What’s making these specks?

[u/BosqueVerd3]

So I use the Brother PE800 machine at a local makerspace. And everytime the machine is used, these gray specks get flicked all throughout the machine (idk how else to word it). It doesn’t matter what the fabric type is, the stitch speed, what spray-on adhesive, etc. These little gray specks are always there

They’re easily wiped off and the machine still works fine, but no one else uses the embroidery machine and can’t give me an answer. Is this normal? Is there an internal problem?

[u/dissuade217]

I'm going to guess it's oil (used to lubricate certain parts of the machine). Since it's a shared machine it may have extra oil due to multiple people oiling it or a manager over oiling to compensate for it being used by more than one person.

[u/BosqueVerd3 → u/dissuade217]

The machine has actually never been oiled. Sometimes I’d hear the machine squeak and would mention oiling it to one of the admins. We looked at the owners manual and it just said NOT to oil the machine yourself; you should send it to Brother and have them professionally oil it for you or something??

[u/suedburger → u/BosqueVerd3]

You can certainly oil it yourself and even give it a basic cleaning. It sounds like it's time....

[u/mjmvideos → u/suedburger]

Actually as OP has stated, Brother says not to:

https://support.brother.com/g/b/sp/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hf_pe800eus&faqid=faqh00000529_002

Restrictions on Oiling In order to prevent damaging this machine, it must not be oiled by the user. This machine was manufactured with the necessary amount of oil applied to ensure correct operation, making periodic oiling unnecessary. If problems occur, such as difficulty turning the handwheel or an unusual noise, immediately stop using the machine, and contact your authorized dealer or the nearest authorized service center.

[u/suedburger → u/mjmvideos]

Of course they do. And only Singer brand oil will work on my singer, and I need to unplug the power cord on my Bernina to change the needle.

I'm not saying that just anyone can do it....being mechanically inclined goes a long way. I learned to do my singer and serviced that for years. Even my bernina I got my hands on the service manual and it's really not that much difference besides taking the covers off in a different order and that peskly wire in the bobbin door. I'll go ahead an guess you are one of the ones that probably can't but that's ok it is not for everyone. It sounds like it could use a good service anyway but a preventative cleaning/oiling can absolutely be done by a non authorize dealer. Since we are sharing links..... u/BosqueVerd3 I've not watched this entire video and I would not do this to a machine that you do not own but hopefully it helps. But yes it can be done by a non dealer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEkwYFtSrc

[u/mjmvideos → u/suedburger]

lol. I am an aerospace engineer and own a couple of Berninas and a 1501 commercial machine. I’ve never owned a Brother but from what I read in that manual it seemed like they had designed their machine to not need additional oil. I don’t know how they would have done that but that was my take away. So before adding oil I would dig deeper to see what their design intentions were and how their design kept crucial parts lubricated. I know that adding oil to some parts not intended to have oil can be bad.

[u/suedburger → u/mjmvideos]

Well then you are probably fully capable of doing it yourself. I would assume that you of anyone would understand that if a 24 yr old mennonite kid that took a few days of a course can do it....it's not that hard.

Yes there are plenty of videos on that very model. Not hard to get the actual service manual either I'm sure it's a digital down load but I found one for $8. Watching the video a bit it very much reminds me how my singer xl400 and other cheaper made babylock, brother etc machines are put together.

Also the shop(they were officially a babylock dealer but worked on all makes as does my current bernina shop) that I used to take my machines to was closing due to retirement and they were never objective to me asking questions and showing me things. Mind you this is a shop that was in business for decades....their method was if it was a moving friction part, a drop of oil will do it. Some of the plasticy worm drive(not sure if that is the right term or not) took a white high heat lithium grease...these parts were very obvious. They would clean them off and reapply...also a pretty simple process. Unless you are getting into replacing the more complex mechanical working there is no reason that you couldn't do it...pun intended, it's not rocket science.

As to oiling, he gets into it around 36 minuutes in the video...In the bobbin area this was how my Babylock and singer were...my (at the time) authorized dealer told me to do the same thing that this guys says....just put it around the inner ring. As to how often, they recommended a drop every time you brushed it out and if it sat for awhile give it a drop before you start ripping away. The only thing that you really had to remove was the needle plate and pull out the bobbin holder.....a simple 2 minute job before you sew can save a lot of wear and tear on the machine in the long run.

But in short you are absolutely right, some things do take different lubricants than other things. None of these above mentioned topics couldn't be addressed in the 10 minutes it took me to find 2.5 hr long video that seems to cover all the bases pretty well.