Kaz Posted July 20, 2017 Report Share Posted July 20, 2017 I have recently purchased a second hand 2008 Millie called Maizie. When stitching out pantographs all curved lines appear squarish or boxy. The machine feels heavier in Stitch Regulator mode than it does in Manuel mode and almost drives itself off the path I'm trying to steer it to follow the laser. Any suggestions? I am a long way from dealers or repair men so I will have to perform any suggestions you may make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Beth Posted July 20, 2017 Report Share Posted July 20, 2017 Any dealer will be happy to help you over the phone, so do not hesitate to call someone if you are having problems. However, there are a lot of folks here that help too. Welcome to the APQS forum. Okay, do you know what wheels you have on your machine? Are they brown, black, white? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz Posted July 20, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2017 Wheels are black. I have cleaned rails and wheels between every quilt (newbie overload) but this has made little difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecmoore Posted July 20, 2017 Report Share Posted July 20, 2017 With mine, it turned out there was an issue with a pair of the offset bolts holding the wheel to the carriage - it was -far- tighter than it should ever have been, and I had to really really push to make it move. Because the machine was new to me, I didn't realize this was out of the ordinary at all. My dealer at the time (Carol at the Quilt Batt in southern ontario) was FANTASTIC and really helped me diagnose what was wrong! Edit: Do you have photos showing the pantograph and how it's stitching out, and maybe a video? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz Posted July 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2017 This is the current quilt I'm working on. It's frustrating me that I can't get the shapes I want from this machine in stitch regulator mode. It makes sense that it would have something to do with the wheels as some of the movements vary from being quite heavy and stiff to very easy in other directions giving a very wobbly result overall. Frustrating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted July 21, 2017 Report Share Posted July 21, 2017 You might need to have the wheels adjusted if the machine is super-sluggish. But take a deep breath and allow yourself to be bad until you practice enough to be good. The X/Y set up of wheels running horizontal and vertical means your machine LOVES to go horizontal and vertical. It's easy--just a push will move the head and it will stay on course until it stops, never veering off the line. Now diagonals? Not so pretty. You must overcome the natural tendency of the head to go h-and-v. This requires training your muscles. Boring...but necessary. It becomes automatic when you put in the hours. Your brains sends the message that "now we're going in a circle. That will mean a tiny nudge this way, another, another, another"---you'll have four spots in a circle where you will need to apply that little smidge of extra force/speed needed to make a nice curve. Practice (arghh) will do the trick. Make circles---just like learning cursive years ago. Practice big "O"s-- it may take 400---or 4000---but they will get better with every one you stitch. Do overalls of loops, making them as big and as round as you can. Another good practice is curvy stencils. Staying on the line will become ingrained. Good luck and you'll see improvement very quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz Posted July 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2017 Many thanks for this wonderful advice. I certainly do need to practice, practice, practice and I'm quite happy to do that. I would love to update rails to Bliss system but that is a tad expensive to import to Australia and then find someone to install it. Ahh...one day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecmoore Posted July 21, 2017 Report Share Posted July 21, 2017 Hi Kaz! Deja-vu - that was -exactly- what was happening with mine (especially the directionality - that let us narrow it down to the specific set of bolts that were "off") and it took me using someone else's machine to figure it out. I'd give APQS a call. They were able to FaceTime with me about another issue and they may be able to help you here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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