Originally Posted by
sdhaevrsi
UPDATE: I am beaming and hopping up and down here in Idaho! Tammi (ArchaicArcane,) is an awesome teacher, her videos are perfect, and so are her words of explanation!
I got the take up lever problem resolved... but ended up with skipped stitches all over the place.
So, since the tension control was apparently put together wrong, (it wouldn't even turn more that half the way around,) I took it apart with Tammi's videos, (which she has posted on her blog,) cleaned it, reassembled it, and now it turns as it should, and is nice and clean, too.
The skipped stitches continue so I added pictures here (back a few posts,) of the hook placement...ack, I found out it was out of timing! So, with much trepidation and Tammi's help and a great video, I tackled the timing. (I feel my heart rate increase just thinking about how I felt at that time!) Screws were frozen under there and needed a lot of convincing over a day or two before finally getting them loose today about noon.
I got the machine timed perfectly as far as I my eyes could tell, but when I tried to confirm that, my needle would hit the hook thing before the hook was in the right place. (Highly technical labeling, hope you can follow, ha! Maybe Tammi can clarify it for you...)
So, after staring at my good 301 next to the sick tan 301, I figured out that the needle bar was about an 1/8 inch lower than the good one. Tammy confirmed that and I learned how to adjust the needle bar. :-)
I got to practice setting the timing again. Boy, am I tired, and my shoulders are about the level of my ears, but it all works now! No skipped stitches, tension is beautiful, and it just hums along. Sweet!
Thank you, thank you, Tammi!!
Sheri! You did the heavy lifting! I am SO proud of you!! The fact that you were such a great student made my job easy. All I had to do was explain things you wanted to know about and chat to keep you company and keep you calm.
You did scare me a little with the hammer thing but that worked out OK too.
Your needle was striking the hook before the tip of the hook reached the needle. It's a sure sign of timing being out and / or the needlebar being too low. Of course in your case, we found both to be the case. What a great learning opportunity that turned out to be.
I also thought it was a great catch on your part for the needlebar. None of us saw it in the pics so it was very subtle.
Things like this are stressful the first time but the shoulders by the ears thing seems to settle down in subsequent tries. If you have to do this again, look how easy it will be!
Originally Posted by
sdhaevrsi
And the photo with the circled bumps is odd... I don't know what caused that but it isn't there in real life. Shadows or the way some old grease showed up? I just went and looked again, there are no bumps, here is a photo that I just took.
I bet it was a trick of the light and probably some varnished oil that has since flaked away.
Originally Posted by
Jeanette Frantz
Tammi,
I say it again! You rock, girl! I'm proud to be associated with the fine folks on the QB!
Jeanette
Awww Jeanette! I didn't do much. I could tell Sheri wanted to learn and I just offered the opportunity.
Empowerment is what I always aimed for "back in the day" in my computer business. This is just an extension of the same.