Beachside Quilter

If your machine is just experiencing normal wear after lots of use, an APQS Dealer, who has gone through the 4-Day intensive Dealer Maintenance Certification class, should be able to give your machine a Spa Treatment.  If you are having electronic issues, a trip to the APQS Service Department might be necessary.
 
A Mini Spa would include a thorough cleaning and sanding off any burrs.  It would also include replacing the check spring, pigtails, hook assembly, including the hook finger and timing your machine, motor brushes, wave washers for the thread cutter, and packing fresh grease in the gear box.  Call your Dealer.  They should have a set price for parts and labor. There will also be a charge for mileage, unless you deliver the machine to their studio. 
 
A Deluxe Spa would include the above, plus replacing the needle bar, needle bar bushings and rocker assembly.  Your Dealer should have a price for this service also.  
 
The price for parts is $150 to $200 more if you have the large M bobbin, and both should be much less than the quote you received from the Service Department. 

Many of the APQS Dealers have been trained at the factory to do spa treatments in your home or their studio, depending how involved. They give it a thorough check up and replace parts worn from use. A few examples might be motor brushes, needle bar, rocker arm, hook assembly, re-packing the gear box.
A good indicator of what your machine might need would be how many hours it has been used for actual quilting. It may just need a thorough cleaning. In your manual is a maintenance chart you can follow to keep your machine running smooth for years.

Simply stunning, Terry! Perfect in every way!!

I bought the light advertised by Mike Ferris on this forum and I really like the change from my old style fluorescent light on my Mille. The added plus is the added view of the sewing area checkout his site. Many others have also gave good reviews on the light just search the forum for them.
Thanks Mike!

C:  Sharon's comments should be helpful.  I've not had personal experience with either the A-1, or the Nolting.  However, I was a member of Nolting's users group, and everyone there seemed quite happy with their service.  Similarly, one of our Guild members recently (a couple years ago) bought an A-1.  She had a problem with it which they finally solved by replacing the entire head.  She's not the easiest person to deal with, so solving her problem to her satisfaction probably speaks well of their service.  You haven't asked about Gammill, but I do have first hand experience with them.  I replaced the needle bar on my Classic, and one of their service folks walked me through the process over the phone.  I felt the experience was pretty positive.  I think all three (A-1, Nolting, and Gammill) are relatively easy to repair.  They all are industrial machines and require very little repair.  (Except for replacing the needle bar on the Gammill - and that was my choice, I wanted the lighter aluminum one, not an item that had worn out,- it's required no repairs)
 
APQS's service and support is outstanding.  If service ends up being the determining factor, APQS should be your choice.  Jim

The most valuble thing I did while looking for a longarm was to ask my guru of a sewing machine service guy " If you were buying a longarm for yourself, what brand would it be?" Now this guy isn't just a neighborhood repair guy. He services commercial quilting machines, sergers, sewing machines etc. all over the region, in addition to domestic machines. Anyway, his response was, in priority order: 1. APQS, 2. Innova. I asked why he put APQS above Innova and he said. "Service. APQS has all of the service points within handy access. They make it easy. And besides, APQS never breaks down." He went on to say that Innova is a really good machine, also, but that they had not yet figured out how to make service easy. I especially liked his "APQS never breaks down" comment. Although I respect Handi Quilter and A1, also on my original list of candidates, they did not appear on my service guy's list anywhere. Of course, as equally important as brand, is customer service. My experience with APQS has been delightful. They have stayed with me on the phone for as long as I needed, texting pictures, and taking all the time I needed to be sure I understood what they were talking about. All of my issues have been user-misunderstandings, or "how do I square my leaders" and stuff like that. Nothing to do with the machine itself. Oh, and my dealer is always available to me via phone for help or ideas. You are buying your dealer as well as the brand of longarm. You want a good one.
 
Good luck with your search. I know you will select the brand and model that is just right for you.

So, here is the update on the stitch regulator problem.
After replacing the motor brushes and encoder wheels, there still wasn't any improvement in the east/west movement.
Then I started checking the mushroom handles to see if it was a control button problem... nada.  But underneath the rear handle, there was a cable connection not quite tight.  Plugged those together and POW!!!! Even the needle up/down slowness has been cured.
 

The only mistake I see is that you forgot to ask for my address to send it to! LOVE it!

LOL, a comfy cat hammock.

Can you say COZY? Even Kitty knows quilts are the best!

Soooo cute!

Marti,
Use Super or Crazy glue. Watch the fingers.
Michael

Love, love love my circle lord boards too!!!!!!!

I love mine too. 

Hi,
Last week I got an order for Giant Boards from a lady in Texas who had heard about them
from another lady in her town. She ordered 4 and a Stylus set for her Gammill.
She had never seen or heard of them before.
 
Here is a note from her.
 
"My boards arrived about 6 this evening and after getting the stylus and one set up, I have quilted half a top !!!!  I love it and am wondering which one to get next. )  Wish I had these about 20 years ago."
Doris Hollister
 
"I finished that top this morning and then did a Christmas table cloth. Used two of the patterns.
Really  love them!!!"
Doris
 
Please take a look again at our Giant Boards. You don't have to wait 20 years.
Web page address below.
 
