I was having tension problems on my janome, I finally got a $15 dollar thread holder and when I use that machine it lives on the right side of me with my thread and my tension does so much better! My janome is a great machine but it had the thread on its side almost in the middle of the machine. I don't think it allows for it to "flow" off the spool very well that way. My older singer has the thread post on the far right of the machine upright and it always seems to work well that way.