Originally Posted by jljack
I too am a lover of vintage sewing machines, and I love the work you are showing here done on that machine. It's great!! I haven't sewed a whole lot on my Singer 301 yet, as I had some issues with tension, and then realized I had a whole lot more oiling to do before she would sew like she is supposed to. Anyway, I am going to take time with her soon to be sure I understand her completely. I really do love them....they are so much better for basic work than the modern plastic machines.
Here
is a little trick we picked up somewhere for tension. Take a thread and tie a series of knots in it then slid it back and forth through the tension wheels to clean them. Also try completely loosening tension setting and work down- on some machines we do the opposite and go tight then loosen till we hit the correct setting. Since most Singers have 3 discs in the tension wheel people often miss the correct ones and think they have trouble. Also the 301 treads right to left like the Featherweight, flat side of needle faces left- So does the Singer 15-91