# Brother Knitting Machine Repair?



## WPamelaJ (Jun 3, 2014)

I live in Alabama and my Brother KH-260 pattern-reading mechanism has gone wonky... it doesn't select all of the needles and the carriage is very very hard to push. This machine has been sitting in its case for several years, but after cleaning and oiling and replacing the sponge bar it knits just fine.. it just won't read the punchcards, which is a bummer.

I do not feel confident enough to attempt the repair myself and would really like to get it to someone who knows what they are doing... does anyone know of any dealers/individuals/repair shops somewhere in the southeastern US that could fix this machine for me?

Thank you in advance for any help.
Pamela


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## Rita in Raleigh (Aug 20, 2011)

Hi Pamela,
I would recommend Jack Doubrley in Georgia. He can be reached through his wife's website http://www.theanswerlady.com/
scroll down to the form for Ask Jack.

Another repair person used to be Northtipton in Tenn. but he has retired as of May 1 due to back problems. Frank will be missed as another reliable repairman.

Jack can do all sorts of mechanical repairs on Knitting machines. 
Rita in Raleigh


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## WPamelaJ (Jun 3, 2014)

Thank you so much Rita!


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## GinB (Sep 2, 2012)

http://www.knitknackshop.com/knittingmachines.html Harold Shafer of the KnitKnack Shop in Peru Indiana (Charlene's better half)
http://www.needle-tek.com/ Highly recommended by many
http://newtons.com/ Highly recommended by many
http://www.knittingparadise.com/t-181972-1.html Several listed
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhfarm/id10.html Rocking Horse Farm (cleaning and repair)
http://www.hobbyknitter.com/files/repairs.html Several listed (some of which are shown above)


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## bramhamknitting (Jan 11, 2014)

you could try introducing some warm air, from a hairdryer NOT too hot and NOT too close, and using the carriage without yarn to move the punchcard mechanism. It may be that old oil has "set" in the mechanism.


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## jaysclark (Jan 26, 2013)

If you remove the cover from the punchcard bit you will see lots of yellow gunk. Clean with cotton buds and your usual cleaner and it should work. Ask jack has a video on cleaning a brother punchcard mechanism


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## randiejg (Oct 29, 2011)

Don't be afraid to take the top back piece off the machine to look inside. It's just a few screws, and once off you can check to see if there is any lint, yarn scraps, or gummy/dried gunk around the punch card mechanism. As recommended, look at the Ask Jack video for cleaning this area, and give it a go yourself before you go to the expense and bother of shipping off your machine for repairs.

After cleaning it out, put the top back on, bring out some empty needles, and insert a card with an easy-to-recognize pattern, such as a checkerboard design. Set up for fairisle and knit back and forth across the empty needles checking each row to see if the correct needles are selected for the pattern. Do this for several rows so that you can see that the needle setup changes and all the proper needles are coming forward.

If you notice that the same needle(s) in each repeat (i.e., 5th needle in each 24-stitch section) are not being selected, you may have a crack in the drum, which will affect the needle selection. 

Before you ship your machine off for repair, always call ahead and explain your problem in detail to the repairman. It won't do any good to spend the money for shipping back and forth if they no longer have the part to fix it, since these machines have been out of production for quite a while. If one place doesn't have it, though, check with others, because some places got their hands on all the parts they could (especially those they have to repair regularly), when they knew Brother was going out of the knitting machine business.


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## WPamelaJ (Jun 3, 2014)

Thank you all very much for your replies. I sent an email to Jack via the website and if he is willing to fix it, I can drive the machine over to Georgia. 

I will take the cover off first and take a look to see if anything is obviously wrong... I am so un-mechanically inclined that it's ridiculous but if there is a bit hanging off or cracked in two, I might be able to recognized that.

Thank you again... you folks really helped me out!
Pamela


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## MostlyKnittingMachines (Jan 30, 2014)

WPamelaJ said:


> Thank you all very much for your replies. I sent an email to Jack via the website and if he is willing to fix it, I can drive the machine over to Georgia.
> 
> I will take the cover off first and take a look to see if anything is obviously wrong... I am so un-mechanically inclined that it's ridiculous but if there is a bit hanging off or cracked in two, I might be able to recognized that.
> 
> ...


When you take the cover off to take a look, it might be helpful for you to have a Brother Service Manual for your KH260 machine.

If you know somebody who is mechanically minded, but who has no experience with knitting machines, the service manual might help you to figure out together what the problem is.

I have a Brother KH260 Service Manual available on my website, which is free to download.

To find the manual, please click on the following link and scroll about half way down the page. The file you want is called Brother KH260 Service Manual.pdf :

http://mostlyknittingmachines.weebly.com/free-brother-knitting-machine-accessory-manuals-and-punchcard-sets.html

All of the manuals on my website are safe to download.

I hope this helps you to get your machine working correctly again.


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## WPamelaJ (Jun 3, 2014)

Oh that Service Manual is awesome! Thank you so much!


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## MostlyKnittingMachines (Jan 30, 2014)

You're welcome.


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