Vintage Machines - Zigzag tension
07-10-2012, 02:47 PM
#11
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OK,.. spent part of yesterday and part of today on this. Sunday night I sat down at the machine and it made this awful screeching noise when I tried to sew. It seemed to come from the area where the belt and rubber pulley are. At that point, I was a little short on concentration and patience, so I decided to leave it for the night.
Yesterday, I sat down and re-oiled everything in that area and anything that looked like it was involved with the swing function of the needle. While the machine was on its side, so I could oil the bottom, I tested it. No screeching. Yeah!! Then I flipped it up, and tested it. The screeching was back. What the...? Googled a little, and determined that there's a bearing under the rubber pulley that can use a little oil.
Applied that, and tested again. No screeching. I investigated the swing action, and nothing seems to be stopping suddenly, or before it should. It really seems like it stops swinging because the cam stops telling it to. I'm not sure what to think about that. Opinions?
Stepped away for the night, since it was finally cool enough to go and put some stain on the deck, and thought I'd come back to it today.
Today I changed the needle (a #14 sharp from Schmetz), rethreaded it with the gutterman thread, and we were off. After much futzing with tensions top and bottom, we're at practically 0 for the bottom tension, and a 5 on the top.
This leaves the fabric with a tiny little bit of the top thread on the bottom, only on the one side of the zig zag. about the width of a pinhead. The top looks great. On a thin fabric like the one I used in my picture up top, I get a little bit of pucker, but a little tug on the fabric seems to straighten it out mostly.
I'm inclined to call it good now, and see if over time it loosens up a little. Any thoughts?
Yesterday, I sat down and re-oiled everything in that area and anything that looked like it was involved with the swing function of the needle. While the machine was on its side, so I could oil the bottom, I tested it. No screeching. Yeah!! Then I flipped it up, and tested it. The screeching was back. What the...? Googled a little, and determined that there's a bearing under the rubber pulley that can use a little oil.
Applied that, and tested again. No screeching. I investigated the swing action, and nothing seems to be stopping suddenly, or before it should. It really seems like it stops swinging because the cam stops telling it to. I'm not sure what to think about that. Opinions?
Stepped away for the night, since it was finally cool enough to go and put some stain on the deck, and thought I'd come back to it today.
Today I changed the needle (a #14 sharp from Schmetz), rethreaded it with the gutterman thread, and we were off. After much futzing with tensions top and bottom, we're at practically 0 for the bottom tension, and a 5 on the top.
This leaves the fabric with a tiny little bit of the top thread on the bottom, only on the one side of the zig zag. about the width of a pinhead. The top looks great. On a thin fabric like the one I used in my picture up top, I get a little bit of pucker, but a little tug on the fabric seems to straighten it out mostly.
I'm inclined to call it good now, and see if over time it loosens up a little. Any thoughts?
07-10-2012, 02:57 PM
#12
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Originally Posted by ArchaicArcane
OK,.. spent part of yesterday and part of today on this. Sunday night I sat down at the machine and it made this awful screeching noise when I tried to sew. It seemed to come from the area where the belt and rubber pulley are. At that point, I was a little short on concentration and patience, so I decided to leave it for the night.
Yesterday, I sat down and re-oiled everything in that area and anything that looked like it was involved with the swing function of the needle. While the machine was on its side, so I could oil the bottom, I tested it. No screeching. Yeah!! Then I flipped it up, and tested it. The screeching was back. What the...? Googled a little, and determined that there's a bearing under the rubber pulley that can use a little oil.
Applied that, and tested again. No screeching. I investigated the swing action, and nothing seems to be stopping suddenly, or before it should. It really seems like it stops swinging because the cam stops telling it to. I'm not sure what to think about that. Opinions?
Stepped away for the night, since it was finally cool enough to go and put some stain on the deck, and thought I'd come back to it today.
Today I changed the needle (a #14 sharp from Schmetz), rethreaded it with the gutterman thread, and we were off. After much futzing with tensions top and bottom, we're at practically 0 for the bottom tension, and a 5 on the top.
