Adler 69 playing up.

[toxo]

My Adler 69 and I have a love/hate relationship. Been going on for a while.

I always bury the needle when starting and hold onto both threads but when I start, the thread in my hand grows longer before it settles down and behaves itself and God forbid I do a couple of back stitches at the start when it usually bunches up and ends proceedings.

Any ideas guys? I'm almost at the stage where I can rely on all my equipment but this is stopping me from going ahead with confidence.

[RockyAussie]

Try this....lightly pull the threads taught when you have the thread return lever all the way up then hold them down on the machine and do not pull them. This allows enough thread slack for the needle to form the loop for the hook to catch the same as every other stitch the machine does.

[toxo]

50 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

Try this....lightly pull the threads taught when you have the thread return lever all the way up then hold them down on the machine and do not pull them. This allows enough thread slack for the needle to form the loop for the hook to catch the same as every other stitch the machine does.

This is essentially what I do Brian. I bury the needle and hold both treads but as I do the first stitch the amount of thread in my hand gets longer and then hopefully it settles down and I can carry on. If, God forbid, I try to backstitch at the start it bunches up and snags. Could I have something 180 degrees out of tune?

[DonInReno]

If you bury the needle then hold the thread tight you can be preventing the thread loop from forming as the needle starts moving upward.   This makes it much harder for the hook to get behind the upper thread to complete the stitch.  If it misses that first stitch and you are pulling hard then it’s just as likely to miss the next stitch.

Personally, I think you’re better just barely getting the needle in the leather, and hold the thread tails stationary - don’t pull on them - as the needle goes down and starts back up it has a better chance to have the right amount of slack to make the stitch.

[toxo]

3 minutes ago, DonInReno said:

If you bury the needle then hold the thread tight you can be preventing the thread loop from forming as the needle starts moving upward.   This makes it much harder for the hook to get behind the upper thread to complete the stitch.  If it misses that first stitch and you are pulling hard then it’s just as likely to miss the next stitch.

Personally, I think you’re better just barely getting the needle in the leather, and hold the thread tails stationary - don’t pull on them - as the needle goes down and starts back up it has a better chance to have the right amount of slack to make the stitch.

Excellent advice Don! For some reason I thought if the needle was down the thread take up would be at the top. I actually looked today and realised that it's not. I'll have a go at your suggestion. Thanks.