Thank you,
Michael
 
 

My business, The Quilted Lemon, only opened up in September. It's slowly getting there. Very slowly. But there are a few repeat clients so that makes me happy. One of the guilds that I belong to has asked me to do a short presentation on longarm quilting so hopefully there will be some quilts from that. And then today I just met a client for the drop-off of a custom baby quilt. Since that was custom work of piecing as well as binding after the quilting, it was a lot more than what I've been getting for just the quilting. The bay area is fairly affluent so I'm hoping that the quilt shop will send more people my way for custom baby quilts. The owner was happy that I had the clients choose their fabrics from the shop and buy them there. A win-win as far as I'm concerned. Now maybe he'll have more people call me.
 
At any rate, I'm just happy that my Freddie and IQ have been so easy to work with. I'm still doing just E2Es but I'm learning new tricks everyday. I may play around with mixing different panto designs for a semi-custom look that would work better for the modern quilts. 
 
The forum has been my go-to for any sort of pitfall or question that concerns me. The custom baby quilt had a minkee backing and the forum had great advice on how to handle it very successfully. So a big thank you to all of you for being available to dole out advice when needed. It's like having my very own team of cheerleaders. 

Thanks, Vicki,  I didn't understand that. 
I have one of the first machines that came out, and my table is the heavy wood.  Works
well as long as it's kept level.
 
Rita

Thank you Dawn.  I have a Liberty, but so much of this information is pertinent and extremely useful to me.  I'm going to adjust my table height now...yay!

Dave and Quiltmomof2, 
 
I have attached three different manuals for you...the first is "Understanding the Controls" of 2013 Lifetime Warranty machines. The second is the machine's assembly manual, and the third is the "user manual"-- the one that says "Complete". That means that both assembly and operational instructions are included. I apologize, however, because I haven't had time to actually "combine" the them all into one manual just yet...I have more photos to take to complete that. So the "Complete" manual will show our previous Millennium machines in photos and button-pushing exercises. But these will get you started!
UnderstandingtheControls-LWmachines7-7-13.pdf
Millie-Freddie Assembly Manual LW 2-28-12-Reduced.pdf
Millie and Freedom Complete 7-11-12-Compressed.pdf

I would like Karen McTavish Quilting for Show.
 
Vickie

I really like all of my CL boards they are fun to use and the results are beautiful. This is the only board I am willing to part with and if I don't sell it that is OK also
 
Thanks Beachside Quilter for your helpful comments I really like this forum everyone here is so helpful and nice.

Mary, I bought the queen Swirlz for $225 used and felt I got a good deal. I intentionally skipped the squares and went back and free handed flowers, angels, stars..with matchine glow in the dark thread. The grand kids love to turn the lights off and count the objects.They glow for hours! It's a fun and quick board!

Marti, yes the 15 is the larger swirls.  I read your second posting and it shows 12 so I thought you had the 12" but I see later you indicated they are 15".  I believe the Circle Lord Swirlz is the most popular board and I am sure someone will come along and buy the boards.  However, if you are quilting for others you might consider keeping it and purchasing the boards from Michael that you want and using his easy no interest payment plan. Swirlz looks fabulous on a lot of quilts!

I am loving that one button to stop and start and no more Command and blue to pause!

I do quilt lots of vintage and antique tops for people.  I've been told by an appraiser that machine quilting will devalue them some, but most I've quilted are family heirlooms that people want finished.  They want to use or display them and they mean a lot to them sentimentally because of who made them.  They aren't interested in selling them, just preserving them and their memories.  I always tell them the quilts would have been hand quilted and will be devalued, just so they know.  I try to quilt them with a similar design as they would have been quilted during the era when they were made.  So, I'm with Linda!  Quilt them!  They don't do any good sitting in the drawer or closet, especially when they're still in good shape!
 
I recently did a DWR for a lady who doesn't sew.  She remembered seeing her mother and grandmother working on the top when she was a little girl (and she was no spring chicken herself).  One of the last conversations she had with her mother before her mom passed away was about the quilt top.  Her mom asked her to please find someone to finish the quilt and not to get rid of it.  All the background fabric in the melons and pinched squares were from her mom's wedding dress.  It was in great condition and quilted beautifully.  What a treasure!  She wanted to hand sew some of the binding so she had a small part invested in finishing it, but didn't know how.  When she picked it up, I had the binding stitched to the front and partially hand sewn.  I showed her how to blind stitch the binding so she could finish.  She just cried and cried.  It really meant a lot to her.
 
I've never heard that new thread will hurt the quilt top, nor have I heard any complaints or problems with the quilt once they were quilted.  If the fabric is fragile and it hasn't been stored properly, I think even trying to hand quilt would do some damage.  If the fabric's still good, I don't think it hurts them.  I think they'll last longer quilted and stabilized than not.  I've quilted some that are in such good shape it would be a shame not to see them, machine quilted or not!