singerguy

i also saw this reply from another group :

"I have seen this problem cross my workbench quite often...most of the time it is caused by a small piece of thread being caught in the hook area. Try this...grip your handwheel in your left hand and the small wheel in the center of the handwheel in your right hand and turn the handwheel sharply away from you. This will usually pop out the offending piece of thread and free your machine. Be sure to oil your machine well before you start to sew."

"When the thread gets tangled underneath your bobbin, you can't move the hand wheel forward or back. If you are embroidering, And it is so tangled underneath, you probably will have to lift the hoop as much as you can, reach under with your scissors and clip the threads, pull out as much of the knotted mess as you can, remove your bobbin and clean out your bobbin case and the area around it, remove your needle and insert a new one."

ArchaicArcane

The problem that I find with the sharp snap is that sometimes the thread breaks and you think it's clear "back there" and it's not. Also, if it was actually a shard of needle or something else instead of thread, this could cause damage...

Clipping the threads can also leave remnants behind.

The whole process of taking that bobbin case base apart is really about a 5 minute job...

Ariannaquilts

I am sorry that you guys feel like your going in circles as for the question you asked about what I did I guess it was the hook base tutorial that I followed. I am trying to see what your showing me in the picture but can't figure out what it is that I am looking at?? Is that the back of the bobbin case? I'm going to upload some more pictures BRB hopefully they will help. Also just wanted to say I took the throat plate off again and ran the machine and it runs like a charm soon as I put it back on it's stuck, definitely something with that darned finger thing.

Ariannaquilts

Ok these are the pictures that I just uploaded, hopefully one of you will see what your looking for and maybe since I said about running the machine without the throat plate and it worked like a charm, well one can just hope.

ArchaicArcane

Singerguy, the machine ran when she got it, but had tension problems. Now it's jammed up so that the handwheel only turns properly without the throat plate on. That eliminates a lot of the variables.

I coudn't watch the video, it made me motion sick

It seems like we are because in this thread we're covering what we've already covered in the other thread.

OK, so if it was the hook base tutorial, that should have revealed some thread or something. That's the most common place that the machine gets jammed up. The gears you've shown us, I assume those are the gears you mentioned were not turning? None of them will turn with the machine bound up. It all moves basically as a whole, unless something's broken. So be happy they're not turning at this point.

That photo I posted is exactly what you thought it was. It's basically the same photo as the one that has your serial number in it. Check in that area with a flashlight and a magnifier if you can to make sure there's no thread in there at all.

With the throatplate off, when the finger isn't trapped - does it rotate freely by hand, or does it only turn when you turn the handwheel?

At the end of the day, if the answer to this is that it doesn't rotate freely, either something is mis-assembled (difficult to do) or there's still a very well hidden piece of thread or something else is holding that plate with the finger too tight in place and that's stopping the machine from running.

I should mention too - whatever you do, do not try to run this machine with the throat plate in place until you have this problem fixed. If that finger breaks off, you have to replace that whole base piece you had out to clear the jam.

Now, as for your photos, something's bothering me about that second photo. The hook base looks funny to me. I'm going to try to catch DH before he goes to bed so he can pull the 301 down. BRB.

singerguy

pardon my ignorance, but all this time i thought this is a newly acquired machine that the hand wheel will just not turn. that's all i know nothing less nothing more so i advised her on oiling it as that's what i always do when i got a 'new' old machines.

by the way what's that blue thing on your bobbin case?

ArchaicArcane

No, that's completely fair. I figured I should mention it so that we didn't duplicate a lot of effort that we'd already covered in the other thread.

I suspect that the blue is either a reflection or a weird artifact from the photo. I saw it too.

The 2 things that were bothering me about the photo were:
The hook base looked like it was on top of a lip on the right side, not underneath like it was supposed to be, but that was me mis-remembering. The other thing that bothered me was that I could see too much of the hook tip for the position of the hook, but I think that's just the angle of the shot and it looks to me like there's a wider gap at the top right than the bottom right, indicating that the gib screw was improperly set, but again - I think it was an optical illusion.

Arianna, the only thing I could find that was different between my hook base and yours was the number of "notches" on the right side of it. I can't see that affecting anything, unless the one that's in your machine is actually from a 221 or a 222, but I think mizkaki said that the finger wouldn't even hold in place if they were switched. The part number on my hook base is: 170166 and it's on the collar right under the finger.

As a piece of good news, I learned tonight that you can take that hook base off without having to take the throat plate off. I bet a bunch of you knew that already though and just wanted to see how long til I figured it out too.

Candace

To me, it looks like while someone had the bobbin assembly removed, the gear shaft moved out of place. It can move over to the right a bit and there should be no play in it. A misaligned gear could easily be causing binding.

NANA to 1

I'm new here but I'm looking at my 301 hook base while viewing the pictures. My hook faces to the right no the left or am I totally off base .

ArchaicArcane

Nana, I'm not sure which part you're looking at, but here's a photo of the one in my (apparently very dirty) 301A...eeek! Don't look too closely!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]479528[/ATTACH]

It looks the same as the one in Arianna's machine.

Arianna, here's the "difference" between my bobbin base and yours. That's my bobbin base on top of your picture, hence the size discrepancy. The cutouts on the right are the only differences I can see, and I don't think they matter? Your machine is an earlier one, it's possible mine is just a revision.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]479529[/ATTACH]

And here's the part number on the base

[ATTACH=CONFIG]479530[/ATTACH]

Candace, what gives the shaft being out of place away? Am I Looking at the wrong photo?