Which Athena do you have? According to https://www.singer.com/support there are five Athena machines when I typed in Athena for the model. I'm guessing that it is the 2009 and the metal bobbin is not the type of bobbin for that machine. A couple of the other "Athena" manuals that I looked at, do not indicate which bobbin for that particular machine. https://www.singer.com/sewing-resour...e-bobbin-guide doesn't say which machines use the different bobbins, but says "Do not substitute with Class 15 metal or transparent bobbins" for the 15J. I'm not sure how accurate and complete, but another resource for Singer bobbin information can be found at https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/bobbins Just for fun I searched that page with the model numbers of Athena's and it looks like there are four different bobbins for the five machines.

Hopefully, you made notes for all the changes you made so that you can put it back to where it was before all this started.

I thought of bkay before she replied, she thought she had cleaned out the bobbin area, but found a lot more upon trying it again.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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I have a Brother machine that I can never get the bobbin case back in perfectly after I clean the bobbin area. The machine does the same thing yours is doing until I get it seated correctly. I'd check how the bobbin case is installed.