Early Spring

This post isn't about the season, but there are a couple springs.

I've been concerned the tensioner check spring on my Empress long arm quilting machine isn't quite holding up to its responsibilities. After poking around the Internet for a while, I found a vendor that would sell me five of them (likely more than I will ever need) for a very reasonable price and not an overabundance of shipping fees.

Here is the offending spring.

I grabbed the manual, turned to the section on changing the spring and got busy. This machine is a very basic Tin Lizzie.

Removing the tension assembly was really simple. I just needed a flat head screwdriver. I followed the step-by-step instructions to replace the check spring.

Then I put it all back together and did some test quilting on a charity quilt. I think it improved the quality of the top stitching, so I'm going to put this in the win column. A new needle, a new quilt loaded, and I'm off to another quilt finish.

Do you do your own machine maintenance? If you're even a little bit handy I recommend you give it a try with an all mechanical machine like this one.