Juki Lu 563 Timing Adjustment

[pmreed]

Howdy!

I recently purchased an experienced Juki LU 563.

As I have been acquainting myself with the machine, it has been working very well. Yesterday, as I was sewing some canvas and leather, the needle broke. This seemed to throw off the timing, as the bobbin hook isn't picking up the needle thread.

There aren't any repair guys within about an hour and a half from here, so I'd like to learn how to adjust this myself. Can anyone offer some pointers?

Thank you very much!

-Peter

[Tejas]

The manual in the following link should help.

http://keysew.com/Webpages/DemoImages/Juki_LU-563_Instruction_Keyfooter.pdf

[pmreed]

Thank You!

I'll give it a try.

[Cobra Steve]

Make sure that the safety clutch is engaged. There is a little silver button on the bed of the machine that you must push in and hold as you turn the hand wheel. You will feel it snap in and your hook should now be in time. Try this first. Steve

[pmreed]

Thank you all for your help.

Another issue is the doggone stitch adjustment mechanism.

No matter how much button pushing and wheel turning I do, the adjustment dial won't budge.

I don't know if it's seized, due to lack of lubrication or if it needs some other tweak.

Unfortunately, it's stuck on a real fine stitch setting and I need to move it to a more suitable stitch size for canvas.

The nearest repair guy is at least a hundred mile round trip, so it'd be a whole lot better to not have to entertain those two trips.

Thanks for your help.

-Peter

[SARK9]

A couple of the normal *gotchas* on that machine are (1) remember its the left button you depress for a stitch length change and (2) when the handwheel/adjuster has turned all the way to the minimum or maximum, you can only turn it back the other direction.

-DC

[pmreed]

BLESS YOU, DC!

The guy I bought it from indicated that the right button was the stitch button adjustment and the left one for the clutch.

Makes a big difference when you reverse those directions.

Many Thanks!

-Peter

[lolitatoro]

I have a Juki Lu-563. I set my stitching length to 1 and my stitching still very small and tight, why is that? I need help please.

[Constabulary]

I have no 563 but a Singer 111 which is very similar. Are you sure the dial shows a 1 and not 10, 11 or higher number? 1 would mean 1 stitch per inch and that is not possible with this machine.

[SARK9]

The numbers on the dial frequently have little relationship to an exact number of stitches per inch, unless someone has set the dial to a known value. Mine have no number "1" on them, except as part of the numbers 11, 18 etc. Shine a good light in the hole and see if you have a situation like Constabulary described; Sometimes the numbers were painted white for contrast and one of the digits may have lost the pigment, making an *18* look like a *1* to a casual glance. At any rate, turning the handwheel towards the operator in the machine's normal rotation direction (with the left button depressed) increases the stitch length all the way to the stop at maximum, then you must turn the handwheel "backwards" to reduce the stitch length. I advise pulling the needle thread out of the needle anytime you rotate these machines backwards, btw.

-DC

[lolitatoro]

Its clearly a 1 as the next number is 4. Still giving me a tight stitch, I then switched to 4 and it sewed an even smaller stitch. Today I tried again on 4 the stitching seem a little bigger but then ir started sewing small again. Why is it changing the sticting? Very annoying....Please help. Stitching keeps changing by itself is there a place on the machine i need to tighten?

Edited August 23, 2015 by lolitatoro

[SARK9]

Sounds as though you need to go through the feed set up by the numbers. To eliminate one issue, is the stitch length in reverse about the same length as the fwd?

Next, check the height of the feed dog at as it cycles. The teeth should protrude through the needle plate roughly an amount which raises the bottoms of the *V* grooves even with the surface of the needle plate. Less protrusion means you only get the feed engaged for part of the travel.

In a nutshell, there are some fairly good manuals for these machines which describe how to reset the feed dogs and the walking foot adjustments back to a good starting point. The machines similar to the Singer 111W* are extremely common and well understood.

You need to check out the feed bar slide fork to see if it has had its screw loosen or if it is worn excessively.

Start here: http://navyaviation.tpub.com/10330/css/10330_55.htm

Read on to determine if the adjustments for the foot lift eccentric need to be tweaked.

-DC

[SARK9]

Oh. And in the interest of being thorough, if you haven't done this already... completely ignore the numbers on the adjuster wheel for now, and hold the left button down while rotating the handwheel "towards" you (CCW as you face the handwheel) until it reaches its limit and stops. Observe the stitch length for change?

-DC

[lolitatoro]

Thank you DC for your response i will try the things you suggested and get back to you to see if it worked!

Edited August 23, 2015 by lolitatoro

[lolitatoro]

DC I have tried all your suggestions but it still seems to be stitching inconsistently. The stitch length in reverse is not the same length as forward. The stitch length changes every time I reverse and then go forward again. Any other suggestions? =) I have even tried adjusting the feed eccentric gib.

Edited August 24, 2015 by lolitatoro

[SARK9]

Its almost down to "I'd have to see it" if the easy stuff has no effect. Some other obvious things to rule out are: loose or stripped feed dog screws, badly fitting feed dogs that are too short/smooth or interfering with the needle plate, or something simple like a big wad of thread or lint between the feed dogs and plate. Check back on the feed fork, and see how much play there is there.

I think a couple of videos may be helpful to see the actual motion of the feed with and without anything under the foot, and the motion of the walking foot action/needle bar. The things you have checked are about the limit of my direct experience; its about all I've ever had to adjust on my machines. Post some videos if possible and good luck!

-DC

[Sagadella]

Looking for posts on timing, I was happy to find this as I own a Juki LU562 which I guess is a very similar machine to the 563. Just had a major repair done-$$$ replacing the bobbin case and hook, and things are running much better but I'm still skipping stitches which is disappointing. I'm going to use the above information to check everything and see if it helps. Just noticed this thread has not had a post in over 5 years but am so glad it was still an available resource!

[Upholstery1970]

On 1/31/2021 at 2:17 AM, Sagadella said:

Looking for posts on timing, I was happy to find this as I own a Juki LU562 which I guess is a very similar machine to the 563. Just had a major repair done-$$$ replacing the bobbin case and hook, and things are running much better but I'm still skipping stitches which is disappointing. I'm going to use the above information to check everything and see if it helps. Just noticed this thread has not had a post in over 5 years but am so glad it was still an available resource!

Hi there. Did you find a solution to your skipped stitches ? I just bought a used Juki 563n from a machine dealer last week. It sewed beatifully in his shop and initially when I got it home.  Then as I started to use it it began to skip stitches and thread breakage/shredding. I tried all the normal easy fixes...needle, threading, tensions, timing etc with limited success.

I think I have now diagnosed the issue as the inner foot of my 1/4" piping set. On close inspection I noticed that the needle was ever so slighly nudging the back of the foot which was causing it to deflect slightly....it was far more noticeable at the largest stitch length and when using the machine at speed. Enlarging  the hole of the foot seems to have solved the issue. 

I should have realised this earleir as many of the feet I had bought for my other machine (Brother 837) also caused problems. 

Hope this helps. 

Greetings from Scotland 

[Laure40]

Hi All!
My stitch button (the left) on my juki lu-563 isn’t entering the groove of the eccentric mechanism.. the mechanism seams to be off a little to the right when looking under. How can I move it left for the button to enter the groove in order to adjust my stitch lengh?Thank you in advance.