a landmark in my machine quilting adventure

I am really HAPPY for you! How many times have you taken a car to the mechanic with a clunking noise and then it runs perfect when you get there? Having the thread break for the Pro is worth it's weight in gold. lol Did he give you any idea what magic he performed on it? I'll be really interested to hear what he told you the problem finally was. Good luck with your machine! Donna

Fingers are crossed...

Did he say what was wrong with the machine?

90 minutes later he gave

That is great progress! Do keep us posted when you work with it again.

Karen, Queen of Squishies

It is really frustrating to have the service person be unable or unwilling to deal with your particular problem. We bought a brand new

2010 Chevy Cobalt for my wife and over the period of a couple of months I had a dead battery on 4 different occasions. I have a fair degree of knowledge of an automotive nature, being as I used to race and repair sports cars and motorcycles, in my younger days. I know there was a short draining the battery, but they could never find it. They could never correctly diagnose the problems and after going through various levels of Zone managers and upper level mechanical evaluation, they told me they would attach a battery charger and a cord to the engine and that I should plug it into a wall to keep the battery charged. This on a brand new 2010 car. Forget it. We took a $4000 loss on the car and traded it for a new Toyota Camry and have never looked back. They created a former customer who hopes the company fails, due to their stupid and inept ability to keep customers satisfied with the products they sell. I could have fought them under the lemon laws in the state, but it would have dragged out the process and it was during recent bankruptcy proceedings, so it may have been even fruitless, in the long run. Good riddance, I say! Hope your experience is better than mine was, and it is finally resolved. At least the guy you finally dealt with was able to produce the problem.

John

DH years ago was a TV repairman. Common comment heard was about the set not working until he showed up. Ususally could correct the problem, but he had a lots of patience back then and his customers baked him cookies and treated him like the gold repairman that he was. Anna Belle in Palm Bay

as to the probable cause of the fraying: This was a floor model that I purchased at a discount. PROBABLY, while it was on display, someone broke a needle while using it, which caused a tiny, almost invisible burr on the hook mechanism that catches the needle (or is it top thread?) when it goes down into the bobbin stuff. He showed me how the top thread, in reality, has to travel up and down multiple times before it actually goes into the fabric, and the burr was fraying the thread with each pass. When I'd switched to hand quilting thread, there was so much more substance to the thread that it didn't actually fray to the breaking point very often - fortunately the quilt I finished that way is junk and not anything special. He also suggested that every few quilts, I should apply some machine oil directly to the hook, and he did it while I was there.

He mentioned that some of the more constantly used industrial machines often have an oiled pad that the top thread must travel over before reaching the needle, and I'm sure that a similar suggestion was made to me right here on RCTQ 2 years ago when this whole debacle began with the Babylock Quest I'd gotten.

When you talk about the absence of misbehavior, whether it's a car, tv, or even a child (!) when the expert is looking... I was actually almost in tears when Mr Stewart said, before it frayed for him, that he wanted to check it out to see what was happening. I was POSITIVE the thread wouldn't fray for him!! Thank God it did, and I'll be trying out the "new" machine this weekend.

Musicmaker

Fingers are crossed that everything is now fixed! You were a wise woman to take everything back to the LQS for them to see and try themselves!!

-Irene

Hey Musicmaker:

Welcome to the land of long arm quilting. I have the Brother 1500S and I was having fraying problems. First thing is the thread guides that extends above the thread holder. If it is not lined up with the machine the thread will not feed through it and will cause the thread to break. Next check the tension discs. There might be a small piece of thread caught in there and cause thread to hang up and break. Make very sure the machine is threaded correctly. I thought mine was but kept fraying and breaking thread. I went back to the manual and followed it step by step, even though I have threaded SM for over 60 years. Next check the needle, it has to be a size 16 or higher needle. I usually use the jeans needle. Don't worry about the needle making BIG holes, they will all shrink back to size when you wash the quilt. Why use a large needle with a large eye, well the needle is stiffer and will not flex causing burrs and breaking. Another thing, use a thread lubricant. I use silicone lubricant on the spool of thread or put a square of batting under the thread as it feeds off the spool and passes over the batting coated with the lubricant. Next check your bobbin tension. If the tension is too tight that will also cause thread breaking. You could be over filling the bobbin. The bobbin could be put in incorrectly.

One other thing. Put a drop of oil on your bobbin area every two bobbins used. Be sure and clean out the lint in the bobbin area, frequently. Your manual should tell you where to oil the bobbin.

I bought a DVD by Mindy Casperson. She is the owner of angel threads and a long arm teacher. No I am not afficliate with her company, just a happy customer. I found her DVD very useful when first learning to use my Hinterberg frame and Brother 1500S. She uses the Nolting machines, but no matter the machine they all basically work the same and her instructions on loading a quilt, and what to do when you have problems is extremely helpful. Oh and the DVD is not expensive either. She is in Pensylvania.

And NEVER, NEVER use hand quilting thread. It is covered with wax and will gum up your machine so bad it might not work again till it visits the SM hospital. There is a Yahoo group dedicated to the Juki machines. They will answer all your questions. They have already been where you are now.

Hope this helps

Kate T. South Mississippi

thanks for all the info Kate. I did look up her dvd and with a New Yr's resolution that states "I will not buy everything I want" because I tend to nickle and dime our budget into oblivion, I have to restrain myself. I'll keep your info, and continue to call Mr Stewart who's been in the biz since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Musicmaker

Howdy!

p.s. Most handquilting thread is not covered in wax. It's "mercerized" :

Sometimes it's described as glace' - having a smooth, glazed orglossy surface. It's usually thicker and tougher than machine thread. OF course, it is not recommended for machine quilting.

R/Sandy - from a family of Mercers

Do you not have a lemon law in your state? We had a bad new car experience, but the lemon law had a number of times it had to go to the garage to be declared a lemon, as soon as we hit that we said we wanted to return it and would invoke the lemon law if needed, at which point they took it back and offered a discount if we wanted to buy another car from them, which we declined!

Anne

Did the Camry have a new design this year? We've resolved never to buy another vehicle in the first year of a major design change. In

1994 the windshield kept breaking on our Dodge Ram truck. Four times. While it was sitting in the driveway overnight. Called it "stress breaks" from a bad design. After the fourth windshield, they got it right. Then the paint started coming off in a serious way. Like the entire sheet of paint off the hood flew off while we were driving down the road. They wouldn't do anything about that. The good news is that we kept it, it has 243,000 miles on it and it's our farm truck. It's a "hard-down" ugly vehicle, like Polly would say. It's also the "loaner truck", so our kids don't ask to borrow a vehicle very often. :-) After the fourth windshield, and the paint about all blew off of it, it's been the most dependable truck we ever owned. Sherry

Everybody should own a hard-down ugly truck, Sherry. If we loan ours out, it promptly comes back. Other drivers give it a wide berth. They figure that truck is so ugly it can't possibly be insured and a fender bender would be a serious personal loss. Its ignition key was gone long ago. IF you can get the door open (and closed), you're good to go. Polly

"Sherry"