RoosterW — Good idea about taking pictures. If I ever have a "next time" I'll be more careful.

"cat"astrophy — Thanks for chiming in. This machine doesn't have a screw in the end of the tension knob. I included that photo and meant to point out my goof-up: I soaked the parts in Krud Kutter degreaser and burned the paint off the numbered tension dial. A warning to all!

http://vssmb.blogspot.com/2011/07/ho...ch-length.html There are instructions on this blog to restore the numbers on the stitch length regulator. I wonder if it would work on your tension dial?

Thanks for that warning! I too, have become a Follower of AndyTube, and bought some of that KrudKutter cleaner. Only used it on some screws so fortunately didn't lose paint. I'm sure I've seen them on Ebay, if you were of a mind to replace. Such a pretty machine!

@janiebakes Thanks for the link! My numbers are raised vs. "lowered" as in that article but it still is good info on using paint to fix this kind of thing.

@Cheshirepat Well, since I already had to buy a whole tension unit on eBay (this machine came with the unit missing a couple of parts and a bent center bolt), I'm not too keen on buying another whole tension unit. I might look for just this one part but people don't seem to sell such individual parts much.

Ugh...darn. I understand. Yeah, I was also thinking about a paint/patina solution might make it visible again.