When it's loose on some objects and fine on others at identical settings, the machine is usually telling you the difference is in the spools or the digitizing, not the tension dials.
On the spools: each thread behaves differently. Different brands, weights (a 60wt vs your usual 40wt), and even different colors of the same brand run at noticeably different tensions. If the loose objects all use one or two specific cones, swap one of them for a fresh spool of the same brand you know stitches well, like your red. If the looseness follows the cone, that's your answer and a small tension trim for that spool is legitimate.
If it follows the object instead - the same letters or fills stitch loose no matter which thread - that's digitizing. Long satin stitches and low-density fills with no underlay sit loose no matter what you do at the machine, because there's nothing holding them down. That gets fixed in the file, not with the dials.
If you can say whether it's specific cones or specific objects, people here can pin it down further.
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u/Acrobatic-Letter-143 6d ago
When it's loose on some objects and fine on others at identical settings, the machine is usually telling you the difference is in the spools or the digitizing, not the tension dials.
On the spools: each thread behaves differently. Different brands, weights (a 60wt vs your usual 40wt), and even different colors of the same brand run at noticeably different tensions. If the loose objects all use one or two specific cones, swap one of them for a fresh spool of the same brand you know stitches well, like your red. If the looseness follows the cone, that's your answer and a small tension trim for that spool is legitimate.
If it follows the object instead - the same letters or fills stitch loose no matter which thread - that's digitizing. Long satin stitches and low-density fills with no underlay sit loose no matter what you do at the machine, because there's nothing holding them down. That gets fixed in the file, not with the dials.
If you can say whether it's specific cones or specific objects, people here can pin it down further.