I'm a grandmother who uses my Crystal Quilter by New Joy all the time, and I am having much trouble this week. All of the sudden, my tension is haywire! It pulls tight and breaks the thread every few stitches. I have rethreaded, tried new needles, checked the bobbin, and all normal things seem to be in order. Does anyone have experience with this machine and have you encountered this problem?

Have you tried calling the company or dealer? I'm not familiar with that machine. I hope it's something simple to fix.

wonder if you broke the tension spring. May be a trip to the doctor is necessary. When is the last time it was serviced?

Last night I took a mini-course on machine maintenance that can be done at home, in between professional cleanings. The biggest culprit seems to be lint build-up! The one place we, as the machine owner, doesn't clean are the tension disks because (1) we're scared of hurting them and, (2) we can't get at them. I learned last night to take 3-4 strands of thread (what you usually use) about a foot long, tie them together in the center with a knot, and run this back & forth through the slot where the tension disks are. This will remove the lint that is built up on the axle/connection point wehre the two tension disks meet. It's worth a try. Good luck!

You can also take a strand of dental floss and run it through the tension disk. This will also clean any thread out of them. When you change thread always cut at the top of the machine and pull down through the needle. This way you do not get the fuzzys in the disks when you pull the thread back up through them.