I am upset. My serger was working fine. Then I put it away for a couple of days and now it is sick. It starts slower then normal then it goes slower and slower until it stops. All in about 12 inches.

I have cleaned and oiled it. Checked the needles. Checked the thread and threading. Everything seems to be fine when I turn the handwheel. The handwheel does seem to be a bit hard to turn.

Not sure about a serger, but my old sewing machine did that once when the foot pedal needed to be replaced. No matter how hard I pushed, it wasn't getting the "juice." It worked OK again after I got a new pedal. Is the pedal plugged into the machine all the way? Does the insulated wire itself seem loose at the ends where it goes into the machine or the foot pedal, like it has frayed inside?

If my current sewing machine acted like that, I'd check if I had accidentally pushed a button or put something in the memory that told it to go slow or sew only for a little bit & then stop. (I've done that, after stitching out a word & then forgetting to tell it that it was OK to stitch normally again and not stop at the end of the word.) But on a serger...??

That stiff hand wheel might be a clue, though. Jammed piece of broken thread somewhere? (I've had that happen on my regular machine. Very hard to find.)

If all else fails, it might take a trip to the shop & get the cover off to investigate. Good luck! Sometimes wish we had AAA for our machines, not just our cars!

Yup-my first guess was the foot pedal. Check the plug-in of it to the machine and did you wrap the cord tightly around the pedal? That'll kill it. Let us know.