Upper Tension on a Lady Kenmore 89

Yesterday, I used my Lady Kenmore 89 to make a simple scarf.  I nearly drove myself nuts in the process because I couldn't get the upper thread tension adjusted properly.  On all of my other sewing machines, I adjust the upper thread tension by turning the little knob on the tensioner from 1 to 6, for example, until the tension is set properly.  The LK89's upper tensioner is marked 1 through 6, and even though I turned the knob all the way from 1 to 6 yesterday, it didn't make much of a difference in the upper thread tension.

This morning, I had one of those head slapping "how stupid could I possibly be" moments when E opened the LK89 manual and pointed to one of the drawings.  In the interest of sparing someone else the same crazy-making day I had yesterday, here's what the drawing pointed out:  To adjust the upper thread tension on the LK89, you don't just turn the knob from 1 to 6.  You turn it from 1 to 6 and then you keep turning it.  If you have your LK89 tension set at 3 and you move it to 4, you haven't done much of anything.  You need to move it to 4 and then keep turning (and turning) if you want to see a difference in the tension.

This is completely obvious when you look at the little hash marks on the top of the tensioner.  Notice in the first photo, above the number 6, you see four little hash marks.  In the second photo, above the number 6, you see only two little hash marks.  This is because I turned and turned and turned the tensioner knob, going past the number 6 a couple of times.  (I took the bottom cover plate off when I took the photo to keep it from acting like a mirror.  Also, you can ignore the blue tape -- I was using it as a seam guide.)

So, there you have it.  Now you know a couple of things you might not have known before you read this blog post:  First, you know how to adjust the upper thread tension on a Lady Kenmore 89.  Second, you know just how dense I can be.