I just had to respond. I've had my Nelco serger for around 20 years. I've made numerous bridesmaid dresses in addition to quilts, alterations, baby blankets, tons of mending and too many things to remember. I absolutely love my machine. When it was new - I jotted down some basic tension settings from the manual for standard seams, rolled hems, gathering, etc and those notes still work all these years later. If the tension is messed up - it usually means I haven't gotten the thread snugged down into the tension dials. You have to gently tug it into the groove each time you change thread. Perhaps some models are better than others and I don't honestly know what model mine is, but it still works great and I still love my machine.