Sit yourself down!!! Slant-O-Matics: Bobbin Case placement
Sometimes you find yourself taking the bobbin case of a Slant-o-Matic out, maybe to remove an errant thread, clean the lint out or whatever. Strangely, putting it back in isn’t as easy as taking it...
View ArticleFragile Tension – Tension does not have to equal stress (Updated with a video)
Possibly the most common reason a machine ends up on my bench is for tension. Usually bird’s nests. The thing is easily 80% of the time, there’s nothing really wrong with the machine that a repair...
View ArticleBobbin’ Along – bobbin tension
You may have noticed in the previous post about tension that we didn’t even test sew the machine. Yet. We will test sew it, but not just yet. You see what I’m trying to do is get the machine to a...
View ArticleGreased Lightning – Singer motor lube in Canada
Over the last few months, I’ve been hearing that Singer Lube / Lubricant / Motor Lube (S2129) is getting really hard to find, especially here in Canada. This has been my experience as a consumer as...
View ArticleBack in the Saddle – Take care of your back
Ergonomics Part 1: (This post ended up far longer than I’d intended (yeah, shocking, I know!), so I will split it into 2, and offer you part 2 tomorrow.) Lately, I’ve noticed that I hunch a lot when I...
View ArticleStanding at a Crossroads – Thread: Cross Wound vs Stack Wound
I received an email from Roger about a month or so ago that asked for clarification about one of the posts I made last year. The post in question is Common Thread – Evaluating the Real cost of thread...
View ArticleA Million Miles – traveling to speak and teach!
Note: Amended date! I goofed ladies and gentlemen, April 16th is the date, not March! Update: 2014-04-09 – It looks like the Evening class is tentatively full (may be able to open 1 more spot) and...
View ArticleStuck in the Middle – Frozen Slant-O-Matics
Note: This post is some of what we’ll be going through in the class I’m giving in William’s Lake next month. The 401A, 403A, 411G, and 431Gs along with the 500A and the 503A (or the J version) are...
View ArticleFly little nestling – Ditching the Thread nests part 1
One of the most common issues that people bring machines to me for is tension. The thing about it is that – in most cases – the tension issues are really not something that I need to address as a...
View ArticleOut of the nest – Ditching the Thread nests part 2
In the last post, we talked about ways that thread nests can be solved from a user point of view. Today, I’m getting into the slightly more technical ways that the nests happen and how to deal with...
View ArticlePSA: Sometimes it’s not what it seems with your seams
So today I sat down at my industrial to sew a couple of hems. Yes, overkill but I like to exercise my machines a little sometimes. 😉 Immediately after sitting down, I noticed tension and stitch...
View ArticleQuick Note: Why I don’t recommend…
simply re-threading your machine when you have problems with it. A quick note today folks! I’m inside waiting for the anti-inflammatories to kick in before I go back outside to do some bodywork on the...
View ArticleMotorin’– Electric motor theory
Electric Motor theory – why and how we lubricate There have been a lot of discussions about sewing machine motor lubricants over the years and I thought I’d take a step further back and discuss why we...
View ArticleHighway Star – Full speed from a Singer button controller
Back in April and May of 2012, I wrote the two posts that would become the most popular posts on this site. These are the posts on how to adjust the Singer button controllers. I’ve yet to find...
View ArticleThe loosest thread – Those pesky thread nests
Some of the most common sewing machine issues I hear are: “The bobbin thread is bunching up around the bobbin”, “I have loops under the fabric”, “It looks great on the top but the bottom looks awful!”,...
View ArticleStanding at a Crossroads – Thread: Cross Wound vs Stack Wound
I received an email from Roger about a month or so ago that asked for clarification about one of the posts I made last year. The post in question is Common Thread – Evaluating the Real cost of thread...
View ArticleA Million Miles – traveling to speak and teach!
Note: Amended date! I goofed ladies and gentlemen, April 16th is the date, not March! Update: 2014-04-09 – It looks like the Evening class is tentatively full (may be able to open 1 more spot) and...
View ArticleStuck in the Middle – Frozen Slant-O-Matics
Note: This post is some of what we’ll be going through in the class I’m giving in William’s Lake next month. The 401A, 403A, 411G, and 431Gs along with the 500A and the 503A (or the J version) are...
View ArticleFly little nestling – Ditching the Thread nests part 1
One of the most common issues that people bring machines to me for is tension. The thing about it is that – in most cases – the tension issues are really not something that I need to address as a...
View ArticleOut of the nest – Ditching the Thread nests part 2
In the last post, we talked about ways that thread nests can be solved from a user point of view. Today, I’m getting into the slightly more technical ways that the nests happen and how to deal with...
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