Yah..I thought my new Janome would be able to use the bobbins from my old Kenmore (since it was made by Janome anyway) but...NOPE! I have 2 Brother machines that can share bobbins but my Janome will not sew right with either the Kenmore or Brother bobbins even though they look pretty much identical to me. It sounds funny and breaks thread. The Kenmore, oddly enough, seems to do fine with just about any bobbin I put in there except the curvy Singer bobbins - I wonder if it's because it's a front-loader instead of a drop-in like my other machines; or if it's just that it's kind of old and wonky in general so I can't tell the difference, LOL. I seem to have lost the manual for that one so I'm not sure what it SHOULD be using. But, it's my backup to my backup so I'm in no rush or worry to figure it out.