Terri, I see no one has answered you post. I may be whacked here but I am going to throw my 2 cents in. I think you may be putting too much thought into the whole thing. When I first started, and was struggling, I was of the impression that these machines were really bobbin sensitive. If you do the bobbin drop thingy, and do it the same every time, you are going to fine tune this skill and BOOM, one day it all comes together. I know this does not answer you question. What happens to me if I get the bobbin too tight-----First I get fooled into thinking my material thickness is wrong. No bobbin showing on the back side. Stitches pulling into the fabric. There is one hint. If the stitches are too tight we want to give it more MT (read this as top tension). But we have no bobbin showing which tells us we have too much MT and our bobbin is too tight. When you loosen the bobbin a tick, you also have to take some of the top thread away. It is a balance thing and finding it is what makes the big difference. Bobbin too lose----------Bobbin starts showing up on the edges of the columns. Also get an occasional loop on top (because the bobbin is not holding the top thread tightly enough). First thought, too much top thread because I am getting a loop or not enough because I am seeing bobbin. The clue is the bobbing showing on the edges of the columns as well as the loop. MT (top tension) won't cause both problems but a loose bobbin will. Get your bobbin to drop 1 1/2 to 2 inches when you just flick your wrist, to do caps set it to where it just barely drops on it's own. These settings will get you going and then you can fine tune them from there base on what you see happening. I am not sure if this is what you were looking for but someone on the list may benefit so there it is. Herb Royal Embroidery ----- Original Message ----- From: Lee or Terri Hoover To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 1:46 PM Subject: [amayausers] Bobbin Tension ?? Hi All, Would someone have the time to explain the results and consequences of: 1) too tight tension in bobbin 2) too loose tension in bobbin In trying for improvements and educated guesses about what to alter when having problems or not liking the looks of the embroidery I thought this would be good place to start. I'm not talking about extreme tension changes. For example, sometimes I let the bobbin "drop" a little bit looser than other times. Just experimenting, but did not know where to "draw the line". Thanks, Terri Hoover Embroidery Creations