Which way to put needle in - 301A
 

Took a vintage Singer 301A to cabin for weekend. I've forgotten to bring the manual with me. Just going to change needle. Took old one out w/o paying attention which way flat side of needle was. Can anyone help me, please?

Flat side to the left (just checked my 301 manual). You will be threading right to left.
Enjoy your sewing at the cabin!
Dayle

I find it easiest to remember on both the FW and the 301, that the needle flat is to the left, which makes the needle "mirror" the throat plate. (the throat plate having the flat to the left as well)

Thank's for the answers. Found out last night I could download or view manual on-line. Got needle in correctly. Now I have thread tension issues to work through.

The EASIEST way for ME is to LEAVE A CHEAT SHEET in each of the machines that lists which side the flat side of the needle goes in and which way to thread the needle (left to right or right to left). On some I even have a sketch of the threading.

I don't use the machines often (enough) so these cheat sheets get me up and running without frustration.

Used my 301A for the first time in a few years yesterday. Oiled it well, changed the needle and it sewed like it was brand NEW. Beautiful, beautiful stitches!

Nan

Oh! I don't know why I didn't think to mention it! Yes, most of the manuals are available online. If not on ISMACS , then on Singer's site most of the time. What sort of tension issues?

Hey Nan, I think that's a good idea for a lot of people. For some reason, I don't often have trouble threading a machine. (Elnas not included)

One thing I usually do when someone brings me a sick machine, or when I sell one is I thread it up, and tell them to take a photo with their phone. Then they have reference.

You can usually tell how it threads, just by the placement of the various guides and such.

The placement of the last guide will usually tell you which way to thread the needle as well. If it's pulling the thread to the right of the needlebar, it will most likely thread right to left, etc.

Did you put a couple of drops of oil right on top of the motor? They get hardened grease and such in there, and the motor "seizes". I bought a 301 that way, in a couple of minutes after the 2 drops of oil, it purred like a kitten. It's the one I took to our sewing circle last night, and it sounded and ran great. They're hardy little machines. :)

I've done a video about which way to set the needle - click on the link for Youtube below - so you can tell from the bobbin mechanism which way the needle should go. I hope you find it helpful.

Oh, thank you - all such kind people. New needle in - good. Finally resolved tension issues --- bottom of fmq suddenly looked like crap ---loose, loopy, sloppy, ugly. On the umpteenth time of taking bobbin out, taking screws off faceplate, cleaning those areas, and giving up and going to bed last night, I tried again this morning. Seemed like an extra stray thread finally came up from the bobbin area and all worked wonderful. Will try to get a photo of my whirlwind quilting weekend project posted tomorrow. (surprise quilt for my father in law.)

Some times I find it best to totally take the tension apart and rebuild it. It seems like for what ever reason it works a whole lot better after that. Here is a manual:
http://www.tfsr.org/pub/technical_in...echanism_2.pdf
look for the tension that matches the one you have - enlarge the page you need so you can see what you are doing at a glance.

I agree with Miriam. All the machines that come to the house get a bath (sponge bath, but all jewellery (including tensioners and bobbin cases) is removed and soaked) and then their tensioners reassembled and adjusted per that article.

If you re-thread the machine, upper with a different color than the lower, I bet the upper thread is the one causing the grief... which is probably also why Miriam linked to the upper tension manual instead of the lower :thumbup:


Note: For anyone reading this down the road: if you do soak a bobbin case, throw it in assembled, but disassemble it after soaking and let it dry then reassemble. This way, you don't loose the little screws while it's soaking, but you don't leave it to rust together afterward.