If I'm thinking correctly, the "needle brushing up against the shuttle" would be a needle/needle bar position problem, not timing. The needle bar could be out of position but more likely it is a bent needle or the needle is installed incorrectly and needs to be rotated into the correct position.Originally Posted by booone0
Yeah, I took another look last night. I put (another) new needle in and I am getting no contact. I am going to leave it alone for now. Based on different explanations of needle timing, I get different results of whether or not the timing is off. Since I'm not getting typical timing symptoms (skipped stitches) I am not going to touch it. Since the radial timing disc I need to definitively adjust it is no longer made, I think the only way to be sure would be to send it to a repair shop...not an option right now.
Taking a closer look at the plate, there were a couple of burrs where the needle hit the plate during my earlier attempts at sewing straps. It definitely caught thread. I knocked them down with a needle file, and will sand it all very smooth over the next couple of days. That could definitely put some unintended drag on the bobbin thread!
Ok, so I'm working with gutterman Mara 70, a brand new singer 90/14 needle, a new bobbin and an old steel bobbin that came with my machine, neither of which appear damaged, and some Joann's ripstop nylon from a few years ago, approx. 1.9 oz/yd2.
"Top" refers to the top of the fabric as it is fed into the machine and vise-versa for bottom. The vertical lines below the numbers are sewn with a straight stitch at that tension setting. Horizontal was where I changed tension. "9+" is where I turned the dial to 9 (max), then cranked down on the internal top tension adjuster to hit nearly max top tension.
toptension.jpg
bottomtension.jpg
Any thoughts, team? I can sew without any jams or bird nesting, but the tension doesn't look correct. I'm concerned about the longterm reliability of anything I sew, and I obviously don't want the stitches to look like crap.
Is that a single layer of fabric? A stitch may look off if you are able to see where the top and bottom stitches are locking. In the pictures, the stitch between 4 and 6 looks ok top and bottom. Maybe do it again but with two or three layers so it will be representative of what it will look like on your project.
Don't let life get in the way of living.
The stitch with the tension set at 4 looks very good and well balanced (looks the same on both sides). That's what you want.
EDIT: What Bubba said.
OK, awesome. That's two layers I am sewing through.
FWIW I think I was winding the bobbin too tight. Instead of winding as fast as I could, I wound really slowly.
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