Originally Posted by
ckcowl
if you thread by cutting the thread, adding new & pulling it through...sometimes the 'new' thread does not make it through the tension disks completely- its important to pull on both sides of the thread around the disks & make sure the thread is in there correctly- this can make such a difference= you 'know' everything is done right...but the thread is actually laying on top of the tension disk's instead of being between them-so not getting the tension correct on top---which would cause problems on the bottom.
This is what I think was happening. It is a really dark forest green, and I know the really dark colors have so much dye that it can make them a bit stiffer. I'm going to do some testing without resetting the upper tension disks, but making sure that the thread is firmly seated. This should verify that it was operator error (or not).
Thanks everyone for your replies!