4500 making bottom loops every 4 or 5 stitches...

[LeatherinCornwall]

Hey guys, thought I might post a question, while I'm pulling my hair out....my 441 machine was running fine for heavier stuff, I made an effort to dumb it down a bit to fix a couple pairs of the wife's leather boots. It's fairly light leather plus a zipper where I need to sew.  So I changed to (I think) 92 thread for top and bottom, installed a 160 needle (smallest I have) and adjusted the tensions and spring per the tutorial here on the forum, and now no matter what I do, regardless of tension settings, I'm getting the top thread making a loop on the underside, on a regular basis, roughly every 3-5 stitches, and usually it snags and breaks the thread.  What it generally does, at the start of stitching, while I hold the top thread as usual, it's slack the first 3 stitches, then the machine starts pulling hard on the top thread in my hand, and one or 2 stitches later it bunches up a bit, and pops the thread on the underside.  I've adjusted top and bottom tensions till I'm blue in the face. I tried going up a couple sizes of top and bottom thread (192 I think?) and installing a 180 needle, and though it improved, when sewing a double thickness of 3 oz leather, it is still happening.Any thoughts?

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by LeatherinCornwall

[Northmount]

@LeatherinCornwall Moved your post to Leather Sewing Machines!

Tom

 

[shoepatcher]

Pics??

[CowboyBob]

Either it's not threaded correctly or the top tension is too loose. So double check the threading first, when you know for sure it's right then tighten the top thread 1/2 a turn at a time until it stops.

[LeatherinCornwall]

Thanks for the feedback. I believe I found the problem, the top thread was pinching about every 4th or 5th stitch, causing the occasional loops.  Fixed now.