I got a Empisal 550 as a present. I have got HUGE problems with it (brand new) Straight stiching on medium materials are fine. As soon as I go to thicker or thinner material (I do adjust the foot pressure etc as instructed in the dvd) or go to stretch materials (once again following the instructions) the machine makes a "thud" type sound, and either breaks the top yarn, or the bobbin tangles up. I have double checked my tention, threading, cleaning it - what am I missing

Hester, December 2010

Hello Hester,
First of all just adjust the pressure on the foot so when there is a cotton fabric under the foot you can't pull the fabric through with the foot down, normally if you have a thudding sound when sewing either the end has gone off the needle leaving a square end or the machine cannot take very thick material, I can't think what that model looks like, on fine fabrics a size 11 needle is needed and special needles on stretch fabrics, if you sew on very thick fabrics you may need to turn the top tension down to about 3 or 4, always use a mercerised thread which is perfect all the way through.
Ken

ken, December 2010