower looper, and we have to go into both of them.  Here's another picture of it.  See how there's like a little tiny hole on the end of it?  So we're going to have to go in there, and it's gonna come forward, and that's them grabbing it with tweezers, and then you're gonna thread it through the eye.  Okay so there's the lower looper.  It's already as far to the right as it can go.  We can't reach it, so we have to get it from over here.  So you have to take this off that, and then you're going to turn the wheel so that the lower looper comes all the way over here, so we can get to it.  Okay, so there is the little coiled wire that I already threaded it through.  Okay we're going to grab that, and then the little hole on the end there, see it?  So we need to put the thread in that little hole like that.  See it coming through to the front?  Okay so then grab it, and it wants to dangle on everything, but it's okay, just get it out of there.  Okay so we threaded the first part of it, and now we can't reach the eye.  So we're going to turn the wheel coming back over here, so we can reach it, there it is, and the thread,  I can't reach it now, so I'm going to use the tweezers get it like that.  There it is.  And we're going to thread it from front to back through that eye.

I'm just going to turn it, so it's not in the way of this other one so much, so i can get it in like that.  And again I like to use my tweezers to just grab directly behind the lower looper, where the thread is coming out.  Get that thread and pull it.  Okay now see this little crook that's on the upper looper?  That's where the thread needs to go.  It comes out of the lower looper, and it goes over the upper looper, in that little divot like that.  See that?  So I'm gonna reach behind here and pull to get all the slack out.  And then anytime you're pulling slack, you just gotta look around, because it always wants to get stuck on something else, get hung up.  Just make sure it doesn't, and again, see how it went on top of the presser foot?  Take it and move it under. It needs to be under the presser foot, everything.  Okay, the hard part's done.  The lower looper is the hard part.  Okay so we're done with that.  And the needle is going to be easy.  This is just like a regular sewing machine.  So again, back to front over the thread stand.  We're going to thread it from front to back, through this guide, just like that.

Come around and down the first channel, both hands to grab, and push it into that tension disc.  It's in there.  Okay now let's just look at our picture.  Okay so it came down the tension disc and now it's gonna go underneath a guide, and up and around, and then it's gonna go behind two little guides before going into the needle.  Okay so here's the guide it's to go under.  Oops, just like that.  And then over this one which is marked with the green dot.  Okay and now if we look here, there are two little guides.  Here's one, it's marked with a green dot, and then the other one is this little wire coil.

i'm gonna go in both of those, like that, and then we're just gonna thread it into the eye of the needle.

So I'm going to raise the wheel so that I can get to the eye more easily, and so the upper looper gets out of my way.  You can even lower the presser foot if you need to, and cut the thread, so it's nice and clean to go through the eye.  I always tell people truly the hardest part of sewing is threading the needle.  Everything else, you can figure out.  Okay, there we go.

See how that slack wants to get stuck on stuff?  So just get it out of there, and get it under presser foot, because everything wants to go on top of it.

Under there, okay.   So all three are threaded up.  So now here's the test.  We need to see if it'll change.  So I'm going to go ahead and lower my knife, because it's going to be just fine, and it's gonna chain.  So you push in, and turn this wheel, so that the knife can be back down in its cutting position.  And I'm going to put this back on.

Okay and then when you're ready to chain, you're going to lower your presser foot.  There's our presser foot lever. 

And on most sergers you can also, this isn't really lifting it all the way, but just so you know you can lift on the front of the presser foot, like tha,t which is really nice, you don't have to reach behind every time, and lift it. You just reach to get your fabric in there.  Okay so with sergers you always chain before you start on fabric.  So let's close up our door here, press the foot down, and then you're gonna just hold over here onto your threads.  Don't really pull, but just hold them, and give it a little bit of light tension, and then press the pedal.

So we did it.  So if you do not have a chain, you're going to want to repeat all this.  And yes, it's best if you cut them all off and start again.  It's just gonna work out better if you do that.  If you don't have a chain, check that your threads are actually in the tension discs.  Check that everything is matching the picture.  Okay so we have threaded it.  So now I want to oil this machine, because I don't know how long it's been sitting.  I got over the yard sales, so every machine is going to have its own places it needs oil.  And that is what you're going to find out in the manual.  So I got the manual here, and it turns out this machine takes a lot of oil.  It has quite a few oil spots.   So here's the page on that.  So they want 20 to 30 drops in this hole on the top.  They want us to do two to three drops in these three holes.  So there's two holes there, and one hole on that little arm thing that is part of the knife, and then two to three drops at this little elbow joint.  So pretty much every machine I've ever seen says to oil it right here, where this comes to here, this little elbow joint.  Usually, they'll say oil right here, where that little shaft is going through that metal thing.  This one doesn't say to do that, I probably will anyway.  So let's go ahead and oil it.  You only want to use sewing machine oil.  Anything else could cause problems.  So let's start here, and we're going to two to three drops right here.  I'm gonna put a couple right here, just because.

Okay and then 20 to 30 drops up here, I guess.

That should be good, and then back here.  I'll do two to three in each of these holes.

And this one here, too.  Okay, so our machine should be all nice and happy now.  I'm just gonna turn the wheel to get that all moving throughout the machine.  And then you probably want to take a paper towel, or a cloth, and wipe all this up, any excess, to make sure it doesn't get onto your projects.  But now we're ready to go.  We're threaded, we're oiled, everything is good.  Hope you enjoyed this video.  If you also have this machine, leave a comment and let me know.  I've never seen this one so I was really fascinated.  And if you like this kind of thing, please subscribe to my channel, and please give this video a Like.  Happy sewing!