Help!

Magnetic seam guide. But be careful, if yours is a computer operated machine those are a no no.

Oh! So that's what this thing is.

A

Magnetic guides move, try putting a line of easy release painters tape on the bed of the machine. You can make it the full length and build it up with several layers if need be. I often use the sticky side of post it notes as a guide when I need one.

Don't worry about it though, most of us cannot sew a straight line without help either if we are willing to admit it. I need a guide of some description whether its the markings on the machine bed, or my little pile of post its.

On 2005-07-25 snipped-for-privacy@a1sewingmachine.com said: >Newsgroups: alt.sewing >Magnetic seam guide. But be careful, if yours is a computer >operated machine those are a no no. >-- >Ron Anderson >A1 Sewing Machine Why is that? What in the computer is magnetic-field susceptable?

Tom Willmon Mountainair, (mid) New Mexico, USA

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

In article , of NMIX Reader uttered

A good half of its guts

Go ahead and introduce a magnetic field to your expensive sewing machine. We repair folks like stuff like that.

Actually there are screw on guides available for most machines.

I would think that if your feed dogs are adjusted correctly, your fabric will feed straight. Is this right, Ron?

Other options include a needle plate with seam lines on it, a peice of tape or a marker line. No need to buy a gadget.

Penny S

I agree, don't use anything that is going to cost alot of money.....I used a bit of masking tape and went slowly until I got the hang of it.....also, try letting the machine do the work, on all my machines if I just gently guide it it goes straight.

HTH

Michelle Giordano

Offhand, I would guess that the sensors and stepper motors in a computer-controlled machine are susceptible to magnetic inteference - the sensors in particular may be permenantly deranged by a strong static field, such as that from a magnet designed for sticking power.

Yes Penny.. but. You need to be able to guide it straight. Many look at the needle and then it is to late.

I have one - I just like gadgets :)

A

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:45:54 GMT in alt.sewing, "Ron Anderson" wrote,

But seriously, what in the computer is magnetic-field susceptible?

Computers use magnets to save information. The information on your computer (whether it's in a sewing machine, car, or on your desk) is saved on magnetic disks. Both the hard drive and portable floppy disks, inc. memory cards, are made with thin plastic covered with iron filings, which can be easily magnetized. The pattern of magnetized and non-magnetized areas is your data; your letter, your spreadsheet, whatever.=20

Another magnet can erase or corrupt the information so the computer can no longer 'read' it.

-Irene

----------- =46rom:

out where you place these strong magnets.=20 If they are placed close to a video tape, portions of the tape will be erased or messed up.=20

If they are placed close to an audio tape, portions of the tape will be erased or messed up.=20

If they are placed close to credit cards, the magnetic strip on the back of the card will be erased or messed up.=20

If they are placed close to a floppy disk, large portions of the disk will be erased or messed up.=20

If they are placed close to a TV screen or computer monitor, the screen's colors will become distorted, and it is not easy to fix it!=20

If they are placed close to a mechanical watch, the watch can become damaged. (I found that some stainless steel hardware was slightly attracted to NIB magnets, while other stainless steel hardware was not.)

If they come close to hearing aids or pacemakers, I don't know what might happen, and I don't want to find out!=20

----------------

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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My youngest DD took Home Ec(name in the 70s for sewing one semester and cooking the next) and was so disgusted when she came home after the first day of sewing class. Her teacher had instructed the class to cut the pages from the composition book that was required for the class, and practice sewing on the lines of 10 pages before next class. Fast forward some 25 years: I was visiting them and guess what she had her early teenage daughter sewing---yep, lines on paper. I laughed and she said, "Well, it taught me to look at the fabric, not the needle, right." Emily

First thing I ever teach kids and adults is how to go S L O W L Y: second is to watch where the edge of the fabric goes, not the needle.

I only bother with sewing on paper when teaching them to follow lines for things like quilting. I find the THE BEST way to teach them to sew straight and accurate seams (not always the same thing!) is to sew them

- LOTS of them! - on scrap fabric.

I used to have a magnetic seam guide, but found it an impediment to accurate sewing. It was only any use on a steel bed machine (won't attach to aluminium or plastic), and for them I found the old Singer screw-in sort much better. I use them sometimes for James when he's sewing quilts, but usually find a quarter inch foot or a bit of masking tape on the machine bed a better bet. Any guide that sticks up is only OK until you want to urn a corner, when it tends to catch on the fabric you shove through the hole and displace it, or catch on it and be awkward to turn.

> Watch out where you place these strong magnets. >

Most sewing machines (other then the programmable embroidery type) are controlled by programs on chips rather than magnetically recorded data on disks, and these are a fair distance from the machine bed. When I bought my original HV Lily in 1998, I'd heard about the magnet thing, and asked, and the chap who sold the machine explained this. He also told me that yer average magnetic pin saver would probably NOT damage the machine's programming, but NOT to place it on the machine as they had been known to disrupt the step motors (see Alan's post). I was warned NOT to put anything with a stronger magnet then a pin saver closer to the machine than than 6", and I never have. Students have occasionally plonked the pin saver on the machine, and been warned not to do it again, with the explanation I got.

Mostly, those magnetic seam guides are useless for modern machines because they won't attach to the ally stitch plate and the rest of the machine is plastic! Most modern machines have lines on the stitch plate to guide you anyway.

I used to have a bit of write-on Scotch tape on my throat plate, with various lines scratched on it -- I'd touch up the one I was using with a #2 pencil, which wouldn't wear off before the end of the project -- and a notch in the leading edge at the 5/8" mark.

Used to have until I read this thread, got up from the computer, and scratched it off with my thumbnail. Came off surprisingly easy; the glue was at least twenty years old. Long after applying the tape "temporarily", I gave up commercial patterns, so none of my seam allowances are more than half an inch, except those that are drawn right on the fabric, and the edge of the needle plate, the feed dogs, and various landmarks on the presser feet serve nicely to mark allowances that narrow. Not to mention moving the needle, which is particularly handy when I want two rows of stitching parallel: guide the same way twice, with the needle on the right the first time and on the left the second. Or right, middle, and left if it's linen and I want three rows to guard against fraying.

I was enthusiastic about an edge-stitching foot with an adjustable guide for a while, but it took a lot of fiddling to get it adjusted just right, so I tended not to change the setting, which made the adjustability pointless. Then I discovered I could stitch at least as straight by guiding the fold against the inside of the right toe of the steel zig-zag foot, and adjust by changing the needle position.

If 3-M is still making two-line repositionable "Post-It" correction tape, buy a reel at once. It's the handiest stuff possible, and a little goes a long way -- I've had my current reel at least five years. I mostly tear off an inch to serve as a hand-stitching guide -- moving a short piece works better than trying to keep all of a long piece in place -- but you can also stick it to the sewing-machine bed, either as a mark in itself or as a place where you can draw a mark. (One-line and six-line tapes have their uses, but I get the most use out of the two-line tape.)

Also check to see whether any of the holes in the machine bed are threaded: if so, you can screw on a guide. (Assuming that you can find the right screws.)

If you truly and seriously want a magnetic guide, and you aren't afraid of harming the electronics, and the throat plate isn't aluminum or plastic, and you aren't worried that it will shift while you are using it -- just take one off the refrigerator.

Joy Beeson

The one I got came with the Japanese zig zagger I got last week. It does not have marks on the plate, either. But it does have a screw in guide too.

Like I said, Ijust like to play with gadgets.

A