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.
