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I have been happily sewing on my CB500 for several months now until I needed to tackle a new application; sewing a 5 point star pattern. Every 'external' pivot drops the stitch. 'internal' pivots are never dropped. I've spent many, many hours now trying every conceivable tension adjustment/thread/needle combination I can, to no avail. Can someone please explain to me what it is about the difference between the 'internal' and 'external' pivots causing this? Maybe if I understand this I can resolve it. See pic for clarification.

I'm having some trouble with my Durkopp Adler to 205 - 370 not wanting to back stitch. The hook is not catching the thread most frequently when in reverse. It is also randomly dropping stitches when sewing forward. But the really puzzling part is the top thread sometimes frays and unravels. For details: I'm using a 180 needle and 200 shim. Thread tension is good, top and bottom. Needle is centered properly and is not making contact with shuttle. Serviced by a pro 2 weeks ago and all checked out fine. Help!

Can anyone help me to understand what is going on with my machine, thread, needle etc. As you will see I am new to sewing and leather. I am in the UK and restoring an 1973 TR6 sportscar, horrified at the price of a vinyl interior, wondered if it might be possible to do it myself. Managed to get a walking foot machine. It looks just like a Consew 206R – a mini zig-zag machine but I think mine hails from China, originally from a UK distributor, I have seen a lot of machines like this branded differently, REX 601Z,.Thompson Mini PW500, Omega WF222, etc. I have made most of the novice errors and learnt a lot from this site and others, so that I think I can rule out the following: Timing Hook to needle proximity Needle bar height Tension tried different needles But please don’t let that stop you making suggestions, because at one time or another I will have had all of those wrong. I can sew perfectly onto Calico as a test piece. Short stitch, long stitch even zig-zag using 40s bonded nylon thread and a size 18 (110) needle. Needles are 135x17 or DPX17. The interior will be two tone with a beige leather used for the pleated parts and black for the remainder. All the beige parts are done and worked fine using the size 18 needle and 60s nylon thread but beige. Then I tried to sew using 60s Black thread – no good – dropped stitches and even the thread fraying through the needle, I suspect because one strand broke. So suspecting that the needle/thread combination was the problem got a spool of 40s Black nylon and have had exactly the same problems. Calico fine – black leather no good. I have some grey leather that I had been making up test pieces to work out the joins and had better success with that but still dropped stitches and the beige seemed slightly better than that but the black leather was a no no whatever I did. So just before I dumped the machine I decided to try some old black polyester (Guterman) thread that I had and it sewed the black leather perfectly without any problems – a bit of tweaking to the tension and that was it. So what is going on – I am confused? I only paid £52 for the machine so it really owes me nothing, but when it's working it's a great bit of kit. Any help gratefully appreciated. Thank you.