Originally Posted by
MadCow333
Okay, I ran all of this by Mom, and she said her 401A has never skipped stitches. The school's Slant machines (404, 401, 403, 501, 503) didn't, either. (Only the Touch & Swears did that, and she evicted all of them and replaced them with Japanese Kenmores, lol.)
The only thing she could think of that has not already been covered in this particular Slant discussion is needle either a smidge too high or too low and did you try setting it higher or lower in the needle clamp.
eta: I was NOT laughing at you, AA/Tammi. I was just amused by the solution, that apparently one prima dona needs to do things "by the book."
LOL! No worries. I know that there are machines out there that like to be difficult, just like some people.
The weird part is, I've had 3 of the machines now skip stitches, and I often see them in our version of Craigslist for sale with people saying "it skips the odd stitch". This is all of the machines 401, 403, 500, 503. The 411Gs, and 431Gs were always advertised differently - "Singer sewing machine" - I recognize them by the color when they come up.
1 of them I was able to fix the skipping with tension adjustments. One was the first 431G, and when I timed it like the rest after removing and repairing the hook, stitched fine, and then this one, the prima donna
I suppose I should post a pic of the lady, since she's been the subject of all this talk
I'll go clean up the desk and snap one.
Working for the school board in a previous life, I've met a few home ec teachers over the years, no one liked the Touch and swears. They usually said that the kids didn't either. What a shame. You can't learn to love to sew if the machine hates it. My first sewing machine was a 290C. It didn't say Touch and Sew on it, but it basically was, including the wind in place bobbin. When I was 10 and first got it, I learned to wear safety goggles when winding the bobbin. It took me about 25 more years to "embrace" sewing, and a treadle to show me that sewing machines didn't all hate me.
The dumb thing is, it was a Singer, and my dad bought it new. He would have been able to take me to "free" lessons, and I wouldn't have had half the trouble I did with it.
I fully seated the needles every time, because that's what the owner's manual says to do. That said, I did end up lowering the needlebar about 1/32", so that would accomplish the same thing as short seating it, and it may be one of the things that fixed the issue, so kudos for your mom for suggesting it.
Originally Posted by
J Miller
Tammi,
Glad you got yours fixed.
Been walking around the house checking our slant needle machines.
T&S 778: Looks to be timed dead on or a tinsy bit late. Don't know how it sews, I haven't had a chance to test it yet.
401A: Timed up late, but sews great and doesn't skip stitches.
500: Dead on. Sews great, no skipped stitches
4622A: Can't tell, no timing marks, but it sews great, no skipped stitches.
Joe
Thanks for looking Joe!
Just to clarify, the needle arrives late, or the hook does?
If there are no timing lines, when the needlebar has risen about 5/64" from bottomed, on the upswing, the tip of the hook should be behind the eye of the needle, and I think the Slant manual said 1/64" above the eye of the needle. The general principle of how a machine makes stitches won't change, so that's what I use to "eyeball" a machine without timing lines.
That and "oh look! It grabs the thread everytime!"