Do you quilt with glasses while quilting, my needle shattered

[Gator]

I have worked in an industrial environment most of my life (military).  Safety was always the way of life.  I always had safety glasses on but now I wear glasses because of age.  I was doing a quilt over the weekend and all of a sudden my IQ said obstruction and stopped, grrrr but no problem.  I was using minkee as my backing and the top had some thick seams.  I have always used my bobbin thread cutter (had Millie's since 2007).  Ok, to make a short story long, I thought I cleared everything and cleaned the wheels and table?   I hit the start button and "BANG, BANG, BANG" the needle shattered, right,  it didn't just break it shattered, pieces went everywhere!  I'm only 5ft tall so a piece hit me in the face.  Now you get my question, my reading glasses probably kept the piece from going into my eye.  I was using a 4.0 machine needle, glad it wasn't titanium.  When you think about using rulers, needles, etc with a fast moving machine, maybe we should take a minute to think about eye safety (fingers too).   After settling my nerves and cleaning my pants, here's the good part:  I have both eyes.  The quilt wasn't ripped or damaged.  I found 5 pieces of the needle including the eye (with thread in it), which looked like I got all of it.  I blew out the bobbin housing and made sure I still had a hook.  I changed the needle and proceeded with the quilt, guess what!!!!   I love my APQS machine, the stitches were beautiful, whew no retiming required.  The only thing that may have caused the needle to shatter, was my bobbin thread cutter knife gets stuck every now and then and maybe the needle hit it?  I can't think of anything else that could have happened without destroying the hook?  Any other ideas?  I've been quilting since 2007 and never had a needle shatter, break yes but shatter no.

[dbams]

Connie, so glad you are OK!  Sorry I don't have any idea what could have caused your needle to shatter, but I can certainly see your point about eye protection.  I have worn glasses for 50 years, and am sure they have kept gunk out of my eyes during that time, but never like your experience.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else has had this issue, or has an idea about what may have caused the problem. 

Stay safe!!

[quiltmonkey]

Whoa! Scary near miss! glad you are OK, Connie.

[Cagey]

Connie;

I am glad to hear that you were not injured.  That being said, you can never be too safe, so you could wear safety goggles.  Though searching OSHA, I could not find any reported eye injuries.  I did find this; http://onguardsafetytraining.com/login/v8_user/BLM_textiles_instruction/Industrial_Sewing_Machine_Instruction.pdf , but it does not suggest using safety glasses. Many posts made is seem that eyestrain would be the more likely injury.  

Good food for thought though.  You should reach out to your old unit or base, and contact the parachute shop and see if they use safety goggles when making repairs/sewing.

Cagey

[FloridaMissy]

Connie, so glad you were not injured but I'm sure that it made you nervous.  I have a great respect for my machine (fear) that it will attack me one day! lol 

I have had numerous needles break when quilting a top that has lots of thick seams.  It causes flex in the needle I guess and snap.  Sometimes in multiple places.  I have noticed that many of my hand needles are snapping at the eye very easily lately.

 

[Gail O]

Maybe your needle got slightly bent in the first obstruction incident, and hit the needle plate instead of the hole when you restarted.  As annoying as glasses can be (can they never stay clean????), they do have some benefits.  Glad you and your Millie have all parts in working order.

[Gator]

All good comments.   I was just glad that I had my reading glasses on.  I'm sure it was probably needle flex.  I was doing a quilt with hexagons, lots of "y" seams, batting and minkee.  IQ stopped for an obstruction which was probably the needle flexing/bending holding onto the fabric.  I first thought it may have hit the bobbin thread cutter which sometimes sticks on me, but I would have noticed it by sound.  I am aware that it sticks sometimes,  heck it's 8 years old, in my hast to check a problem with my IQ tablet, I didn't check it too.    I have 3 domestic machines, 2 10-needle embroidery machines and a serger, in other words lots and lots of needles with breaks over the years.  I think most only broke into two pieces, this was the first one that shattered.  I am so proud of my girl (Millie), she was born in 2008 and is running smooth, that needle breaking had to hurt.  APQS quality is superb.   I don't want to scare anyone, because needle breaks are  part of our world, just be careful.  For our "newbies" yep us "oldies" still gets the stuffing scared out of us when it happens because it totally catches you off guard and sounds a lot worse then it is.

[Robin]

Connie,

Thanks for posting this.  You always have great information for us.  So glad you and Millie are okay!

 

[LibbyG]

Connie, glad to hear you're still able to see.  I wear glasses all the time because I don't like contacts.  But I never thought of it as a safety issue.  Now I'm feeling lucky.

[Quilta93]

Thanks for posting. I need to wear my reading glasses while quilting. I guess this is a time I'm glad I need them. 

Deb.