If you need a thread tension guage and want to keep your money.....

    Thread tension gauges are expensive, so I'd thought I'd share a simple project with you that works very well and can save you a lot compared to buying one if you can find one.  

    If you are looking for one to use, make your own, but this will not be a small pocket sized portable, but it works with almost any machine. And it isn't huge.

 

    Make a small wood "base" of say 3X10X3/4 inch (approx). It might not seem like a "base" yet, but it will. Drill a small hole (about 1/16th of an inch) 1/4 of an inch in from one of the base's long sides and centered from left to right. The hole should be perpendicular to this base while it lays flat on a work surface.This long edge with a hole drilled vertically has become the back edge of the gauge.

    Make a "back panel" five inches wide by eight inches tall of something like "foam-core" or thin plywood. This back board should be glued to the base's back edge, vertically, with the 1/16th inch hole centered left to right with the backboard. A piece of heavy white paper is glued to the inside surface of the "L" if needed and will serve as a surface to mark on using a pencil later on.

    You need a piece of music wire (from a hobby shop) of about .045 thousandths of an inch diameter and seven inches long. Bend a little (tiny) loop or hook (curly-Q) into one end, this will become the top of the wire when finally set in place. Glue the plain end of the wire into the hole you've drilled and let the glue cure/dry.

    To use: Get a bobbin case that is known to be "set" properly. form a loop in the 3 inch tail of thread coming from the bobbin case and catch the thread loop in the loop/hook at the top end of the wire. Pull gently, the wire begins to bend and keep pulling until the bobbin just starts to turn within the bobbin case. At that point note how far the wire bent and mark on the back board (a little tick mark) how far the wire bent until the bobbin within the bobbin case just began to turn. Make your mark toward the top of the wire. Then let things relax. Release the thread from the hook you formed in the wire and with a finger tip pushing from the top of the wire bend the wire over to the Mark you made on the backboard. Then press the wire against the backboard, holding it there from the hooked end of the wire and use the wire as an edge to draw a more distinct slightly curved line. Try the bobbin case from several machines if you can, all from machines that are behaving themselves. You'll notice the marks start falling within an average zone or range. Were you to measure this "average" it will come out at about 2.6 Grams. It's a primitive little gauge that will cost about fifty cents to make and take an hour to make. It is every bit as accurate as the $189.00 big name machine gauges and can be just as fancy as you want it to be if you want to embellish it.

    To use the tool, form a loop in the thread coming from your bobbin case and as above pull on the thread, holding the bobbin case to do so. Note when the bobbin begins to turn and if it is to one side of the line you have made, or the other, you will need to adjust the bobbin case accordingly. If the bobbin begins to turn before the wire reaches the line, tighten the adjustment screw of the bobbin case. If you are pulling beyond the mark and the bobbin case is not turning, loosen up the adjustment screw a little at a time. 

    Once you see what I'm up to with these words you can work-out your own design improvements and it will work fine. I told you .045 diameter wire, but it can be a little larger in diameter or smaller but I would not suggest a big departure. It's just how much it bends when pulled on, consistently, that matters. But don't go real heavy or thin just because you had a problem finding some rational sized wire.

    And please use music wire from a hobby shop as it is good spring steel and not like coat hanger wire that bends and stays bent.

    If when using your gauge you come quite close to the line....that's good enough. This is a very sensitive gauge and close is good enough.

 

Removing the light switch from a Featherweight for replacement or paintin of the machine

I've had several emails lately, asking how to remove the light switch from a Featherweight so I thought I'd bring that subject to you today. The reasons for these people wanting to remove the switch replacing the switch were a simple failure of the switch (as in "it don't do nothin'") to a broken off toggle. If you need to know all about this, here it is. It is a great subject for those moments at a wedding reception where small talk fails and you want to impress people. If you are painting your machine you will also want to remove the switch. The drip pan will need to be removed from the bottom of the machine. The electrical receptacle/plug needs to be removed to gain access to the wire that goes to the light switch. The electrical receptacle has one screw holding it in place. There are three electrical posts inside the opening of the receptacle and the screw securing the receptacle is directly above the center post of the three, by about an inch. Remove the screw. The receptacle will only pulls out about an inch and to loosen the wire from the switch, roll the receptacle onto its open face so it's back side is up. There are three thumb-nuts on the back side of the receptacle. Just beside the thumb-nuts is a number that identifies the threaded electrical post by number, Remove the thumb nut at post number 3 and take the two wires off of the threaded post. Use the tip of a pair of pliers to loosen the thumb nut if need be and then finish by finger. The switch is held in place by by two nuts or at least should be. One is a black plastic decorative cap that doesn't hold anything in place. this plastic cap rests on top of a steel hex-nut that lays right on the painted surface of the machine's deck. The black plastic decorative nut is removed by hand and don't use pliers or the like as the cap is somewhat delicate. The risk in removing the steel hex nut under the cap in the stack-up is the chance that you might scratch the paint of your machine with the tool you use. The So many of these tools that can be used to remove this nut get scratched in use on the family car and such. The wrench you use has to laid the flat side of its jaw on the painted surface to loosen the hex nut. I take my tools for this use (a six inch adjustable wrench or 9/16ths open end wrench) and lay the flat side of the wrench, the jaw portion, on a piece of sand paper of about 120 grit and all this laying on a hard flat surface and rub it in until the side of the wrench is smooth and "toothless". Remove the hex-nut and the switch can now be poked down through the hole in the base of the machine. Not quite done yet. There is another wire that attaches to the switch with a screw into the side of the switch. Remove that screw and set it aside. The switch is free now to remove. Attached to the switch will be a wire that is soldered to a terminal of the switch, it goes away with the switch as a unit. There is a heavy black piece of rigid paper that serves as an insulator so nothing within the machine's base can touch the switch's wires and short things out. It's a pain, but put the paper piece back in when the time comes. Reverse the process to put things back together. The screw threads for the hex nut and plastic cap should have a little oil used on them and do not tighten either one very much. The hex nut will/can scratch the paint under it and the black plastic cap can break. Apply a little oil to the threads of the switch before the hex or plastic cap are screwed on.