This leaves the fabric with a tiny little bit of the top thread on the bottom, only on the one side of the zig zag. about the width of a pinhead. The top looks great. On a thin fabric like the one I used in my picture up top, I get a little bit of pucker, but a little tug on the fabric seems to straighten it out mostly.
I'm inclined to call it good now, and see if over time it loosens up a little. Any thoughts?
Yesterday, I sat down and re-oiled everything in that area and anything that looked like it was involved with the swing function of the needle. While the machine was on its side, so I could oil the bottom, I tested it. No screeching. Yeah!! Then I flipped it up, and tested it. The screeching was back. What the...? Googled a little, and determined that there's a bearing under the rubber pulley that can use a little oil.
Applied that, and tested again. No screeching. I investigated the swing action, and nothing seems to be stopping suddenly, or before it should. It really seems like it stops swinging because the cam stops telling it to. I'm not sure what to think about that. Opinions?
Stepped away for the night, since it was finally cool enough to go and put some stain on the deck, and thought I'd come back to it today.
Today I changed the needle (a #14 sharp from Schmetz), rethreaded it with the gutterman thread, and we were off. After much futzing with tensions top and bottom, we're at practically 0 for the bottom tension, and a 5 on the top.
This leaves the fabric with a tiny little bit of the top thread on the bottom, only on the one side of the zig zag. about the width of a pinhead. The top looks great. On a thin fabric like the one I used in my picture up top, I get a little bit of pucker, but a little tug on the fabric seems to straighten it out mostly.
I'm inclined to call it good now, and see if over time it loosens up a little. Any thoughts?
07-10-2012, 03:51 PM
#15
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Originally Posted by Candace
Have you removed the bobbin case area and cleaned fully? I'm not talking about just the bobbin, but fully removing the case and screws and cleaning?
Hi Candace and Miriam,
Yes, I removed everything, the metal and plastic parts of the bobbin case and cleaned the hook area. Cleaned and reassembled, per this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0YGkYvhCFs (you'll probably want to turn your volume down before you click the link, the music is extremely loud)
I also pulled the tension disk assembly out of the machine and cleaned as much as I could, without complete dis-assembly. That's where the thread bunch in the first picture of my first post came from.
Having cleaned and oiled the bobbin case and hook area, cleaned the bobbin case while I was in there, cleaned the upper thread tensioner disks, cleaned and oiled the whole machine (twice in some cases), and changed the needle and thread, I'm now at a loss as to what else can be affecting the tension on this machine.
P.s. when you remove the tension assembly from the machine, you can even get a microfiber cloth in to clean. It's darn shiny in there, it wasn't when I got it.
Last edited by ArchaicArcane; 07-10-2012 at 03:59 PM.
07-10-2012, 04:42 PM
#16
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I just fixed a machine I just bought - it was an easy fix. It had the wrong bobbin in it. You might try a 'new' bobbin. Some times those bobbins don't fit just the same as the next or it could be sort of like the one that should be in there but not fit quite right. Anyway it wouldn't turn quite like it should. Is the thread pulling out of the bobbin case counter clockwise? I also have a set of bobbins I bought that the machine pukes out - you turn the machine and it spits the bobbins out - it does it the same on all the machines for that set of bobbins. Different batch of bobbins work just fine. Go figure.
07-10-2012, 08:29 PM
#17
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Good suggestion!!
I have 2 elna bobbins. The one I bought from the Elna dealer here (and I'm so not excited about dealing with them again, ever) and the one that came in the machine. They are both different, and I'm not convinced either of them is strictly the right one.
1. The one that came in the machine has holes both top and bottom, 7 holes per side. A very slight curve from middle to the edges, and ever so slightly shorter than a class 15 bobbin.
2. The one the elna dealer sold me - 7 holes only on the one side (top) and solid on the bottom, same slight curve, and same height.
