Singer 111W155 Tension Problems?

[Aurita]

Hello!

My father and I took up leather work as a hobby (small wallets and other knickknacks), and I recently purchased for us a Singer 111W155.
It's in great condition, sold by a couple that maintained it and ever had a professional fix up done on it. I purchased it complete, with the table, motor, pedal, whole nine yards.

So long story short, when I sat down to try and do some work with it, I noticed the tension was off. Mostly the problem is that the bobbin (yellow thread) seems to have too much tension as the needle thread (black thread) keeps poking through on the bobbin side, and the bobbin thread lays flat. I've been adjusting tension for a good two days now haha. It's gotten to the point where my best result are when I have the needle tension to it's maximum and the bobbin tension to the point where the screw is on the verge of falling out.

All this said, I also get the weird occurrence where the thread seems to be pulled through on both side! The stitch right above my finger in the photos is the same stitch from both sides of the material, as you can see, sometimes the bobbin (yellow) is pulled through on the needle side, and sometimes the needle (black) is pulled through on the bobbin side, all in the same stitch! This left me really confused!

I'm at my wits ends. I've checked that I have the correct thread and needle for the work I'm doing, I've checked that my thread is threaded throughout the machine correctly, I carefully wind the bobbin every time as to rule a malfunction out on that end.

Only thing I can think of is I have something adjusted wrong outside the tension adjustments? Is there something else that could be causing this problem?

Also, I'm not using the motor, I'm using the machine by hand by spinning the pulley (I was hoping on adding a handle and making this hand cranked), could it be that without the motor the tension is fundamentally being messed up?
Does it need to have the torque of the machine? I assumed not, but I could be assuming wrong.

 

I'm sorry if I'm not explaining this correctly, I really am new at this, furthermore I never thought I would be working with/interested in sewing machine until now haha.

[RockyAussie]

2 things I can think of to check. 1. Do you have a good foot pressure down on the job. If it is too light/soft for the leather than the job can lift up a bit with the needle and you will get that look your getting.

2. Are you sure that the top thread is going down in between the tension discs properly and are the tension disks closing properly even with no thread in them? If they are not securely closing you need to find out why. 

[dikman]

Whether using a motor or it's hand-cranked shouldn't make any difference to the stitching. If your bobbin thread is at minimum tension then you've definitely got varying top thread tension while stitching. As Rocky said check your tension discs for correct operation and make sure the disc tension release is working correctly (only operates with the hand lever/foot pedal/knee lifter). I once had a machine that was incorrectly adjusted and every time the foot came up in the stitching cycle it released the tension discs!!

[Bert51]

Do you have a picture of how the machine is threaded, please.

Bert.

[Aurita]

14 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

2 things I can think of to check. 1. Do you have a good foot pressure down on the job. If it is too light/soft for the leather than the job can lift up a bit with the needle and you will get that look your getting.

2. Are you sure that the top thread is going down in between the tension discs properly and are the tension disks closing properly even with no thread in them? If they are not securely closing you need to find out why. 

 

14 hours ago, dikman said:

Whether using a motor or it's hand-cranked shouldn't make any difference to the stitching. If your bobbin thread is at minimum tension then you've definitely got varying top thread tension while stitching. As Rocky said check your tension discs for correct operation and make sure the disc tension release is working correctly (only operates with the hand lever/foot pedal/knee lifter). I once had a machine that was incorrectly adjusted and every time the foot came up in the stitching cycle it released the tension discs!!

Thank you for all the suggestions, I am about to starting playing around with the foot tension, and I'm going to try cleaning the discs! I will get back to the thread with the results!

6 hours ago, Bert51 said:

Do you have a picture of how the machine is threaded, please.

Bert.

Hello! Hopefully I have it threaded correctly, I tried to follow the manuals instruction and thread it through all 15 points. I've attached a couple pictures, let me know if you see anything wrong, or if I need to snap another picture closer up!

[Aurita]

7 hours ago, Bert51 said:

Do you have a picture of how the machine is threaded, please.

Bert.

One more pic of the thread going through the discs up close.

[kgg]

The photo highlighting the thread path. It appears that you have the top thread enter the upright pin in the bottom hole then go up and exit the top hole. Should be the other way around. The top thread then enters the three hole thread guide. You have threaded the top thread in a straight line through each of the holes before exiting to go to the top tensioner discs. The top thread should enter the first hole from the top (correct) then exit the hole and before entering the top of the next hole loop over the outside edge.

It is hard to see from the photo's if you have the top thread properly in the lower tensioner. When you thread through the lower tensioner the thread must click behind the little pin  (finger) to whole the top thread so it doesn't flop out as the thread arm moves up and down as you sew. The pin (finger) can be seen in the last photo setting in the vertical slot on the left of the tensioner aligned with the top thread exiting the tensioner.

Threading through all the guide holes from the thread spool can put to much top tension on the top thread. The number of holes you thread through is going to depend on the thread size, material thickness and type of material. Getting it right my take a bit of experimenting.

Also from your photo's, it appears that you are using 8 oz spools of thread. Some people have experienced problems with this size of thread spool particularly cheaper black bonded nylon thread. Make sure the thread is not going under your spool and getting caught.

kgg

 

[dikman]

kgg beat me to it. Run some stitches by hand and watch the tension discs, make sure they are keeping the tension on the thread.

Edited January 27, 2020 by dikman

[LPD]

First, replace your needle with a new one, it is probably not very sharp anymore causing the imbalance, re-thread the machine, sew a test strip.  To adjust the bobbin thread, remove the bobbin casing.  Locate the screw on the side of the casing.  Mark with a sharpie pen where the screw lines up on the casing.  You can adjust the bobbin tension by moving the screw left or right. Sew another test strip, mark on your leather where the upper and lower tension is set for reference.   Keep adjusting until you get it balanced.  Also, there are many different leather needles,   some punch the stitch hole and some pierce,  I suggest purchasing several different styles and testing them on your leather.  SuperiorThreads.com has great customer service, I have always ordered from them because they are very knowledgeable with all types of sewing machines and fabrics.  When I am sewing leather, I usually  replace the needle after each project,  if I am sewing through glue and leather I replace it more often.      

[Bert51]

Thank you Aurita, I think kgg and dikman are on the mark, hope all is good now.

Bert.