Love this business!

by Ray Winslow, Allyn International

I know I’m crazy, but it keeps me from going insane. After 30 years in this business you would think you’ve “seen it all,” so to speak. It seems to me that if I had a quarter for every time I’ve listened to the frustrated complaint about “my bobbin tension,” I’d be able to buy a flats fishing boat and retire to Florida.

I’ve been in the sewing machine business since the fall of 1969; I came across the term shortly after I began making house calls. I just heard about the “crazy bobbin tension!” once again this morning. I couldn’t begin to count the times between. It’s like an old tune that just won’t stop playing in my mind. Most of the people reading here know that the ‘bobbin tension’ issue, perhaps the number one complaint voiced by consumers, is actually an upper thread problem: the upper setting is too loose, or the thread is not engaged between the discs.

So, I wonder, how is it that this misconception has survived through all these years? The average machine owner is no more knowledgeable about the basic operation of the machine than they were 40 years ago.

Most men, rocket scientists, engineers and mechanics included, will have nothing to do with a sewing machine, but that has been slowly changing. I had a fellow come in a while back looking to buy a sewing machine. This is not very uncommon these days. He wanted to repair his work clothes. I demonstrated and sold him a good, tough utility unit and sent him on his way.

He called a couple of days later, saying the thread was all caught up on the bottom. “I think it’s the timing; my sister has a machine that does that when it’s out of time.”

The next day he brings it in and I take a look. It’s not timing -- he was trying to run the machine without having the thread in the takeup lever. “Oh, duh, my sister said it was probably out of time.” Two weeks later: “It’s out of time for sure now, just like my sister’s used to get; skipping stitches and all.” In he comes and around goes the needle he had in backwards. “No, Jim, it wasn’t the timing. Sorry”

I left him laughing over his need to get a comfort level with the machine -- and stop jumping up on the “timing” wagon every time something goes amiss. I can hardly wait for his sister to tell him about those impossible tension adjustments. Or perhaps she is simply breaking new ground, beyond “tensions.” Could “timing” be emerging as the new mystery?

Reprinted from SQE Professional, March 2007