The only reason that I'm not sure about either of them is that the one that came in the machine "looks" wrong, based on what I read, and the other one I bought came from a store that didn't know what a supermatic was ("Is it plastic?" was their first question to me.), and when I gave them the part # i found online, still couldn't find it in their store. I had to describe it, then they found a box of them that shockingly had the part # on it that I'd quoted them 10 mins earlier.
That said, they both seem to exhibit the same behaviour. The new bobbin contained the blue thread in my pictures above, and the original bobbin used the black thread I used for testing today.
I have 2 elna bobbins. The one I bought from the Elna dealer here (and I'm so not excited about dealing with them again, ever) and the one that came in the machine. They are both different, and I'm not convinced either of them is strictly the right one.
1. The one that came in the machine has holes both top and bottom, 7 holes per side. A very slight curve from middle to the edges, and ever so slightly shorter than a class 15 bobbin.
2. The one the elna dealer sold me - 7 holes only on the one side (top) and solid on the bottom, same slight curve, and same height.
The only reason that I'm not sure about either of them is that the one that came in the machine "looks" wrong, based on what I read, and the other one I bought came from a store that didn't know what a supermatic was ("Is it plastic?" was their first question to me.), and when I gave them the part # i found online, still couldn't find it in their store. I had to describe it, then they found a box of them that shockingly had the part # on it that I'd quoted them 10 mins earlier.
That said, they both seem to exhibit the same behaviour. The new bobbin contained the blue thread in my pictures above, and the original bobbin used the black thread I used for testing today.
07-11-2012, 01:47 AM
#18
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Originally Posted by ArchaicArcane
Good suggestion!!
I have 2 elna bobbins. The one I bought from the Elna dealer here (and I'm so not excited about dealing with them again, ever) and the one that came in the machine. They are both different, and I'm not convinced either of them is strictly the right one.
1. The one that came in the machine has holes both top and bottom, 7 holes per side. A very slight curve from middle to the edges, and ever so slightly shorter than a class 15 bobbin.
2. The one the elna dealer sold me - 7 holes only on the one side (top) and solid on the bottom, same slight curve, and same height.
The only reason that I'm not sure about either of them is that the one that came in the machine "looks" wrong, based on what I read, and the other one I bought came from a store that didn't know what a supermatic was ("Is it plastic?" was their first question to me.), and when I gave them the part # i found online, still couldn't find it in their store. I had to describe it, then they found a box of them that shockingly had the part # on it that I'd quoted them 10 mins earlier.
That said, they both seem to exhibit the same behaviour. The new bobbin contained the blue thread in my pictures above, and the original bobbin used the black thread I used for testing today.
I have 2 elna bobbins. The one I bought from the Elna dealer here (and I'm so not excited about dealing with them again, ever) and the one that came in the machine. They are both different, and I'm not convinced either of them is strictly the right one.
1. The one that came in the machine has holes both top and bottom, 7 holes per side. A very slight curve from middle to the edges, and ever so slightly shorter than a class 15 bobbin.
2. The one the elna dealer sold me - 7 holes only on the one side (top) and solid on the bottom, same slight curve, and same height.
The only reason that I'm not sure about either of them is that the one that came in the machine "looks" wrong, based on what I read, and the other one I bought came from a store that didn't know what a supermatic was ("Is it plastic?" was their first question to me.), and when I gave them the part # i found online, still couldn't find it in their store. I had to describe it, then they found a box of them that shockingly had the part # on it that I'd quoted them 10 mins earlier.
That said, they both seem to exhibit the same behaviour. The new bobbin contained the blue thread in my pictures above, and the original bobbin used the black thread I used for testing today.
07-11-2012, 10:00 AM
#20
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Originally Posted by miriam
They go hole side up when you wind them and hole side up in the machine.
Originally Posted by Candace
Yes, bobbins can for sure play havoc with tension if they've been bent, aren't the right type, or are big box store bobbins that just aren't manufactured correctly!
Last edited by ArchaicArcane; 07-11-2012 at 10:02 AM. Reason: I can't spell.
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