bkay

Gypsydreamer posted that she was having problems with her fabric pulling to the left. I'm using a 503 and I'm having the same problem. I did not realize how much until today when I was sewing a long seam on a quilt back. It was almost impossible to keep it on the 1/2" mark. The only way to keep it there was to sew VERY slowly. Otherwise, I had to fight it.

I removed all those parts in the bobbin area and cleaned it a couple of months ago. There was a little bit of lint today, but not enough to matter.

I'm sure my quilting would improve considerably if I could sew a straight seam.

So, how do you align the presser foot?

bkay

Mickey2

The fabric usually weighs down on one side more than the other, and even if you think you have evened everything out best you possible can a large bulk of fabric will always drag or pull a bit in some way. I have much less of this on my 201 and I think it's because it's in a small table it makes it much easier to maneuver the bulk of fabric. The fabic have free room to travel up or down on both side of the table compared to my freearm model on top of a table.

If you test-sew two layers of reasonably narrow pieces of fabric, you should notice much less pulling if any at all. The presser foot should be pefectly aligned to the feed dogs and any thing out of line should be ovious to the eye. If the presser foot is off to the side, it's either bent, or the presserbar needs to be readjusted.

If you have been using the machine a lot lately, it's time for cleaning the bobbin area again after a couple of months. Some threads leave behind a lot more dust than others. You are obviously using good quality thread since you found next to nothing.

Cari-in-Oly

First thing I would check is your presser foot pressure. too much pressure will do that too.

Cari

bearisgray

Is your presser foot fastened snugly?

Occasionally mine would work loose and get "wobbly" and I had to tighten the screw that held the foot to the shank.

bkay

Cari, is there any way to adjust the presser foot other than the dial? I have the dial set below 1 - the next step is darn.

bkay

Mickey2

I'm sure you are onto all the basic settings bkay, and as far as I know, the presser bar tension has to be way off to matter that much. The 401 only has a basic screw on top, and I thought the 503 was about the same, just under the top lid.

bkay

Yes the presser foot is off. I've got it as light as I can and it still is too low. I have the 500 service manual from the sewing dude. It says it should be 5/16" from the bed of the machine. I'm pretty sure that mine is measuring 1/4". Also, the foot is slightly off square. I'm going to try another foot and measure again before I tackle this. And, yes the feed dogs can be off alignment, too. Gypsydreamer, I apologize. I did not know nearly as much as I thought.

Does anyone have a good copy of page 5 and 6 of the service manual for the 500? Mine is a copy and the drawings are not as clear as I would like. I'd like to know for sure which screws they are referencing.

bkay

Mickey2

The feed dogs are usually easier, since they are aligned with the cutouts in the needle plate. I'm pretty sure it's done visually, feed dog movements too. I'm not any help unfortunately, it's just that I have taken an interest in the exterior design of the 503. They are like hen's teeth over here, I have come across a single one, with a mains converter to 120V at the end of the plug, and it was not for sale. I couldn't find any good illustrations in the yahoo group either.

bkay

The 503 has a dial inside the nose thingy to adjust the pressure on the presser foot. It's the same thing they used on the touch and sews. According to the manual, at the center setting on the dial, your foot should be 5/16" above the bed of the machine when raised. Mine is at 1/4" at the lightest setting.

bkay

Mickey2

That's about 1,5 millimeters off the mark, it can make a difference.