Help Needed

[RickV]

Very interesting. I would have never known about the pin issue.  I will follow up with images soon.  I did look back our current needle size is 21 with 135 thread. we will be testing smaller needles with 92 weight thread next aswell.

[kgg]

16 minutes ago, RickV said:

I did look back our current needle size is 21 with 135 thread.

The #21 needle is to small for your V138 (T135) thread and will not provide a large enough hole to haul the bobbin thread up properly. The #21 is good for V92 (T90) thread. You should look at the the the needle / thread chart on Toledo Industrial Sewing Machine site https://www.tolindsewmach.com/thread-chart.html

 

kgg

[RickV]

18 hours ago, kgg said:

The #21 needle is to small for your V138 (T135) thread and will not provide a large enough hole to haul the bobbin thread up properly. The #21 is good for V92 (T90) thread. You should look at the the the needle / thread chart on Toledo Industrial Sewing Machine site https://www.tolindsewmach.com/thread-chart.html

 

kgg

I referenced that chart.  Our purchaser had a chart from the company we order from, according to their chart the 21 needle was rated for 92 and 135 which was a bit confusing to me.

[Wizcrafts]

Personally, I prefer to use a #19 titanium needle with #92 thread, top and bottom. If the work is dense, or has double sided leather tape holding the seams together, I move up to a #20 needle. A #21 needle would work better with #105 thread. Titanium coated needles resist gumming up much better than all steel needles. If you don't sew thru goo, buy the cheaper steel needles, but always use leather points when sewing leather.

[DrmCa]

All of needles are steel. All of them are chrome-plated. Those known as titanium simply have an extra coat of titanium nitride over the chrome.

[RickV]

I would just like to thank everyone for their advice.  I found out multiple things about this machine recently.  I found out that my old Mechanic was cutting corners. It turns out that the Tension release pin was worn down and now engaging, which is how i found out that instead of ordering the pin and replacing it the mechanic used a broken needle to "fix" the problem.  I also found out that the sewist that was using this machine was not doing proper preventative maintenance.  I removed the fly wheel to find out that the shaft had burned and blued. warping it pretty badly.  I have no other option but to send it to the shop to replace the shaft and have the mechanics there give the whole machine the once over. The condition that the machine was in would have tore itself apart in 6-12 months if we hadn't found out about the shaft damage.