Spare parts...

All now sold!

Evening all!

I have five machines in various states of disassembly that I need to get rid of. The machines are complete apart from main power boards and motors. If you need any spares (gears, sensors, shafts, hooks, plastic parts (including outer casings), and any mechanical assemblies), drop me a comment on here (your comment won't be published but I will see it).
Please include your email address in your comment so that I can reply direct (rather than through public postings on here).
If we can do a deal I'll put the parts you want on ebay and you can buy them with confidence.

Thanks

Dave

Any requests?

Even though at the moment there are hardly enough hours in the day, I've decided to invite some topic or project requests. After all, the nights are now drawing-in and my work on rebranding our estore is nearly complete. I therefore expect to have some spare time on my hands. So, if you are contemplating making some changes to your machine, investigating a fault or fixing a new part, and you'd like to see a tutorial about it on this site, feel free to drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. I've stripped these machines back to the bare case, and fully re-assembled, so no subject is beyond this site. Or you might just want me to complete the tutorial on how I deep clean my machines!

More soon, no doubt....

D

New PE150 fix coming very soon (I promise)...

About a year ago I promised a new fix for broken power boards. You may remember my lament that boards had a habit of blowing whenever the main motor failed and that new boards were expensive. Well, after a load of research and a bit of self-learning about electronics, I've concluded that the power board has a design fault inasmuch as there is no overload protection on the circuit which powers the motor. Perhaps one day I'll be able to design some protection into the circuit but until then, I will be repairing broken boards. I can do this because I've obtained a small supply of the long-obsolete components which comprise the circuit which powers the motor. I'll provide more details once the parts have arrived and I've completed and then soak-tested the first repair.

More soon, no doubt!

D

Any spare motors about?

Called BSK today for yet another PE150 main motor and noooooo..... they are out of stock! Not only that - so are Brother! There's nothing available until May 2012. So, does anyone have a spare working motor I could buy? Or even an old machine that I could buy for spares?

On the plus side, if Brother have none but are getting some in, that presumably means that they are having them made (motor and PCB). Will be interesting to see precisely which motor is being used and whether there have been any other revisions.

More soon, no doubt....

Update

As luck would have it, BSK gave me a call on 1st March to advise that they now have some motors in stock. Needless to say, I bought one! The part number on the chitty is XA0468001.

Buying spare parts...

I didn't get chance to finish the cleaning tutorial today however I have been asked about where to buy spares. I get my original Brother spares from Bedford Sewing & Knitting (click the name to open their website and note that you will need to call them with your requirements). I use BSK as they are in the UK, as am I, but in my quest for cheaper spares I've found a few places elsewhere in the world although they do not, apparently, supply to the UK.

So, for the USA, you've got UED and BOS and for Europe I found Convena. No doubt there are others but these sites have online searchable catalogues (by manufacturer part number) and price lists.

Having said all that, I'm determined to find a cheaper way to fix these machines. For example, the £60 replacement motor for the PE150 is made by Johnson Motors (minus the PCB assembly, which is serviceable for a few pence, but that's a tutorial for another day). This is the current incarnation of the motor and I expect, if it could be bought on its own, would be less than £10 but can I find a supplier who will let me buy just a couple of units? No - minimum order is 5000....

More soon, no doubt.

New PE150 fix coming very soon....

I have a new PE150 power board on the way from Brother. I'm rather hoping that it will be brand new and not just 'new old stock', particularly as it has a new part number. If so, then before fitting it I'll be doing some comparisons with an old (but working) board, and also collecting the relevant data sheets for all the components on the board. It may be that I can actually start repairing my old broken boards too.

New tutorial completed!

The 'Take it apart' tutorial is complete. Click here to view or follow the link in the left-hand margin.