miriam

Here is another one put together wrong. I did fix it - the nut was cross threaded. IGOR was there.
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miriam

Karen, you need to run on over to the party......... just saying.......

miriam

Here is one that Mom and I spent the most time on. It was pretty bad. It is from a "Cardinal" which was frozen up pretty bad this is a pic of all the bits - you can see how dirty:
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I don't know if a pic of the finished plate will show up either. Mom spent a lot of time with Mother's Mag Chrome Polish and she did a great job while I cleaned the little parts and cleaned up the bobbin case:
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ArchaicArcane

Well would you look at me necromancering a 2 week old thread.

Tammi would have to have a 15 clone around here. I'm not sure what happened but there's no such animal here at the moment. If I do get one though, I promise to shoot a video or some pics then see if I can write it out.

I forgot that they were a little different. I have an RAF 15 I picked up a couple of weeks ago that I've been trying to hold until my next class so I have a demo machine but maybe I'll try to shoot a video of that to go with the front facing tensioners one I did.

I'm with Miriam. It saves a lot of sanity to just make it a matter of course to rebuild all tensioners when you get the machines. I don't have a lot of sanity left, I have to horde what I still have.

miriam

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"Tammi or somebody who writes more technical might have a good explanation of this some time." YEAH!!! I was hoping you might see this. I could send you one.... Don't forget, there are more than one kind. There is the kind with the bar stop and the kind that the thread stop goes on the tension post. I think I've done 3 or 4 more of these tensions since I wrote this. I saw one that took me a while to figure out what was wrong. If I hadn't had other tensions and experience I would have missed it. Somebody stretched out the thread holding spring. It wasn't working right. I know it must have been deliberate because I've seen it before. I put in a new spring and the machine works better and the spring no longer rubs on the nose plate. Note that this tension does not have a bar for thread to pass over before it goes through the spring. This one has a little part that goes on the post. Different beast.
I put a picture at the top. It is the one with that sprung spring. Can you see that the spring doesn't want to lay against the can? It doesn't go straight down it is going sideways because someone pulled a bit out of it. Then when I shifted it around in the C it would not seat right and rubbed on the face plate.

Put the tension spring (the spring with the long thingy for thread to go through) in it's can. These are directional. The bulk of the spring goes DOWN and around the post. Some spring ends go around the post some go under it, some hook in a groove. I should add: When you put the spring on the post make sure the spring goes securely on the post and all the way up the shaft to the corrigated part so that the post can be set all the way in the can and through the back of the plate - that pin should be able to be retracted when the pressure foot lever is lifted. I put the plate on the machine if I am in doubt and hold the pin with a screw driver then lift the presser foot to see that the pin pushes on the screw driver. Sounds dumb but it might save a lot of grief later. That post needs to be seated in there and the pin needs to touch the pressure lever...

Anyway put the post and spring in the can like you got it out. Ha... You will need to put the screws that hold the post and can in. The spring arm should point down (below the C cut out). When you pull it up into the C it will have some tension on the spring to make it pull the thread. It should rest on the bottom of the C. The can thing has some cut out place - it should look like the letter C in the above picture - spring is not correct on that pic.... Did you note how it was adjusted by the screws when you took it apart? Some times they are right some times not. After you have that spring securely set you can put the rest of the pieces on the tension.

I'm thinking setting the spring is the hard part or maybe getting things the right in order. There may be diagrams in a Singer manual that might help BUT be aware that the parts may not be the same or you may have a different tension than the manual. I think the test should be whether or not the pin pushes in and out against the little part that goes between the fork in the post and lets the tension work as it should. If it does not push in and out some little part may be in the wrong order.

Rodney

That's just painful to look at.
Rodney

sewbeadit

I am sure glad we can refer back to these threads as I can't remember anything anymore and I have to tackle some tensions soon. I just need to remember where I found this at! Thank you for the info Mariam.

ArchaicArcane

I would say "Sure, send me a box full" but with the Canadian dollar the way it is and the price of shipping, I probably couldn't afford to send them back! I have it on my list though to make a video of at least a Singer 15 tensioner dis-assembly. That should help some, right? I have 2 to choose from. Apparently it's easy to avoid servicing a machine when you're overrun with things to do otherwise. Almost 2 months I've had that machine and not even touched it. Rumor has it, I'll be giving a class in January. I might still have it sitting dirty then.

miriam

anybody can get one apart. It is getting one back together. The tfsr manual helps with a Singer. The clones are different with no Service manual they are harder to do than a Singer.

ArchaicArcane

The re-assembly part was implied.