Rodney

Miriam is dead on that putting it back the way you found it isn't always correct. I only have a few machines (around 20 now) and I've already seen a couple with the tensions put together wrong. It's a very common thing.
Rodney

miriam

Thank you, Cari. I printed it out - kind of used up a half a tank of ink... I wish there was one for the 500, too. The one in the service manual looks like it has the older style end knob. That thing with all the pieces is a pain in the neck to remember how to do correctly.

bdschafer

Thanks everyone. But don't know if I have the nerve to take it apart!?!??! We'll see. Think I will turn the cone over and see if that works for me...Thanks

Cari-in-Oly

Something else you can try, move the thread stand further away from the machine so the thread has a longer path to straighten out. I do this with some of my embroidery thread cones.

Cari

Cari-in-Oly

Sorry about that. That's why I haven't printed it, need to figure out how to remove the color.

Cari

miriam

I tried to copy it into a paint program and do a color change but it won't copy for me

crocee

Set your printer to copy colors as black &white and set as grayscale and in draft mode. It uses a whole lot less ink and prints faster as well.

Cari-in-Oly

Thanks, I just snipped this to save for future use.

Cari

crocee

I have a benefit ride (horses) coming up and when making several hundred flyers, printing them at home is cheaper with the printer I use (kodak). Black ink is $12 for an extended tank and it lasts a lot longer with these printer settings.

J Miller

Cari-in-Oly,
Thank's for the 401 assembly chart. I added it to my fix-it folder.


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My wife has dozens and dozens of cone thread of many different kinds. Mostly serger thread, but some other types too. I use it a lot. And to date I've not had any of it twist and bind up the machine.

We have a 401 and I have used the cone thread on it a lot. So I'm going to be the one that says that the problem is probably not the thread or the way it spirals off the cone, but most likely a top tension or thread path issue.

I'm going to show some pics of our 401 and the cone thread set up I use.

Here is the set up I used on the 401 and many of our other machines with zero twisting of the thread:

The thread comes off the spool up through the hook at the top, through the spiral spring at the top of the widget then through the normal thread guides and tension. Works perfectly. No twisting or binding of any kind. I've have used this method to quilt several quilts and from start to finish of the bobbin there's been no twisting.

Here's a pic of my multiple thread set up:

This is threaded exactly as above only with three lines of thread from cones.
The spring at the top of the widget actually twisted the three threads into a
spiral and it fed through the guides and tension perfectly. No binding at all.
It the above pics I was using the patterns to decorate some of the squares I used in my All Machines Denim quilt. If the thread coming off the cones would cause a problem, it would have. But it didn't.

This is why I said it's probably a tension problem. Miriam and some of the
other posters have alluded to this as well.

Now here is another thing I found on our 401a. The top tension would not hold it's setting. I kept having to adjust it until it quilt adjusting. So at that point I took it out of the machine for a complete tear down and cleaning. When I did this I found a bunch of metal filings in the set screw hole between the set screw and the tension body.

What this was doing was jamming the top tension set screw to the point it couldn't hold the tension assembly in place. So as we were sewing the top tension was working it's way out of the machine body.
Once the metal fragments was removed and the tension cleaned and adjusted this machine has worked perfectly.

Just some ideas, but I'd start with the tension and thread paths were that my machine.

Joe