PhillyJay

Thank you Matt. I am unsure if I forced the wheel this time but I have done it in the past even on my home machines. Lesson learned. The welt is the neoprene/ plastic stuff commonly found in auto upholstery. I believe there is a hollow version that I now wish I had bought instead. Thank you for your reply @Lynn the video by uwe may be the best timing video I have even seen. I have homework.

Thank you both for your replies. I really wanted to get in and figure things out, but I was talked out of it because I paid someone to do it. The repair shop gave me a 3 month warranty so I took the machine back the next morning. I definitely need to learn about maintenance of the machine. I cannot afford or have time to run back to a shop every time. I just don't understand how hitting a welt would knock the machine out of time unless the needle bar slipped? When I tried to move it by hand it would not move. Thanks again. Jay

Hello. This is a bit long but I thought the history would help. My .111w155 has been giving me fits. The project I am working on is auto seat covers. The machine was was used in the past and had no issues sewing vinyl auto seats. In practice the machine would sew several layers of leather, vinyl, with ease. Once I try to connect several layers of material together the needle thread would fray after a few stitches then break. I changed needles, and thread several times with no changes. The leather is bonded to 1/2 inch polyfoam. I am trying to connect 2 panels with a vinyl welt in-between. The machine has handled this with ease in the past as this is the second time I recovered seats with this machine. I got to messing around with things, the timing, needle bar, etc and made things worse. Itried to follow the naval guide and the factory manual but the pictures are bad and the information is hard to follow. I eventually took the machine to a repair shop who timed it to the tune of ($219 dollars! ). Once I got the machine back it was sewing properly through all layers of material until I hit the welt. The stitches were no longer connecting so I cut the threads to restart sewing and now the machine won't pick up the bobbin thread. Every video I have watched on any machine shows the hook crossing the needle on the way up in order to grab the thread. On my machine the needle doesn't go low enough to have the hook cross, and it is a fair way up before the hook gets near it. Could this have happened by hitting a welt? Any help would be appreciated. Jay