wetcoastrider

Gregg, thanks for the picture and the info about the tension release. I will investigate this on my machine. as far as I know it is still intact but I will look more closely. For now what I have done is simply add a small piece of metal (a shim essentially) behind the Tension Release Lever, between it and the Tension Release Lever Rod.The Rod was moving, but simply not travelling far enough to disengage the spring. My shim has solved my problem for now. Now for the feed ..... So ... I figured out the feed issue. Thought I should post my results for all other people who may come up with this issue on these older machines that don’t appear to have easily accessible manuals out there. Perhaps Consew never wrote a page for this adjustment in the original manual either. I looked at almost all of the walking foot manuals they have posted on their website just to learn about how feed mechanisms work in general and there were many manuals that did not have any information about adjusting the regulation of forward and reverse feed stitch lengths. So it turns out that the feed Regulator on the 206rb-3 is indeed different than the 206rb-5 however the adjustment is quite similar. So I happened to find a parts list online which says it’s from a 206rb-5 but to me it looks like my rb-3 so I am assuming they miss labeled it. The rest of the parts pages can be found here http://www.sewstrong.com/consew/206/ The feed regulator can be adjusted to make the forward and reverse feed stitch lengths the same. *** Now, I will not necessarily recommend trying this if you are a beginner. I just messed with this thing until it did what I wanted, I could not find any actual Consew instructions. I just looked at the machine, looked at the parts diagram and tried to make sense of it all. Follow these instructions at your own risk. I do not want to be responsible for you messing up your machine. That said, it worked for me and might for you too. Here is how to do it. (I will refer to the items numbers as labeled on the drawing for ease of understanding.) 1) Open the cover on the top of the machine where the oil reservoir is. Remove the oil res. so it’s out of your way. 2) Open the small plate on the back of the machine that is secured with two screws 3) Locate the Pinch Screw (2) which is on the top of the Feed Regulator(1). This is below the main Arm Shaft which has the eccentric cam and the feed fork attached to it. (don’t adjust the feed eccentric cam, this is for feed timing and is properly documented in the 206rb-5 manual) The feed regulator pivots on a base (14) which is attached to the larger 4 bolt plate on the back of the machine. The feed regulator has a forked end (facing down), which is activated by the reverse feed lever. Also, the amount of rotation the feed regulator can have, depends on how far in or out the stitch length selector (23) is. There is also a set screw (not labeled on the diagram but visible directly to the left of the number 29), on the bottom of the Feed Regulating Base which accepts the Feed Regulating Support Stud, and a larger screw, running inside of the Feed Regulating Support Stud, called the I believe the Supporting Stud Pushing Screw is meant to have a little slack in it. It was slack when I opened the machine up, so I tightened it, which turned out to cause a lot of friction in the feed regulator. I loosed it and things got better. I also believe the set screw, which is accessed from the bottom of the machine looking up at the Feed Regulating Base, is here to prevent the Support Stud Pushing Screw from coming out. I messed with all these parts a lot, but in the end I think you only really need to loosen the Piinch screw on the top of the Feed Regulator 4) If you want to increase the reverse stitch length while decreasing the forward stitch length the Feed Regulating Support stud must be rotated away from the operator. If you want to decrease the reverse length and increase the forward length then it has to be rotated towards the operat. If you want to rotate the stud away from you, do the following turn the stitch length to the maximum amount Depress the reverse lever to the bottom of its stroke. Loosen the Pinch screw on the top of the Feed Regulator. Release (raise) the stitch length lever the amount that you want to rotate the stud, Note: keep an eye on the stud while you do this, you don’t want the stud rotating with the regulator, you want to change the relationship between the regulator and the stud so the Stud has to stay in place. If it wants to move with the regulator, even with the pinch screw all the way back off, then perhaps you will have to tighten the set screw on the bottom of the feed regulating base to keep it in place. – you may have to go back and forth between the set screw and the Pinch screw to effectively change the relationship of the Stud and the Regulator.) While holding the reverse lever where you want it, tighten the Pinch screw. If you want to rotate the stud towards you, do the reverse. turn the stitch length to the maximum amount loosen the Pinch screw depress the reverse lever the amount you want to rotate hold it here while tightening the Pinch Screw. 5) Test the machine by hand turning 5 stitched forward, stop with the needle at its lowest position, depress the reverse lever, and hand turn 5 stitched backwards. Observe how the stitches are lining up and repeat step 5 to fine tune. I hope this helps, if anyone has any questions, I will try my best to answer them. Its really a team effort to keep this information alive for these older machines which don’t have proper documentation. It would be great if someone had a proper manual for the older 206rb’s that they could scan and post, as I searched the web high and low and couldn’t find any. My next project is learning the ins and outs of my Singer 29K-4 ……. perhaps more tutorials to come. Good Luck. WCR.

