ArchaicArcane

I actually think it IS tension related. Your tweaking with the alternate and alternate alternate threading is changing pre-tension - the tension inflicted on the thread before the tensioner itself - and post tensioner tension. Every guide the thread goes through affects the tension on the thread too. Tension is not just the tensioner. That finger that the thread is wrapping around in the other thread is built a little differently on my 411G but the only way a loop could get there is by not being controlled correctly - that implies a tension failure of some sort. I'm trying to think of another model of machine that has that finger in the inside part of the hook race and coming up blank. Maybe that's the slant connection.

Some Long Arms and other industrial machines have more than one tensioner because really high tension on one tensioner isn't the same as moderate on two tensioners. My long arm uses guides to apply the pre-tension to keep tension sane on some threads instead of that second tensioner. This is also something I played with while setting up a 503 to chainstitch. <- see? borderline relevant to the conversation. Tension at 7 - 7.5 on the dial made a nice chain until the thread snapped. Lowering the tension to about 3.5 and adding drag elsewhere (post tension in this case) created a beautiful chain.

Embroidery machines, especially with the use of poly thread - because it's elastic and stretches and shrinks while sewing - seem to benefit from a little extra drag before the tensioner and I truly think pre-tension would resolve a lot of the grief people have with embroidery machine "isms" - sudden nesting, loops on top, sudden changes in tension, etc. They also benefit from the thread being on a spool stand and placed a fair ways from the machine so the thread has time to "relax" and unwind before delivering the twists and such to the needle. These are all similar symptoms to what we're talking about here.

Tension will be affected to some degree by the physical change in the thread.

LOL! Joe! That's because you basically had an entire spool treated with DIY "sewer's aid". It would never have occured to me to use that thread. I've had similar spools in cabinets and cases and I always throw them out immediately when I get the machine on the bench.

As for static, potentially. Maybe it causes drag, like when you pull a balloon across your hair. The sudden release could also do weird things. I do know that now that my studio is always between 37 and 45% humidity, I don't have the weird gremlins I did in the dead of winter.

In response to one of your earlier comments, you've mentioned a bunch of times that you sew slowly. A lot of problems aren't as noticeable if you sew slower. It's one of the main things we tell people doing FMQ and frame quilting - if you're getting "X" symptom, try slowing down and see if it stops.


I really don't think it's the clearance. You said it's never changed. Unless the mechanism is able to vibrate in or out while in use, it shouldn't be it.