Problem with Stitch Regulator Cutting Out &...

[pfrost]

My Millie is acting really weird. On the quilt I did last week, the stitch regulator just cut out while quilting & the machine quit stitching. I was about mid-way done with the quilt, so I engaged the Command button on the right handle, depressed the blue button & she started up again. Was able to finish that quilt with no further problems.

Yesterday, however, she did the same thing. Was stitching along from the back on a practice piece and the stitch regulator cut out again. The machine also quit stitching again. I tried to engage the blue button on the right handle (the chirping sound continued, so there was no need to re-engage that function), no luck. The stitch regulator would not engage. Not only did the stitch regulator not engage, the machine wouldn't quit chirping until the power switch was turned off. On top of all of this, the spindle for the bobbin winder started spinning! It's like being in the twilight zone...weird things just start happening.

After reading through a lot of the stitch regulator problems on this chat forum, I thought (hoped, in fact) that the horizontal encoder wheel might be the problem in that it might not be tight enough into the carriage wheel. I could not find specific instructions on the chat forum for tightening this encoder wheel; therefore, the only thing I knew to do was to loosen the bolt holding that wheel onto the carriage & push the encoder wheel in to the space just a smidge. The encoder wheel seems to be in place as tight as it's going to go.

Today the machine started okay, but it wouldn't even make one pass across the practice piece without the stitch regulator cutting out, the machine stopped stitching & the bobbin winder spindle started spinning. Obviously, something is terribly wrong. I've only done about 30 quilts on this machine since taking posession in Oct. 2005, so this problem shouldn't be related to wear on the parts.

Has anyone else experienced these weird incidents? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, it's a call to APQS on Monday.

Thanks to anyone who has a clue as to what's going on with this Mille.

Pat

AZ:cool:

Mille

[DawnCavanaugh]

Pat,

Of course, you should probably call Amy or Christy on Monday to chat with them. But here's something to try in the meantime. Sometimes, a tiny filing or piece of plastic or lint can get caught between one of the buttons and the "connector" underneath a button. As the machine moves around, the little filing sometimes makes contact with the connector and, in essence, acts like you hitting one of the buttons to turn off the machine.

Try giving each of the mushroom handles a good blast of air (with the machine turned off) to see if you can dislodge any little speck that's causing trouble. Sometimes Amy advises removing the mushroom part of the handle to do this, but before you do that, chat with her on Monday. There may be another problem that she can diagnose better than I can.

Hang in there!

[themama]

What a great description.....my machine has started doing the same thing. My Millie is a year old. I will try the tips and cross my fingers that i can resolve it myself. Otherwise I will be calling Monday morning.