Had a shock . .

. . . this morning when my sewing machine, which I love dearly, suddenly died, just stopped working, as though someone had turned the power off. But the light was still on. So, hunted out the manual, found a bit that said try the fuse, but that turned out to not to apply to my model (Pfaff tipmatic 1151, 15 years old). Cleaned out under the needle, drop of oil, still no good. Called in my husband, who though not an engineer is excellent at tracking down faults in electricals by logical deduction and who can often mend them too. He fiddled around a bit. The trouble seemed to be linked with the wheel going round, it had some patchy spurts of life in it still when disconnected as for bobbin winding. So he prised various bits of the cover off, squirted WD40, had it running again . . . for 5 minutes. It seemed reasonably clean, a few bits of fluff, but then you can't normally get at those parts to clean them anyway. So, must be the motor. Frantic internet search for UK suppliers of new motor for a discontinued machine. Emailed 'Colin', a spares man at Pfaff. Back to the machine to stare at it and think a bit more. Perhaps there was a component that had worn out? After 15 years pretty constant use, not unlikely. Perhaps I needed a new machine. Went to look up Berninas on the Internet. Came back with a shortlist to find the culprit was identified as badly worn carbon brushes, (bit cheaper than a Bernina). Back to Google to try and find some in UK. Husband turned up with an old carbon brush from the washing machine, found lurking in the shed, (never throw anything away) , thought he could cut some bits to size. Went on looking at Berninas! Half an hour later - its all reassembled and working again! Haven't heard back yet from Colin, but I think my husband is wonderful!