J Miller

My black SEWMOR 404 won't sew straight.
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It starts off OK, then the fabric moves to the right. I've checked and adjusted the presser foot to feed dogs and they are as straight as I can get them.

Here's some pics:
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Beginning, with the fabric guide set at 1/4".

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At the end, you can see just how far the fabric has moved to the right.
This fabric twisting is bad enough that it makes it difficult to do piecing. And that is what I want to do with this machine.


The foot on the machine is a new one. The original one is chewed up on the bottom due to being run with no fabric under it. I'm concerned that the feed dogs might be damaged as well.

Other than the possible feed dog damage, is there something I'm missing or something else I can check?


Thanks,

Joe

Candace

The feed dog pressure may need adjusting. I would increase the pressure incrementally to see if that helps. I can't see if you've only got one layer of fabric or two that you're testing? I would test with two layers since piecing is the end goal.

J Miller

Candace,

That was two layers of something I thought was cotton. It might still be but it's stretchy and I think that didn't help any.
I'll try some different fabric and add more tension to the presser foot too.

I've got it apart now cleaning all the bobbin area parts and I can't see any obvious wear on the feed dogs. So hopefully it's something simple like the pressure.

Joe

cabbagepatchkid

Something that has helped me with this problem, in the past, is adjusting the amount of pressure there is in that round 'thingy' on top of the machine near the needle plate. I think I remember that when the pressure was too hard it made the fabric veer off.

J Miller

Well so far I've disassembled and cleaned the bobbin and the top tension. The fabric was puckering due to too tight tension and it wouldn't adjust out. So a thorough cleaning and readjust was necessary.

I took Candaces suggestion and tightened the presser foot tension a bit. That seems to have helped a bit, but it still does it.

Will keep working with it. It's doing better so there's hope for it.

Joe

path49

Joe, does it sew straighter with the old. worn foot? Could the feed dogs & the old foot have kind of worn in together....& it would possibly sew straighter with the worn foot.

Joeycp

Does anyone know what size belt a sewmor 404 uses? Unfortunatly, when I purchased the SM 404 the belt was missing.