jrk65

Sorry for the poor description in my post. This machine has the Ferdco smooth plate with the needle guide in place of a feed dog. It is not loose. There is no slop in the linkages, or excessive wear in the needle bar. This machine has very few hours of use. Don't wear your church clothes around my machine as there is more than plenty of oil on the mentioned knuckles. Old timers used to tell me grease is cheap. Now I'm and old timer, so is lube oil. I have adjusted the needle and walking foot timing, adjusted the presser foot, and that seems to have fixed the problem. I'm going to stick my neck out here: Timing, Timing, Timing! Thread size, thread brand, nylon/poly/bonded, needle size, to some extent tension, variation in thread path from spool to take up spring. While important, adjusting, changing these things are little more than tiny bandaids, if the machine is not totally in time! Mine was not. Operator error. DIY mechanic error. I have learned many things about these minor adjustments, that will help fine tune my stitching in the future. It seems that these adjustments are what takes a machine that "sews" and makes it in to a machine that "sews really well". That is my goal. Just my opinion. Thanks for your comments/suggestions, they all open up avenues for working through a problem.

Thanks for the questions/suggestions. This is a fairly new Shuttle/bobbin case. Stitches are perfect top and bottom when it sews. More than likely not a tension problem, which running the bobbin backwards would be likely to address. There is no feed dog, as I mentioned in my post I'm running the Ferdco system of a smooth plate and needle guide but no feed dog. This is not the problem, I know of dozens of these around and they sew nicely. At some point recently, this machine did too! After further investigation I am leaning towards Needle/Walking Foot Timing Thanks for your interest in my troubles

thanks for asking: as I posted, I have used dozens of poly and nylon, 207 and 277 threads, and needle combos, Ive tried all the different combos of half wrap to full wrap to one and a half wraps around the tension disks. I have not, put the bobbin in reverse or clockwise.

Not sure how "I" messed up this machine. Yes it was operator error. If you sew a straight line at same speed it sews wonderful, speed up or slow down and the stitch length begins to shorten, may or may not come back to normal. If you stop at a corner and let needle go to bottom and start up 1/4 inch then lift presser foot and turn project the next stitch will be very long followed by 2 or 3 normal then it will start to shorten again. Current needle is 25/200 with bonded nylon 277 thread. Have tried dozens of thread needle combos, learned a lot, didn't fix problem. I have watched numerous videos of threading 441 type machines. There are several different opinions about this topic. I have tried them all. Some seem to give more thread tension than is necessary. None fix my problem. Also have spent hours with thread tension. It is not the problem. I also found some old style, steel Juki type bobbins. Not the problem. I have tried a bunch of pressure settings for the presser foot. Some with heavy marks in project, not the problem. Currently have the smooth plate and needle guide that Ferdco uses. That is not the problem. Gets worse with very thick (max thickness) or in a couple layers of soft chap leather 4/5 oz each I have checked belt tension, not slipping. Machine is well oiled and bobbin shuttle etc. are clean and lubed. I have spent hours with the UWE Grosse videos on timing. As stated, if you start of in a straight line it sews like a dream. Very nice top and bottom thread. This project is 10/12 oz veg tan and 5 oz chap; 277 bonded nylon, 25/200 needle