Originally Posted by
DemostiX
There are two separate issues. One is whether the thread gets a twist in the wrong direction coming off a spool. Or if there is a twist in the wrong direction, that there has been space enough over which to spread the twist so that no few stitches are affected by a local near-kink. We've all had the experience of coiling rope where just one more twist, even over a span of several feet, causes a rope to lay wrong or subject it to risk of tangling.
But, thread is put up on tapered spools so there is no additional twist if it comes up off the top, correct? And if so, there is an unexpected twist if the spool rotates. Please correct this if wrong.
The other issue is the machine's expectation of where tension comes from. In my limited experience there is always on better old skool home machines one guide and sometimes two guides before the tension disks. I just checked a few machines and can confirm LIS's expectation that they are all just guides, none of them adding any tension to the thread. The friction of rotating on spindles is negligible unless the thread itself was improperly wound on the spool.