sdhaevrsi

I am looking forward to cleaning the tension assembly, thanks for the tip on cleaning even the little rod from the inside...

ArchaicArcane

I agree it's definitely worth looking at. It's too bad we didn't see how it sewed without the faceplate on so we'd have a baseline for this machine. 10x did mention how high it goes on a properly working machine several pages back, so that gives something to compare to. Man! Egor gets around! He's been to my place too. The number of mangled tensioners here boggles my mind. The first 301 I ever got my hands on had the last pieces missing - the thumb knob and the number dial. The piece with the finger was wedged in at an angle to "hold" tension and of course spreading the stud apart. Found it at a thrift store and knew what it was so I snapped it up anyway, despite not having a tensioner to donate to it.

I usually dunk all of the parts of the tensioner - except the +- piece and the number dial - in alcohol or water with oxyclean and dawn dish soap. The alcohol is nicer because I don't have to wait for anything to dry but the oxyclean is a lot easier on my hands. One of my number dials way back when didn't like the alcohol treatment and turned brown from black. The Oxy always seems to dull it too so I just give it a good wipe with an oxy/dawn/water soaked rag.

Aurora, do you mean the part that looks like a pointed star? That's been bugging me too. I keep meaning to look at mine when I go into the studio but there's a quilt on my frame that keeps distracting me. Maybe tomorrow, I finished the quilting part of the quilt this evening, next is squaring and binding - I'm always up for a distraction during that part.

sdhaevrsi

Tammi, it took three attempts, but I think I have the 301's tension back together right, after cleaning all the pieces and doing the thread tension test you showed on you-tube and comparing it to my working 301. Thank you! The tension isn't such a scary beast after all!

The stitching is much better, in fact it looks quite good, but it is still skipping stitches, anywhere from 3-7 stitches, is seems. You said you have something on timing...think this could be causing those?

Is Aurora referring to my 301's photos? I will have to leave that to you because I see too many things on the machine to know what you guys could be considering.

ArchaicArcane

Yeah! Good job!
One of the links I sent you the other day covers timing - in fact it's the first link I gave you - the one with IT98 in the Link. It's called perfect timing....

So it's skipping every 3rd or 7th stitches or it skips 3 or 7 in a row? Is it still puckering? What was the verdict on the take up lever? Can you post a pic of the new test sew?

Timing isn't typically the first place I go - especially on a vintage machine - but let's rule it out.

sdhaevrsi

Ok, I'll get another photo, changing colors so maybe it will be easier to post. When I re-read my comment about skipping I wasn't very clear, sorry. I mean, it stitches well for anywhere from 3-7 stitches, then skips about 3-4 stitch lengths, I'd say.

The take-up lever seems to be in line with the good 301's take-up lever. I can see no difference in the top or bottom points.

I did watch the timing video, which I thought just explained WHAT timing is, but will go back and watch it again to see what I was missing in instruction as far as how to adjust it.

Give me a few minutes and I'll get a new photo of the stitching.

sdhaevrsi

Tension is a bit off, I am not sure why but figure I can fiddle with that...

Tension is set at 4.5.

1st photo is top, 2nd is bottom.

ArchaicArcane

The video shows how to check it. The method of timing a machine varies from model to model. I couldn't possibly cover all of them. The idea with the timing video was to rule it out as a problem and demystify it.

On your 301 there will be two lines on the needlebar. You'll only see them when the needlebar is all the way down. Can you try to snap a pic of the needle and hook tip relationship when the bottom line is just about to disappear up into the needlebar housing? It's tough on the 301 and the 221 because they have a lot of stuff in the way. I look from both the side where the flip up is and from the top with the needle plate off.

ArchaicArcane

Is that the eye of the needle or a shadow I see in the first photo? It almost looks like the needle is turned in the needlebar. I'm wondering if it's the angle of the pic though. If what I'm seeing is correct, the hneedle is rotated a little clockwise of what it should be and would cause skipped stitches but I'd need to be sure.

ETA: turning the needle a few degress without the needlebar being turned shouldn't be possible on a 301, which is why I'm confused.

tension looks a little loose on the top, but not bad otherwise.

sdhaevrsi

Like this? The first shows the line, can you see it?

sdhaevrsi

Goodness, things look a lot dirtier on a close up photo... I had thought I had it pretty clean--you should have seen it before cleaning, ha!

Are these the photos you want, or should I take off the plate...would that show better what you need to see?