How To Adjust Sewing Machine Timing.

Like two ballroom dancers, unless both partners work together with flawless grace, the whole dance falls apart.

In your sewing machine, it may be more apt to compare the timing to a large square dance.  The many different parts all working, moving, rotating, and acting simultaneously. All this is to achieve perfect harmony. 

There are two principle areas in your sewing machine where timing is most obvious.

How do you adjust sewing machine timing?

First, there is the timing relationship between the hook and the needle which we call hook-needle timing.

How do you adjust sewing machine timing?

Second, there is the upward, backward, downward, forward motion of the feed dogs.  This must coordinate with the rise and fall of the needle which we call feed dog timing.

How do you adjust sewing machine timing?

When the sewing machine is properly timed, all the parts work together in a seamless flow of coordination.  The needle moves from it highest point down toward the needle plate.  The feed dogs reach the farthest point toward the back of the sewing machine. The feed dogs drop under the needle plate. This is just before the needle point reaches the needle plate.  The needle continues to move down dragging the upper thread under the needle plate.  It proceeds toward its lowest point.

The needle begins its rise back up.  A loop of thread forms along the back of the needle. A special cut out on the back of the needle to accommodate this loop is called the scarf.  The sewing machine hook slides behind the needle.  The point of the hook slides into the thread loop and pulls the thread around the bobbin.  The bobbin thread and upper thread wrap together.  The needle and hook proceed through their actions under the needle plate.  The feed dogs move under the needle plate from back to front.  

The needle proceeds to rise again up out of the bobbin area exiting the needle plate.  At the same time the feed dogs rise up out from under the needle plate. They begin to move from front to back as the needle continues to rise. 

The thread from the bobbin flows through a bobbin tensioner providing resistance to the thread as it is drawn up by the upper thread knot.  The upper thread is also under tension.  This comes from the upper tension, thread guides, tension spring, and sewing machine take up lever. 

The thread from top and bobbin grow increasingly tighter until they form a locked stitch in the middle of the fabric.  This process is repeated for every stitch. 

How do you adjust sewing machine timing?

The needle, hook, and feed dogs must move in harmony. If they fail to do so, the machine will not perform as expected.  When the hook is just slightly out of time with the needle, you will notice skipped stitches. This may begin on only one side of the zig zag stitch or intermittently. If the timing is just a bit more out of sync, stitch formation will become impossible.

If the feed dog timing is out of sync, the fabric will not move through the machine as expected. Threads may bunch up or the fabric may just not move.

As you can see, timing is everything.

To Adjust Sewing Machine Timing, The Whole Sewing Must Operate In Harmony.