December 2023

Possible reasons of problems with Singer/Silver Reed/Empisal Knitmaster/Riccar/Studio knitting machines

… this article is a constant work in progress as I accumulate more experience (personal) and based on what other people write about their problems and their fixes…

Last update: January 2026

The working mechanisms of Singer/Silver/Silver Reed/Studio/Empisal Knitmaster/Riccar knitting machines (you can read about them here) are unique and different from the most popular Brother knitting machines (check out their differences here). Thus, sometimes a different approach is needed.

Problems with the knitting machines related to the carriages often manifest themselves as:

carriage moves smoothly on the needlebed from left to right, but NOT from right to left (and vice versa).
carriage gets stuck on the bed
buttons/levers/knobs/dials on the bed, which do not move freely, move slowly, or do not retract sharply, as they are supposed to be
mispatterned stitches or/and not correctly selected needles

Below are possible reasons and a brief explanation of how to fix them. More detailed explanations on how to fix these problems are available on the Internet.

If your machine has patterning drums and they are not moving freely or are stuck completely, it might be because of the old oil/grease, old lint, and/or some yarn wrapped around the moving parts. SOLUTION: visually inspect the drums on the sides and remove any visible junk. Apply Kroil Oil first to the drums and see if they start moving freely. I typically try to rotate the drums every 2-4 hours after applying (generously) the Kroil oil around them.
Due to the old gunk and dried-up oil, some of the moving levers (responsible for guiding the needles through the intricate passages of the carriage) get stuck. If you suspect a lever does not move, check against the same lever on the mirror side of the carriage: compare its movement, how fast it retracts, etc. SOLUTION: Apply Kroil oil around the lever to remove the old gunk.
The carriage might have too much old grease and lint to move freely. SOLUTION: Clean the undercarriage with 100% alcohol, a ton of Q-tips, and UPS greaseless lubricant.
Springs inside the carriage disconnected from their corresponding posts. This might happen because the springs lost their tension/torque, but also due to the impact (the machine or the carriage was dropped). SOLUTION: Check for any dangling springs. Compare the springs on both sides of the carriage to make sure the springs are attached correctly. Or refer to the manual or pictures on the Internet on how to attach the springs. One of such tutorials (but for the Brother knitting machine) was published by me and is also available as a video.

If you think none of these problems/solutions apply to you, it might not be a problem with the carriage. It might be an incorrect position of the carriage on the needle bed, bent needles, incorrect yarn threading through the mast, incorrect tension of the yarn, static, too-thick yarn, or (the culprit of almost all problems with knitting machines) an old sponge in the retaining bar.

If your carriage works ok and moves smoothly but the mechanism is mispatterning, it could be related to:

misaligned punchcard reader. I had a machine where the punchcard reader was slightly off-center: the left side was a bit closer to the needlebed than the right side. As a result, the patterning drum did not touch the pins on the reader strongly enough to engage the pegs. Watch the video on how to troubleshoot it and fix it.

If you have a Brother machine, you might have some specific problems, which are described in another article.

Possible reasons of problems with Brother knitting machine carriages

… this article is a constant work in progress as I accumulate more experience (personal) and based on what other people write about their problems and their fixes…

Problems with knitting machines related to carriages often manifest themselves as:

the carriage moves smoothly on the needle bed from left to right but NOT from right to left (and vice versa)
carriage gets stuck on the bed
buttons/levers/knobs/dials on the bed do not move freely or move slowly or do not retract sharply as they supposed to be
mispatterned stitches or/and not correctly selected needles (read more on this here)

Below are possible reasons and a brief explanation of how to fix them. More detailed explanations on how to fix these problems are available on the Internet.

Due to the old gunk and dried-up oil, some of the moving levers (responsible for guiding the needles through the intricate passages of the carriage) get stuck. If you suspect a lever does not move, check against the same lever on the mirror side of the carriage: compare its movement, how fast it retracts, etc. SOLUTION: Apply Kroil oil around the lever to remove the old gunk.
The carriage might have too much old grease and lint to move freely. SOLUTION: Clean the undercarriage with 100% alcohol, ton of Q-tips, and UPS greaseless lubricant.
Buttons (tuck, part, MC) do not move. SOLUTION: apply Kroil oil around the buttons, let it sit for a couple of hours, and try to move them. Repeat until the button moves again. Do not force the buttons to move too much to avoid damaging them.
Springs inside the carriage disconnected from their corresponding posts. This might happen because the springs lost their tension/torque but also due to the impact (the machine or the carriage was dropped). SOLUTION: Check for any dangling springs. Compare the springs on the mirror side of the carriage to make sure the springs are attached correctly. Or refer to the manual or pictures on the Internet on how to attach the springs. One of such tutorial (for the MC button retraction) was published by me and also available as a video.

