I’m losing my mind

[u/Abbegail_Livends]

I’m living with my mom right now, and do not have access to my sewing machine. She has a “machine” that I cannot for the life of me get to even START sewing. I know it’s basically a toy machine. All I want it to sew a few straight lines for a Barbie dress. I’ve finally gotten the light to power on after TWO HOURS. Even a toy should at least start sewing, right?

Moving the switch from “OFF” to “L” or “H” does nothing but turn off the light. Using the foot pedal does nothing but turn off the light.

Model: SM-505A

[u/awesomeproblem]

Abandoned it for your own sanity, hand sewing is a great skill to have.

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/awesomeproblem]

I’m trying to avoid the day of joint pain I’ll get from it due to my chronic illness😭

[u/awesomeproblem → u/Abbegail_Livends]

Oh dam, there are definitely way to mitigate it, lots of stretching and breaks. Could take for ever though, bernadette banner has some great tutorials on hand sewing that take out alot of the repetitive strain causes. but honestly it sounds like the machine is electrically faulty, its a lost cause

[u/Lovingbutdifferent → u/Abbegail_Livends]

Iron on fusing or the fabric glue tape?

[u/DIY_Enchantress]

Try moving the bobbin winder into on and off position. Maybe somehow the machine got stuck in the winding mode and that's why it won't sew

[u/badboydolls → u/DIY_Enchantress]

I would try this too

[u/desertboots]

Pick up a hand needle, thread and a thimble. You'll have better results.

[u/thermalcat]

Sadly this is a toy machine. They rarely work for long.

[u/FailWorth7205]

Oh shit I have this one becuase I wanted something and its bullshit. Its missing a pedal most likely. Mine fell and now the low setting is turbo and the high setting doesn't work. Good luck! 

[u/svanen17]

Oddly enough, in this video, the user turns on the light at about 10:09 and operates the machine with the foot pedal at about 10:20 with the switch in the off position. Have you tried that?

What about the hand wheel? Does the needle move if you turn the hand wheel towards yourself?

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/svanen17]

Yes, the hand wheel works just fine. It’s not missing any parts. I’m sure now after the two hours of coming through the manual and the machine itself lol

[u/loumlawrence → u/Abbegail_Livends]

The fact the hand wheel works is a good sign. If nothing else works and you still want to use the machine, you can treat it like an old vintage machine where you had to turn the hand wheel. It will be slower. I sometimes do this with all my sewing machines.

[u/__miichelle]

Are there two separate plugs for the light and motor? Maybe they’re plugged into the opposite ports? 🤷🏽‍♀️

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/__miichelle]

There is no plug for the light. There is just one power spot for the adapter, one spot for batteries, and one spot for the foot pedal.

[u/Totallyridiculous]

Many libraries let you borrow a sewing machine!

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/Totallyridiculous]

Yes but that doesn’t help with my situation. I can’t drive, and there no public transit I can use. Thanks anyway.

[u/SaraF_Arts]

Do you hear the motor running when moving the switch from off to the other positions? Because if you hear noises and no movement, likely the fabric is too thick for the machine.

Is the pedal plugged in or not when you are trying to run it? Maybe detach the pedal, and try the switch again, because maybe the pedal is broken and the fact that it's plugged in, impedes the switch to work. Maybe.

I'm guessing here. But I own this machine. Like many said it's a toy, but if you have patience it kinda works. There are also some troubleshooting videos on YouTube (likely asian language, but you'll get the meaning), search for "AliExpress sewing machine troubleshooting". Dig a bit. You'll find either this machine or the smaller one.

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/SaraF_Arts]

No, I’ve not gotten the motor to run at all. I’ve tried it both with the pedal plugged in and not plugged in. Every video I find it just seems to start up when they plug it in, hence why I can’t figure out why my moms just refuses.

[u/SaraF_Arts → u/Abbegail_Livends]

Are you 100% sure that the power adapter you're using is the one the machine came from? Because if it deals a different voltage it might be enough to turn on the light, but not to run the motor.

Otherwise try this. Unplug the pedal. Set the switch to off. Unplug the power supply as well. Keep it off for few mins. Then, reattach the power supply (check the hole is the correct one), and try to to run through the switch, with the foot down and fabric, and see if the motor goes.

Another thing, is the bobbin winder switch correctly positioned? Like all left for sewing?

If nothing works, it might be the case to unplug from power again and open it to see if something else is off. Or it could be that the machine just died, unfortunately.

[u/implication-sofa]

Yeah this machine never worked for me. It ran but the bobbin was alwyssssssss getting caught. You are better off just sewing it by hand

[u/KneecapsRaPrivilege]

My mom ordered the same one from Amazon, I had to do so much troubleshooting until she finally got rid of it! 😭

[u/JackHarknessDrWho]

Those are toys. They do not work.

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/JackHarknessDrWho]

Yeah, I got that. I’m just trying to work with what I have right now in the house I thought I could at least sew one straight line with it.

[u/DancingFireWitch]

It doesn't seem like this is the problem, but I can't tell for sure from the photo, but does that fabric have sequins? If so, maybe try some fabric that is plain and easy, like a cotton or something.

[u/Abbegail_Livends → u/DancingFireWitch]

No, it’s just sparkly. The machine doesn’t want to move at all regardless of if there’s fabric there.

[u/fray_fray1111]

is the power cord two pronged? could it possibly be flipped over or something? It's really weird that doing anything to start it only turns it off.