GeorgePepper

@chrisash, I thought long and hard as whether I should post a reply, partly because we have hijacked a thread about a sewing machine to discuss the aftermath of Brexit. I know I first mentioned the topic, so I am partly to blame. In the end I decided to do so because it is rare to find a discussion on this topic conducted in a civil manner; the exchanges all too easily descend into preaching from one point of view or the other with opinion masquerading as fact. I agree the people of the UK were never given the opportunity to vote for the treaty of Maastricht, but that was down to whom? The UK government saw fit not to put it to the vote, and I don’t remember there being anywhere near as much noise made about it as the noise we heard over leaving the EU. You wrote “The brits have complained about the EU ever since and have always wanted the government to be sovereign powers”; surely you meant “Some of the brits have complained about the EU ever since and have always wanted the government to be sovereign powers”. Undeniably the damage done to relations between the UK and the current members of the EU is massive, but as Bob pointed out, the UK decided to leave the EU not the other way around, for good or bad reasons depending on one’s viewpoint. I am reminded of the old French proverb “Comme on fait son lit, on le trouve”. Any trading nation not in the EU has either to negotiate a specific trade deal with the EU or be subject to generic WTO rules, that is not the EU being inflexible as you put it, they are just following well defined and established procedures. Why would it be any different for the UK. The UK spent almost all of its years in the common market, and subsequent EU, trying to negotiate preferential arrangements, and good for them if they obtained them. However, it is now a bitter pill to swallow that this negotiating stance has been lost and the UK is to be treated as any other non-EU trading nation, a position about which the EU has always been clear, on the lead up to the UK referendum and in its wake. If you interpret that as the EU being inflexible, then that is your outlook, but I don’t see any legitimacy in taking umbrage any more than I could accept the claim the UK is being inflexible in expecting the transposition of previously negotiated preferential arrangements. These are negotiating stances, hard as they might be, but why would you expect any different positioning from either side. I would welcome some development of your remark about the so called remainer’s where you say they “have now seen they have not lost much”. I am inferring a conclusive statement; you did not write, for example, “now are seeing...”. Organisations like Bloomberg (among others) have analysed the situation as recently as June of this year and are seeing trends that do not substantiate your remark. At the same time, there is open admission by the same analysts that things are still very unclear, partly due to the fog created by the COVID situation. Under any circumstances, I do not see how one can draw the conclusion you made.

Thank you Bob, but since the Brexit debacle, many companies either simply do not deliver to mainland Europe, or you are grouped with "rest of the world". I looked at the shipping information on the College Sewing website, and the option to deliver to Euro destinations is now in strike-through. I am not saying they won't deliver to France, but it may turn a $20 order into $80 with all the excise duties to pay. The same occurs in the opposite direction. I recently helped out a buddy in the UK with a part for a French designed RV that cost less than $3. The company flatly refused to deliver to the UK, even when contacted by phone. They said the paperwork is a nightmare. I ordered the part for him and sent it via regular shipping as a kid's toy. The final cost including shipping was over $28, but had the customs guys decided to open the packet and play nasty, the bill could easily have been double that. It is now often cheaper to ship things from China than the UK, and because it is a well established trade route, it makes fewer waves with the customs guys. So, I do less business with the UK - ain't me loosing out. Back to the stud/release pin, in the end I noticed a couple of light grooves starting to form on the stud where the 2 discs sandwich the thread. I thought, if this is a hardened part, how come the grooves? Taking a file to the end of the stud showed it is not hardened at all. That is kind of consistent, because if this indeed was a part that somehow missed the drill operation, for the hole for the release pin, then it may well have missed the hardening process as well, which would obviously have followed the drilling operation. Either that, or the studs are not hardened after all. So I set up to drill a 1.5mm hole through the centre of the stud. Done. A small nail, polished to fit the hole gives me a release pin, and the assembly now works like it should.

Well spotted Wiz, I am actually in Paris, France; no intentions to hide my location, just laziness in filling out the profile. My thanks to everyone for their help. Regards, G

OK, thanks Bob, that saves me trying and blunting a bit.

I am fast coming to the conclusion that this was a Friday afternoon assembly model. It appears to me as if the stud has not been drilled with a through hole. I just don't see how this tensioner has ever worked, and perhaps this is one reason why this machine was put to the back of some room to gather dust. Each the operator must have tried to release the fabric and pull some slack thread, it must have snagged in the tensioner. On this web site https://theprojectlady.com/singer-31-15/ the lady restores a 31-15 which has the same tensioner setup; towards the end of the blog, there are pictures of the tensioner and pin in-situ and removed. I am now wondering if the stud has had some hardening treatment. If not, I can have a go at drilling a through hole and fitting a release pin. Does anyone have an idea of the rough diameter of the pin? I am guessing at ~1/16" or maybe 3/32".

Thank you Bob for your quick reply. I took another look and I don't think it's this old style of release. I can see how this works if you have a cutout in either the body of the machine or the grooved outer body (7336 in my image which looks equivalent to 20061 in your image), in order for the prong on part 20314 to pass, but neither is present on this machine.

I recently purchased a Singer 31-47 in need of some care. While cleaning and servicing it, I have noticed that the thread tensioner does not appear to have a tensioner release pin (32574); I don't mean the pin is missing, I mean there appears to be no where to put one. I have uploaded a parts image to help. If I remove the tensioner assembly (44118) by releasing the spring regulator set screw (448AL), then disassemble the tensioner by removing the regulator thumb nut (1560C), the inner screw stud (50327C) on which the tensioner discs (2102) sit can be unscrewed from the grooved outer body (7336) freeing the spring (43946). Inspecting the stud (50327C), there is no central hole up which the release pin (32574) would pass. On pictures of tensioners from other models, I see the stud has a through hole along its axis through which passes the release pin. When you operate the presser bar lifter to free the items under the foot, as there is no release pin (and no possibility of having one with this tensioner), the thread tensioner cannot release the tension on the thread. Is this normal? Have you seen tensioner assemblies like this one? I would like to keep the machine as standard as possible, but I would also like to use it, and this may be a problem. Thanks in advance.