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.
