Backstitch Looks Like Spaghetti On Underside.

[GaryNunn]

I have a small issue doing backstitches on my Cowboy 3200. Occasionally the underside is as clean as the top, but more often than not, the underside is a spaghetti mess where the backstitch is. I'm not sure what I'm doing different when it's clean on both sides. It doesn't seem to be ripping or breaking the thread. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Northmount]

Make sure the needle is on its way back up before reversing, else the hook may miss the loop. The you will see a missed stitch and maybe even a birds nest.

Tom

[Uwe]

It might make a difference depending on whether you go backwards first and then forward (e.g. at the beginning of the seam), or forward and then back (at the end of the seam). Reversing a machine is not exactly the same as turning the piece around stitching into the same holes, because when reversing you're only changing the direction of material feed, but you're not changing in which direction the knot is tied (which gives you the slightly diagonal thread orientation).

The pictures don't look all that bad for the most part, really. I'm guessing some folks wished their machine backstitching looked that good. I often leave a longer thread dangling so that I can manually pull the last stitch tight or pull the knot into the hole.

Also, the second time the needle goes through a hole is different because there's two threads in a knot already in that hole - it gets tight especially with thick thread and hard leather. The needle has to somehow go around (or through) that knot, and exactly how it does that is not so predictable or repeatable, even if your machine reverses perfectly into the same holes without thread. Getting a good looking backstitch by machine may be matter of luck to some degree even if it's perfectly adjusted.

It also looks like you might be pulling the piece out before the last stitch was pulled tight. It's probably good practice to allow the thread take-up lever to go all the way past the top after a stitch (so it can tighten the knot) before you stop to pull out the piece. In my experience reversing with the machine is rarely "pretty." I tend to finish my seam ends by hand if I care what they look like (especially on the back side).

Lastly, I found the sharp knife-edged leather point needles tend to partially cut the thread when stitching into holes again that already have thread in them - the sharp tip edges cut thread just as well as they cut leather.

[GaryNunn]

Problem solved....

I was using 346 thread on both the top and bottom. I switched to 277 in the bobbin and continued to use 346 on top, and now the backstitches are perfect 100% of the time. I had no idea the solution would be that easy or why it even works.

Gary