If you think none of these problems/solutions apply to you, it might not be a problem with the carriage. It might be an incorrect position of the carriage on the needle bed, faulty (or incorrectly installed) timing belt, bent needles, incorrect yarn threading through the mast, incorrect tension of the yarn, static, too-thick yarn, or (the culprit of almost all problems with knitting machines) old sponge in the retaining bar.

If you have a Singer/Silver Reed/Studio knitting machine, you might have some specific problems, which are described in another article.

Tension spring for Brother Knitting machine

Carriages of Brother knitting machines have several types of springs to ensure smooth needle handling. This article is about a medium size spring, part of the intricate mechanism of Brother knitting machine carriages. These springs can be purchased in my store.

In particular, this short blog article is about a tension spring responsible for smooth the movement of the middle button on the carriage. (At the end of this article, I show other places in the carriage where the same type of spring can be used). This button is typically used to knit fair isle or/and to reset all other buttons.

To expose that spring, one needs to remove the plastic carriage cover (this step NOT covered in this article) and then remove the metal cover.

For that purpose, remove the two screws marked below.

The plate will then hang by the springs marked in the picture below but they do not have to be removed. Just push the metal plate out of the way. If the springs detach, they are easily to put back. Just take a picture of the agreement before removing the cover.

Once the cover is removed, you will see the springs right away. In my case, one of the springs was simply missing and the mechanism was not retracting automatically the way it was supposed to.

So the replacement spring was placed where one was missing. I made a short video showing where the spring was installed.

“How” the spring was installed is NOT shown in that video because it is kind of hard to capture how to attach the spring. But the loops of the spring need to grab the posts marked in the picture below.

The same spring can be used in positions shown below. The springs marked with crosses are either small/bigger in size or a spring without the loops (springs for the buttons) and thus, cannot be used.

Brother KR810 ribber serviced and tested in December 2023

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Brother KR810 ribber ($500) + shipping ($50)

$550.00

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Brother KR810 ribber fits a wide variety of Brother knitting machines, from some of the vintage ones to the later models, all the way to the electronic ones.

This article is about specifically the KR810 ribber refurbished in December 2023. To learn more about pros and cons of the Brother KR810 ribber model, refer to the article in my Knitting Machine Encyclopedia.

The machine was thoroughly cleaned. All needles were cleaned and inspected individually, first visually and then by knitting on a full bed 1×1 ribbing (in two different combinations to make sure all needles were tested). All knitting tests were great. See a video of these tests on my channel.

The setup (consisting of main carriage, connecting arm and a ribber carriage) moved well and i was able to knit with just moving the carriages with one hand.

The machine knitted wonderfully thin yarns, sock-yarn-weight acrylic yarn and fingering mohair-containing slightly fuzzy yarn.

This machine will come with all assesories mentioned in the manual. However, the reinforcing brackets will not be included for the following reasons.

The original side brackets (that attach to the ends of the ribber) did not come with this machine. So, I borrowed from a KR850 ribber and they fit wonderfully.

Because the KR850 side brackets already have the “tongue” needed to attach the ribber to the table, the original KR810 brackets are no longer needed.

With this setup, the KR810 ribber attached wonderfully to both KH710 and KH970. However, I was able to knit only on the machine with a winder bed (KH970) than with the narrower bed (KH710). A potential reason is a slightly off angle between the machine and a ribber due to the different side brackets and table clamps. Thus, this ribber is sold as compatible with wider-needle-bed knitting machines (such as punch-card-capable machines (KH820 and above) as well as electronic machines (KH900 and above)).

I know some internet sources mention that this ribber is compatible with the push-button machines like KH552, KH710 and early punch-card machine, like KH800. But because I did not have the original side brackets, I could not confirm that this ribber can knit with these earlier knitting machines.

All buttons, dials, knobs and levers on the ribber carriage move freely.

Hard copy of the manual will NOT be included with the ribber but it can be found online for free.

The connecting arm has some rust specs all over it. I gently removed the protruding layer and applied oil for corrosion protection. But the corrosion damage is still visible. However, my tests showed that it does not affect the functioning of the ribber.

The brushes in the under-carriage section are in excellent shape.

Watch my video showing knitting on the double bed, containing this ribber and my wide-needle bed knitting machine. It worked great and the big advantage of this ribber is versatility and compatibility with large varieties of knitting machines.