hey thanks for all the feedback. J and Wiz, I will check with raphael sewing for the tension release rod parts. I am threading the machine correctly as far as I know, at least the same way as you describe Ferg. I am using 138 thread and the tension is almost all the way out so the spring should definitely move when the knee lift is engaged, it just isn't for some reason. I am pretty sure that tension rod is just too short from excessive wear. I think I will spend another couple hours with the machine before shipping it out east. That will likely cost me more than the whole machine did. At least it is sewing at the moment. But just to confirm, it is possible to have the fwd / rev stitch length the same on this machine is it not? Perhaps if I fiddle with it enough it will just magically start to fall in line. Thats how it usually goes for me. Fiddle with all the different variables and at some point in your fiddling the conditions will all be perfect. I'll cross my fingers. thanks again for the feedback. cheers

Hi, i'm new here, but have been reading tons of posts on this forum. What a great resource. I have just recently acquired an old Consew 206rb-3 from a local manufacturer that let me have it at a bargain. Part of the deal of course was that it needed a tune-up in a bad way. I am quite comfortable with this machine as I used to own a seiko sth-8bld-3 which I believe is almost identical. I have been having a couple problems with it. When I received it, it was way out of time; the hook was almost 45 deg. out. Fixed that up, checked all the other proper adjustments, needle bar height, bobbin opening lever, feed dogs etc. It sewed alright during my first quick test but since I began to put it to use I have noticed a few problems. 1) The tension release does not seem to be working properly. When I have no material under the foot and I engage the knee lift, I can see the thread tension release lever move slightly and very slightly move the tensioner, but if I have material under the foot and engage the knee lift, it does not want to actually release any tension from the thread and I have to pull the thread through by hand so as not to break it trying to pull the work out. I took the tensioner assembly apart and it looks to me like the rod that engages the lever is perhaps worn out. I will try and post a pic. Is this something that has happened to anyone before? Is there any other parts that wear out that would cause the tension release to not function properly? It appears that the parts on the back of the machine that push the rod forward are ok, but I didn't remove them all to inspect them closely. Do you think I can find someone online who can order a new one for me? I live in Vancouver, Canada and the only industrial machine supply here is Mason and their prices are through the roof. I also need to get a wider selection of feet, bobbins and needles so I'll try and get it all from the same place. 2) I am having trouble getting the forward stitch length to match the reverse stitch length. I read Wiz's thread on this, but I had no luck getting his method to work on my machine. I was able to drop the vibrating presser foot but it didnt have any positive effect on the fwd / rev stitch lenths, and cause some sort of binding in the walking mechanism. ( I could feel slight resistance while turning the hand wheel) The seiko manual says that I can increase / decrease the reverse / forward stitch length by changing the position of the feed regulator cam (accessed from the top of the machine under the oil wicks). This does in fact work, and if I put the cam way out of where it supposed to be aligned (maybe 8 deg. off the alignment marks) then I can get the forward and reverse stitch lengths to be equal HOWEVER, as a result of the feed regulator being out I have a problem with the feed dog ascending above the throat plate before it has completed its forward movement. So, the material takes a small movement towards you as the needle is coming up and then is drawn back with the feed dogs return movement. This gives a quite jerky feed as the material is moving a bit forward and then back. Does anyone know how this can be remedied? I have made the other adjustments as per the manual and the machine either feeds the material properly but the fwd /rev stitch length are different OR the fwd/rev stitches are the same but it can't feed the material properly. Is there a possibility that something else is out of whack? That the walking and feeding timing has somehow been changed relative to everything else? I know this is complicated and hard to explain. I have attached a couple of images from the manual to show you more, but perhaps an expert out there has some idea. Thanks In Advance. Hope to get this machine going so that I can start creating again.