miriam

I rebuilt four 15 clone tensions this morning. I have four more to do. I kind of go by what I know about the Singer 15s, 66s & 27s and then have to improvise from there. I don't know of a manual that will have a whole lot of info on clone tensions. The bit parts will never match and often don't interchange even when two tensions look a like and are from the same manufacture. I'm hoping some of you experts will come along and help with this. Some of you may see a different tension on your 15 clone so shoot a pic for us if you don't blind yourself with trying to photograph chrome. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to post all the pictures I would like so I'll spread them out later on as I have time today or tomorrow. My 89 year old Mom helped me clean a couple nose plates while I fiddled with the bits and the bobbin cases. She took a lot of time on two of them and they came out very nice. Two of the plates did not need anything.

Step 1:
Get a box of Tension Tamer Tea at the store. Brew up a cup of it and sip.

Step 2:
Remove the nose plate. If you can't figure that out go drink the tension tamer tea and take the machine into a shop... just saying...

Step 3:
Take a picture of your tension.

Step 4:
Start by removing the nut that holds the tension on the post - if you can't figure that out you know the drill....

Step 5: carefully remove the other parts - take pictures - line them up in muffin cups - what ever you have to do to keep them in the right order and in the right direction. I use an old magnetic sign turned magnet side up to catch things and keep things from rolling around. Some bits and pieces face out and some face in - you will need to remember that - I put them on my magnet pointing the direction they came off. Pictures, notes, what ever helps you remember. That said, I had a tension that was completely assembled wrong. Experience told me that by looking at it right away.

To be continued...

For now something to look at.
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Montgomery Ward
two identical looking tensions. There were a couple parts that were not the same inside.
One of the tension springs was rubbing on the face plate enough to scratch it. The first one I took apart had one part turned the wrong way and 2 parts were different from the other tension. Go figure.

I'll try to post one more picture then later come back with more info how to clean up the tension. I have to work in bits and pieces here so things don't go crazy in this house...
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Sorry the chrome is so glaring. Can you see that these are not alike??? I have 4 more to do tomorrow and they are all different. When I took the pictures I hadn't worked on any of these yet.