Candace

Ditto what Miriam said about your threading problem and you certainly don't need sewers aid on a piece of velcro. The velcro itself could be contributing to your problems. Use a good quality thread and you'll be fine. The ONLY thread I use sewers aid on is metallic and even then it's applied on the spool or on the needle. Re thread your machine correctly, remove that piece of velcro and you'll be much happier with the results.

J Miller

The little wire near the needle clamp is a thread guide. Generally they are held on by the same screw that acts as the needle stop or the screw that holds the needle clamp on. Sometimes the machine will work fine without them, sometimes not.

I suspect there is something amiss with your top tension. I have (had?) a machine with one like that and it did not freewheel. It turned in to a stop and stopped when it was fully out.

I'd suggest removing the tension, disassembling it and doing a full clean up and diagnosis of it. Also pull the face plate and see if the mechanism that disengages it is in good working order too.

Joe

Rodney

Does your machine use a class 15 bobbin case and bobbins? When I was FMQ on my Rodney machine the bobbin thread would sometimes jump out of the bobbin case tension resulting in a straight thread on top. I'm not sure what's causing the problem yet-possibly user error- but it's something to watch for.
Rodney

KenmoreGal2

Thanks for the advice. Yes, class 15 bobbins.

Oh, and my thread guide was not screwed on, that would be too easy. It was welded. It was loose when I got the machine and one day it just fell off.

As for disassembling the tension assembly - gosh that scares me!! I expect if this continues to happen I'll have to do that. Hope there are some good tutes on the web to guide me. I have discovered that it doesn't freewheel forever. I think I can do about 6 complete revolutions.

Yooper32

That's it! That is what happened to me a week ago. I went to a sew-in , as a brand new member of this guild, took my trusty little FW that I keep in my bedroom for the occasional scrap foundation blocks that I make out of left over pieces from big projects. I had made a block just a few days prior to the sew-in. You guessed it, got there was given my two rows to sew together and "blam", she messed up. I tried everything in the book to fix the tension and all of the things I tried failed. Needless to say, I was mortally embarrassed. Still haven't got her sewing right, but at least, thanks to a link here in "vintage" section, I found great pictures and instructions on how to disassemble the bobbin case and fix her. Still no reason why this happened between a few days time, unless she just doesn't like riding in the car.

miriam

You could rebuild the tension but I think first if it were me I would look in the manual and see how to put the thread through it - I can see that you missed a step. If you do take that one apart, unless you get that tension back the way it is supposed to go it won't work. If you don't have a diagram of how it should go and someone already tried to rebuild the tension that could well be your problem. You may have the best luck buying a new tension for about $15 more or less and just simply replacing that one. I don't know of any diagram for rebuilding that one. Replacing that tension might only involve one little set screw. Don't throw out the old tension - parts are nice to keep around.

ArchaicArcane

This is the hook Miriam's talking about. It will cause all sorts of tension issues to miss this.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]500241[/ATTACH]

miriam

Tammy I wish I knew how to do those circles. Thank you.

SteveH

I use a free program called Irfanview. Once installed, open a picture, then press F12 to bring up a tool box. you can add almost anything to pictures that way

ThayerRags

I do it in Microsoft Paint. The arrows are there too. Just click on the shape, and then pick your favorite color....

CD in Oklahoma