Merry Christmas
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Replacing Gear on Superba Knit Machine
Apologies for my absence. Holidays and visiting.
Lately I have been having no luck with the knit machine. It knits
swatches beautifuly, but as soon as I try to knit something across
the entire bed, it jams up on the left most side of the knitting.
Stitches stay on the left needles and the stitches become tight.
No tension problems anywhere else on the knitting.
After months of playing with swatches and tension and still having
no luck, I decided to finally replace a broken gear in the front bed.
Jace bought my Superba used; actually a kind woman in Wisconsin
was nice enough to give it to him for free, but the machine
hadn't been used in some time and it may have been damaged
slightly in shipping.
Once I had my machine up and running, I noticed that the front bed
didn't lift and lower properly (due to the broken gear).
So I bought a new gear and went about replacing it last night.
I used the information found in the Superba maintenance guide,
but as usual, I found it confusing. Hopefully this blog post will
provide clarity to anyone who need to replace a gear!
If you look under your knit bed, there are two gears, one on each
side of the machine. See the image below (sorry images aren't as
crisp as usual. I moved and can't find my camera battery charger).
Maybe you are smart and already know that the front bed can come
off of the machine. I was not so clever until I read the manual, but it was
a bit confusing. It states:
The big aha moment for me is when I realized that the "graduated scales"
are the numbers beside the bed which indicate the needle position.
You simply pull them out and you have access to the release lever springs.
Then finagle the release lever springs out from each side and you are
then able to remove the front needle bed from the rest of the machine.
EASY.
Once the front needle bed was away from all the fussy stuff on the machine,
it was easy to pop off the old broken gear and replace it with the new
gear and slip the bar back into place.
Once that is finished, line the front needle bed back up to the rails and
replace the release lever springs and slid the graduated scales back
in place.
swatches beautifuly, but as soon as I try to knit something across
the entire bed, it jams up on the left most side of the knitting.
Stitches stay on the left needles and the stitches become tight.
No tension problems anywhere else on the knitting.
After months of playing with swatches and tension and still having
no luck, I decided to finally replace a broken gear in the front bed.
Jace bought my Superba used; actually a kind woman in Wisconsin
was nice enough to give it to him for free, but the machine
hadn't been used in some time and it may have been damaged
slightly in shipping.
Once I had my machine up and running, I noticed that the front bed
didn't lift and lower properly (due to the broken gear).
So I bought a new gear and went about replacing it last night.
I used the information found in the Superba maintenance guide,
but as usual, I found it confusing. Hopefully this blog post will
provide clarity to anyone who need to replace a gear!
If you look under your knit bed, there are two gears, one on each
side of the machine. See the image below (sorry images aren't as
crisp as usual. I moved and can't find my camera battery charger).
Maybe you are smart and already know that the front bed can come
off of the machine. I was not so clever until I read the manual, but it was
a bit confusing. It states:
"On each side of the front needle bed, withdraw the graduated scales (6) just as the release lever springs (7)."
The big aha moment for me is when I realized that the "graduated scales"
are the numbers beside the bed which indicate the needle position.
You simply pull them out and you have access to the release lever springs.
Then finagle the release lever springs out from each side and you are
then able to remove the front needle bed from the rest of the machine.
EASY.
 |
| Release Lever Spring |
Once the front needle bed was away from all the fussy stuff on the machine,
it was easy to pop off the old broken gear and replace it with the new
gear and slip the bar back into place.
Once that is finished, line the front needle bed back up to the rails and
replace the release lever springs and slid the graduated scales back
in place.
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