Serging, sergering, sergery?

[Sarahstw]

I'm about to plug in a serger that I borrowed. I haven't used one in ten years, and I've never had to thread one. It doesn't have an instruction manual, and has been sitting in a basement for a long time...

Am I about to make myself crazy?

Any tips? Reassurance?

[sabrinat]

I'd clean and oil it first assuming you haven't already.

[orangefoot]

Sergery

Tips - none. Just do it and see what happens then troubleshoot from there if you need to.

[sarahope]

My old serger didn't have a manual either, but I was able to find a threading diagram online that really helped. I would troubleshoot everything online and now I'm very comfortable with my ancient serger. There are many longtime highly experienced sewers on many sewing forums (like patternreview) and they can give you some good pointers too.

[leximom]

you can usually find manuals online even for the older models. There are videos on youtube on threading and books too. I don't think threading is something that can be done just off the color coded picture on the front of the machine without going crazy!