Brother KR850 ribber prepared for Judith in December 2023

Brother KR850 ribber fits numerous standard-gauge Brother knitting machines. Read more about Brother KR850 ribber in my Knitting Machine Encyclopedia. The blog below is dedicated specifically to the ribber serviced in December 2023 for my customer.

Brother KR850 was serviced and tested for Judith in December 2023. My store offers other ribbers for Brother and other knitting machines.

This ribber comes with all assesories including a hard copy of the manual (not shown in the pictures).

The bed, carriage, and assesories were cleaned, inspected and tested. All needles were cleaned and inspected individually, first visually and then by knitting on a full bed 1×1 ribbing (in two different combinations to make sure all needles were tested).

Swatch test was performed first. Swatch tests are useful to ensure that the carriage functions work well. In the case of swatch tests, we do not have to worry about artifacts and problems (such as the correct tension of the yarn, yarn thickness, yarn texture, correct number of barrel weights, side weights, etc.) associated with large number of needles in working positions.

Then the machine was tested on a full bed in two different configurations to ensure that all needles form nice and correct stitches. Carriage is very easy to move on swatch and on a full bed.

All tests went great. See the video of these tests in my youtube channel.

When knitting on the ribber, tension, the correct number of weights and the distance between the ribber and the main bed play a very important role. This machine handled really well two different distances between the ribber/machine beds and three different yarns (with different thicknesses and texture, see my video). One of the yarns was a mohair-containing fuzzy yarn. The machine handles it well too although some tests on the correct tension was needed as well as some wax (fuzzy yarns are more prone to static formation than other yarns).

The machine will come in its original packaging: two Styrofoam forms to fit all assesories …

… and pads inside the bottom of the cardboard box to support and protect the machine.

The only obvious flaw was the tape attached to one of the cast-on combs. I did not remove it because actually it is convenient to have that tape to store the fine bar ( the long plastic and very fragile rod-like bar) more easily (often it is overlooked during unpacking and thrown away).

This machine would serve long years especially if regularly oiled, cleaned and stored in controlled environment.

Brother KH588 machine serviced in December 2023

This machine was ordered as a Christmas present from a loving husband to his crafty wife.

It is a very nice vintage setup with blue hues. This post is dedicated to this particular machine. To know more about this model, read in my Knitting Machine Encyclopedia about its pros and cons.

The machine was cleaned from old dust and gunk and tested. The sponge in the retaining bar was replaced and will come inserted into the machine. I completely replaced the weaving brushes on the sinker plate as the old ones completely decomposed.

All needles were removed, cleaned and inspected, first visually and then by knitting on a full bed. The full-bed knitting tests were on stockinet, tuck, slip and holding patterns. The video with all these tests demonstrates that the machine did not have any problems knitting these stitches and none of the needles showed any signs of forming misshapen stitches.

Lace carriage was not tested but all knobs and levers move without problems.

While knitting on a full bed all patterning buttons, knobs and levers were tested in action (with the exception of the N/MC lever but it moves freely) and are fully functional.

The machine comes with all major assesories (lace carriage, rails, row counter, sinker plate) and the majority of the minor assesories.

The row counter is from the new stock – the original row counter was missing from the setup.

The minor assesories missing are:

the assesories kit: it is simply a cover with pockets to keep assesories inside
the lid for the assesories box. The plastic was so weak that it crumbled when the machine arrived to me and I had to discard it.
hard copy of the manual will not be included but it is available online for free. I strongly recommend following the manual step-by-step as it is the best resource to start knowing your knitting machine.

The 3/1 needle selection/transfer tool is missing the one-prong therefor I will include a universal stitch transfer tool as well.

I will include an old wax in its tube that came with the machine. Also, there is half a bottle of still decent looking oil. I will include it as well. If it runs out, I recommend using Hoppe’s Elite Gun Oil, available on Amazon and in local hardware stores.

The manual lists mostly basic patterns but additional patterns are in this brochure.

Despite working flawlessly, the machine had some minor imperfections:

The pattern center panel has two cracks: on the right-hand side and in the middle. additionally the knob on the AB lever is from another machine and thus is not blue in color (the original knob was missing).

The assesories box has a crack on the side and a broken piece on the bottom. The plastics from the 1960s and 1970s were not as weathering resistant as current plastics and thus severely degrade with time especially when exposed to the UV light and moisture.

The case has some minor scuffs on the outer side.

Some of the stains on the lid will remain as they did not come off completely (and I do not subject the old plastics to extensive exposure to harsh solutions).

The lid has some minor rust stains on the inside.

The ratchet tool has a minor crack.

None of these imperfections and some minor missing assesories affected the functioning of the machine, as you can see in my test videos.