Tip! Remember to Oil Your Machine

I’m the worst at remembering to do basic maintenance on my machine.  My primary machine is my Juki TL2000QI which I adore.  It’s not a computerized one, just a good old fashioned workhorse.  It’s actually an industrial machine so I know that Judy Juki can do almost anything that I want her to…  as long as I take care of her, of course!

I’ve heard that it’s ideal to oil Jukis every second bobbin, but I’m a bit too lazy for that.  So I’m aiming to oil Judy every three bobbins.  But who can keep track of which bobbin they’re on while sewing??  So I had to find a way to track my bobbin count with whatever I had on hand without relying on my memory.

WASHI TAPE!

It’s super simple and SEW CUTE!  After I’ve oiled my machine, I stick three pieces of washi tape to the side of my table.  That means that I’m on my first bobbin.  When I finish that first bobbin and rewind the next bobbin, I move a piece of the tape from the table to my machine deck – that means that I’ve gone through one complete bobbin.  After I wind the second bobbin, I move a second piece of tape over to my machine – I’m on my second bobbin now:

After I wind the third bobbin, then I move that last piece of tape over to my machine deck.  Now, after I wind it a fourth time, there’s no more tape to move over, so I know that I need to oil my machine BEFORE I start sewing with that fourth bobbin:

Simple, right?  I am always so happy when I find these little hacks, because I’m not usually very creative with these types of things!  I hope you find it useful when caring for your precious machine.  How often do you oil your machine?  And how do you remember to do it??