Monday, January 31, 2011

Singer 127 - winding the bobbin and trouble therein.



I don't know if this might help or interest anyone out there, but I'm putting together a series of Getting to Know my Antique/Vintage Singer Sewing Machine (Singer 127). Today I learnt about The bobbin.

I would like to ask any sewing machine experts to please point out anything I'm doing wrong. I'm a self taught sewer and am learning about the machine by working my way through the manual.





Hidden underneath a shiny silver face plate is a shuttle and bobbin. These magical treasures are what makes the sewing machine stitch lock in place. Two threads, one on top, one beneath, working together to make sewing happen. What could be more wonderful than that?

My Beautiful Sphinx, a Singer 127, came with a selection of bobbins and I figure it's time I learnt how to wind them.



The manual tells me to begin by disengaging the balance wheel. There is a smaller wheel inside the bigger wheel at the right of the machine. You turn the smaller wheel towards you and it stops the needle from going up and down while we wind the bobbins.

But I figured a better place to start would be to give the winding device some oil. It's been almost 50 years since last used.



I put a scarce drop of oil in the hole. I couldn't think of anywhere else where oil might go on the bobbin winder.

Put the bobbin in place, buy pulling on the left knob. Thread the bobbin winder and tuck the thread under the right end of the bobbin. Make certain the thread guide is all the way to the right side, press bobbin winder so that the wheel rests against the balance wheel. "Operate the machine the same as for sewing".






The instructions say it so much better.

But at the end, I had a happy little bobbin all ready for sewing.



And the sewing went lovely for a while. That is until the bobbin began acting up.



Somehow it didn't wind evenly so now the thread keeps getting tangled up at the same point.




ps. I have no idea what's going on here with the fonts the last couple of posts. Things I try to format remain unchanged, and for no apparent reason random parts of the text acquire random formatting. Look. Now it's underlined!

9 comments:

TrampledbyGeese said...

In case anyone was wondering, the problem with the bobbin was not caused by how I wound the bobbin, but rather how it was loaded into the shuttle.

To bring the thread up into the right place, I gave the thread a little jerk. The simple tug somehow made it so that the thread on the bobbin would not unwind evenly.

Anonymous said...

You may also want to try winding the bobbin a little more tightly--I find it helps with my Singer 127. You can pinch the incoming thread between two fingers, or thumb and finger, or whatever works for you, to slightly increase the thread tension as you wind the bobbin. I think I read that originally on treadleon.net somewhere...not sure now. Anyway, I stumbled on your post and enjoyed reading about someone else's adventures with a vibrating shuttle machine. Always nice to find another one out there!

Fulvia said...

Is it at all possible for you to send me or post a detailed picture of the upper tension mechanism while it is threaded? Specifically, I am trying to put mine back together and the take up lever spring is giving me fits. Thank you very much.

(Blogger insanity has me redoing this over and over again ... so sorry... hope you get this)

TrampledbyGeese said...

Those are a real challenge to put back together. I'll take a photo and post tonight if all goes according to plan.

Fulvia said...

I very much appreciate this if you can do it. Thanks so much!

TrampledbyGeese said...

Posted the upper thread tension mechanism here: http://itissunnyatebertshome.blogspot.ca/2012/05/singer-127-disassembling-upper-thread.html

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

Fulvia said...

Very good of you to help, thank you. I am still confused about the relative position of the spring to the part that goes behind it as seen in this photo (compared to the first photo you posted in this entry):

http://mysewingmachineobsession.blogspot.com/2011/09/singer-128-tension-assembly.html (second photo in this post).

Thanks for your time.

Quilter Kathy said...

So happy to find this post today...I am trying to wind a bobbin. My machine looks slightly different, but I will try to make it cooperate!

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