#138 Thread And Frustration!

[shoepatcher]

Dikman,

Check the amount of opening you have on the bobbin case finger and the U it fits into. As Eric said, you want the finger to just be held in that U opening. #138 thread is considered a heavy thread. You also want to check that the needle goes down into the slot in the hook and does not ouch either side of the opening if possible. I had to move the needle bar ever so slightly from left to right to get everything line up on a 335 we have at work. We used a #23 needle and #138 thread. lining everything up did take some time with this thread but it works fine.

glenn

[dikman]

Thanks for the info, Glenn. I'll have a play with it later.

[dikman]

Knowing that it should work, I figured I'd buy some different thread to try. I bought a small spool of Serafin size 20 (138, same size as the other thread). Cranked it over by hand and after four stitches it caught and broke! Ok, try again, this time it did a dozen with no issues so I turned on the power and did about 20 or so, with no problems. Did another run and it too was fine, so it looks like there's basically nothing wrong with the machine.

Comparing the threads was interesting. The Serafin is twisted poly, so pretty normal, the other thread, however, is a braided polyester. I picked this up as cleared stock from a bootmaking factory that had closed. Nice thread, really strong stuff, but I'd hazard a guess that my machine doesn't like the braided thread - maybe the braids are opening slightly when it's down in the bobbin area? Doesn't really matter, at least I can get it working.

I'll try the braided stuff on the Singer flatbeds, It might work better with a vertical shuttle.

[Darren Brosowski]

Interesting comment from Bob. My experience with the 335 is mostly with older machines and I have never had a problem with M20 - #138.

In many ways it is very similar to the Singer 155/Seiko LSC so I am not sure why it would be limited to #92 - M30

The Serafil should work better than a braided thread so I suspect that either the timing is out a touch or there is damage on the shuttle hook somewhere.

[dikman]

While it looks like it's now working ok, I'll take your and Bob's advice and re-check the timing and give the shuttle area another (closer) once over - just to make sure.

[dikman]

Just tried the braided #138 on the Singer G166 and it works fine on that machine. I had a feeling that it might like the vertical shuttle design better.