Cecilia S.

Dear Mike and all,

W.r.t. the flat of the needle; another easyish way to remember might be to think of where the flat part is butting up against its little housing. I find this logic works for me, thinking of how to get that needle in there nice and snug. Of course then on some machines it is still possible to thread the thread the wrong way. I like your way of saying that the thread always enters on the Not Flat side. That also works.

My Anker Phoenix is currently out of commission with a thread jam to end all thread jams. I am beginning to wonder whether I goofed with that. It is a round shank needle. So is there a rule of thumb with a round shank needle? Is it always long groove towards the front, and thread therefore -in- the long groove side of the needle? Just wondering if there is a catchy way to encode this in my memory as I flail about from machine to machine. :-)

ArizonaKAT

Hijack away . . . I learned a ton of new info from this.

KAT

miriam

The curve of the needle goes toward the bobbin's hook - the groove side gets the thread.

SteveH

Actually I was told that the "rule of thumb" is that "the Long groove ALWAYS goes away from the hook".

The purpose of the short groove is to allow the thread to get pinched between the fabric and the needle and upon uplift of the needle the loop is formed (below the fabric) that the hook passes through. The long groove makes sure that the thread has a place to hide and therefore does NOT make a loop upon uplift.

ArchaicArcane

You're right, we did make a couple of assumptions, one of them being that the needlebar wasn't bent and that various parts were in good working order. Needlebars can also bend from abuse. That's part of why I get so itchy when people try to sell vintage machines as Heavy Duty and Industrial.

No, a genius would have made sure we'd checked all the little things before launching into 5 pages of how to do a timing check. Ah well. At least anyone who reads this thread now will know how to check their timing!

I always think "thread toward the flat", same thing.

This may help you with the "why". I always find that if I understand the "why" of something that the "how" comes a lot easier. http://www.ismacs.net/needle_and_sha...ne-needle.html

Generally speaking though, the side with the scarf - the small bend or dish in the needle above the eye - (and the short groove) should face the hook. It's there to let the hook get as close as possible to the needle without a collision. It gives the machine the best chance at grabbing that thread. If it's a particularly old machine and uses a needle without a scarf, just pretend that the side without the groove has a flat scarf or a placeholder for a scarf. Same rule applies.

Thanks.

Which is exactly why we skip stitches when the needle is turned the wrong way

manicmike

Don't be silly. That'd be like an Agatha Christie story where the culprit is caught in the act. Very short, nothing to read and not a bit entertaining. Look at how many pictures and videos you entertained everyone with, in solving the mystery.
Yes, either way is the same. Took me a while to work it out. I relied on manuals until I worked it out myself, I felt pretty dumb.

Cecilia, sometimes it's not obvious which way the flat side goes. Can't think of a particular machine now, but there was one that I put the needle in the opposite way and it went right in and didn't seem to be wrong at all. It was obvious when it wouldn't sew, but it took a long while to realise the source of the problem just because the needle went in the wrong way so nicely.

Bent needlebar through abuse sounds heavy! They must have tried to sew too many bean cans together. Only the Singer 15 can do this

miriam

I've been befuddled by a backwards needle, too.

JakeG

Hello! Speaking of a 15 I could really use some help with one. I am new to the forum/only slightly less new to sewing. Def new to fixing vintage machines. Some background: got the machine from a friend who bought it overhauled from a guy who does that. I believe I have threaded both the upper and bobbin correctly, although that could be wrong. It is a treadle machine, serial number puts it at a 1936, not sure what the 15-xx number would be. After the first needle downstroke, as it attempts to cycle upward, it puts a lot of tension on the upper thread and breaks it when enough force is applied. I've done as much sherlocking as my newb sewing brain can muster and am lost for ideas about what's going on. I've played with the tension quite a bit, but again, nothing is necessarily being done correctly yet. Any ideas/advice/magic would be much appreciated.
Jake

JakeG

!!!!!!!!!! Disregard all that!!! Archaicarcane's comment, thread toward the flat just made it work. So excited. Hot damn.

amcatanzaro

Welcome to the club Jake. Both the vintage sewing machine club and the needle will fool you every time club.