Ron, It is ok. Some times I assume I was clear enough - but it should be clear by now. :D:D:D The tension should slide right out if the set screws are released. My socket crumbled when I was taking them out. Someone really did a number on that socket before I ever got my hands on it. They must have bashed the whole thing right into the machine to get it that stuck, too. I do hope another one will fit in the hole. I have some donor machines so something might work out for me.

Thanks Miriam.. I was a really horrible day, and I needed a laugh.. Sorry it was at your expense... Glad you got part of the problem solved..

Some times I have to just laugh about it or I would be so mad it isn't funny. I've never seen one like it. I just have this image of someone's husband with a big honkin' hammer and a big screwdriver and he's hitting the socket to get it loose and it keeps breaking and going in farther. I'm surprised he gave up on it. I bet he wanted to beat that machine to a pulp. It was a good thing that one was cheap. I think other wise it might just be a good machine. I can't remember what it is called. It's just some Japanese zig zag machine. It should be a decent machine when it is done.

Maybe somebody knows how to get all those metal shavings out of the nose area? They do not stick to a magnet. I do not want to use the hose. Egor would though - Egor is a genius....

You could try this. Set up your vacuum hose in the area and use a can of compressed air for cleaning off a keyboard to knock it loose. Q-Tips also pick up that stuff.
~G~

Poor Mariam! I do appreciate your sense of humor and hear the frustration behind it. It could have easily been me!

The last tensioner I took apart needed a better spring and I couldn't find one. I carefully recoiled the problem spring, and it took three days of off and on trying to get the tensioner back together. Now I take them apart only as a last resort.

This does give me an idea, though. We have universal thread cones that will work on most any machine. Why couldn't there be a tensioner that fit over or near the bad tensioner and could be used instead? If someone could manufacture those, they could make a lot of money. Another idea would be for a company to make a universal replacement tensioner.

I would use a vacuum cleaner with a small, long attachment. I wouldn't go for compressed air or I might have more frustration if a piece of metal got forced in somewhere. Or you could put some masking tape, rolled up like a lint roller, on the bottom of a straw or slender piece of wood or something and put it down there to pick up metal.

It worries me that I don't remember this what this machine looks like at all. I don't remember if I ever put it back together...

I’ve had one or two of those old Japanese machines that had tension assemblies like you described. The barrel of the tension assembly is some kind of “pot-metal” that seems to swell into the casting hole of the head, like a mushroom. The metal quality is so poor, that the part that I could get hold of to remove it crumbled easily. I’m not sure what conditions the machine has to go through for that tension barrel to mushroom like that. Heat? Humidity?

I’ve had to chisel them out and install a new tension assembly.

CD in Oklahoma

One of the pleasures of living here on the wet side of WA is you get familiar with all sorts of rot and corrosion. I've seen that swollen, crumbly pot metal before, just not on a sewing machine(yet). Usually near the coast. Salt air might be good for the lungs but it wreaks havoc on everything else.
Rodney

Rodney, I live over by the coast and it wreaked havoc with me too!:D Although I haven't found it on a sewing machine yet either. Having said that it will probably pop up with in the week.:thumbup:

I thought this thread was very interesting, thank you M