Feed Dogs on Janome 1600P

No the feed dogs aren't dropped on the Janome 1600 series sewing machines. Instead, you cover them with the darning plate. I haven't found the darning plate sold separately. https://www.sewingmachinesplus.com/jan-767-827-009.php is a source for the darning foot and darning plate. As far as I can tell, the darning plate is not among the original accessories for any of the Janome 1600 models. The manuals for two of the Janome 1600 models are on the retired machine page: https://www.janome.com/support/retired-machine-manuals/ . The manual for the Janome 1600P-QC is on that machine page: https://www.janome.com/machines/sewing/1600p-qc/ . The direct link to this manual is https://www.janome.com/siteassets/support/manuals/professional-series/inst-book-1600pqc.pdf .

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

Remove the needle plate and clean the feed dogs with a brush...remove any lint and bits of thread.
A couple of drops of sewing machine oil might help to loosen the feed dogs up. (maybe let the oil seep in and then turn the handwheel towards yourself to help things along.
One other thought:
If your machine has feed dog lowering capability you might want to move that lever/switch back and forth a couple of times.
The feed dogs might not appear to raise or lower, but some machines will only re-engage raised feed dogs when the machine starts to stitch.

Also...verify that the presser foot tension isn't too strong/heavy...and temporarily try using a longer stitch length setting.

Dropping the Feed Dog
The feed dog can be lowered with the drop-feed lever for sewing on buttons etc.

• Shift the drop-feed lever to the right to lower the feed dog.
• Shift the lever to the left to raise the feed dog, it will return to the up position when the machine is started.

NOTE:The feed dog should be in the up position for regular sewing. Turn the handwheel toward you to check if the feed dog comes up after setting the lever in the up position


JANOME DC 3050 User Manual Page 9

With the straight stitch set to zero the feed dogs should be down. To use a different number will make the feed dogs rise above the plate.

Try raising and lowering the feed dogs a couple times there may be something in there that's tripping the sensor.

Manuals will be difficult to find because the companies limit themsleves to the amount of spares they make, open the slide plate and see if there is a drop feed lever, if not you may have raised plates instead.

there is a little metal plate that fits over the feed dogs, this is what I am using

Have you tried sewing with the machine after setting feed dogs to up position. You may already realise but it takes a full revolution of the machine to engage and raise the feed dogs after setting the feed lift control to up (the feed dods will drop as soon as you adjust the feed lift control but will not raise until a full revolution of the stitching mechanism).
If you have already tried this unsuccessfully try removing the cover below the feed dogs and spray lubricant on the feed linkages and try freeing them.

These machines are known to have this problem. The feed lift cam has a groove worn in it that won't allow the feed dogs to come back up. It is on the lower shaft and needs to be replaced. You can get the feed dogs back up by taking off the needle plate and lifting them up manually while turning the hand wheel. They should stay up until you drop them again.
Some people will not replace the cam and live with it.
good luck!

I've always been able to get a free PDF downloadable manual from Janome. They are happy to send you a manual for your specific machine via email, and they've always been very helpful to me. Here's a link to them:

http://www.janome.com/index.cfm/ContactUs/Machine_Support

Hope this helps!