211U566 forward / reverse balance

[vblouindemers]

Folks, gurus, aficionados..  I acquired a singer 211U566 a while back for my auto upholstery work.  My reverses stitching (when needed) is always hidden so I have never cared about the reverse not matching the forward feed.  Now a friend of mine asked me to refurbish his wassily chairs and so having balanced forward and reverse is important as the sewing will be in plain view.

I have tried adjusting the excentric roller at the end of the reversing shaft which helped but reverse is always shorter no matter what stitch length is selected.   The longer stitch setting is precisely 3 stitches per inch so I assume the machine was not "tweaked" for longer forward stitch length as I read can be done.

I found a manual for the machine this morning. The manual states that the reverse max stitch length is around 5mm, which is pretty much what I get if I adjust the excentric roller to it's most permissive location.   The manual is not so clear regarding the possibility of balancing the forward / reverse feed as it is in the 211G166 manual.

So, to all of yall who know the tricks of the trade, should I be able to balance the forward / reverse on my 211U566 ?  Or they (the factory) tweaked something to get longer stitches (3/inch compared to 5/inch on my 211G166) but in doing so lost the possibility to get balanced forward / reverse motion.

Thanks for your help,  I can send pics if needed.  And if I missed the answer in my research, please point me in the right direction.

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by vblouindemers
spelling

[oltoot]

I've had one for 45+ yrs and haven't figured it out

[vblouindemers]

7 hours ago, oltoot said:

I've had one for 45+ yrs and haven't figured it out

damn these are very bad news....

Thanks for the reply anyway!

Edited February 3, 2020 by vblouindemers

[Constabulary]

I just looked at the 211U566 Manual  and the procedure should be pretty much the same as on the 211G166 and other 111 / 211 Singer machines.

This is from a 111G156 manual and is maybe a bit more obvious - mechanism is technically the same but just slightly different cause the 211 seems to have a long spring on the rod right side of the crank or so. To me the difference are just the screws you have to loosen for adjusting the stitch length on the 211U566 the rest should be the same - thats at least how I understand it. Or do I get it wrong?

 

 

This ifs from the 211U manual:

 

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Constabulary

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

If the SPI is the same within the three SPI forward and reverse, then it's as good as it can get.  You should expect the it not to match up front to back if you are five forward where someone ground out the frame or something to make it longer in forward stitching.

[vblouindemers]

Just wanted to say thank you for feeding the faith.  I was able to balance forward / reverse with giving up a little forward length.  From what I can tell, the reverse is always a "ratio" of the forward advance and only in reducing the forward motion you can get the ratio to 1:1.

 

Gives me roughly maximum 7 mm forward / 7 mm reverse instead of the 8.4 forward / 5mm reverse stated in the manual.  I am cool with that.  I do not use the 8.5mm too often anyway.  I can always trick it back if need be now that I know my way around it.  I adjusted the reverse excentric (near the screw B in fig.38)  to the maximum setting, then tricked the reverse mecanism F2 until forward and reverse matched.  Changed stitch length on the machine, they are still balanced. Bingo.

 

I am a happy sewer.  Again, thanks!

Edited February 5, 2020 by vblouindemers

[vblouindemers]

19 hours ago, Constabulary said:

Or do I get it wrong?

 

 

This ifs from the 211U manual:

 

 

If I understand correctly you get it right... but wrong.  The 566 has 2 adjustments where the 166 has only one - the rocking mecanism itself ( fig. 25 - E2 & F2) plus an adjustment for the reverse stitch residing in a excentric bushing at the end of the shaft F2 that you can rotate to anticipate / retard the moment at which the shaft will hit the block at the end of its course.  I think that would allow you to maintain full forward course while reducing the reverse even more.  In the machine features they mention "independently adjustable forward and reverse stitch lengths" which I assume it what it means.  The adjustment is somehow limited to certain parameters, but that they don't tell you.... :-)

 

Again, 1000 thanks.

[DanishMan]

Hi 

I have the same problem as you, and I can not figure out the service manual.

I can get 8 mm forward stitch length and 5 mm reverse.

But if I reduce the forward stitch length. i.e. by 2mm, the reverse stitch is also reduced.

Is that just how it is?

Cheers

Danishman