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Wheel Adjustments


mrsbishwit

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I have a question I want to throw out here for anyone that can answer it.

Since I have been spending more time at the front of my machine vs the back working on pantos I have noticed that my wheels seem a bit stiff (simiular to a car when the power steering is going out on it). My table is perfectly level, checked in several spots as have been mentioned in previous posts before, no thread wrapped around the wheels or anything either and the rails are grease free :)

I don't notice the stiffness too much when I am doing pantos because I have one hand on the take up roller and the other on the handle creating leverage so it is easier to move. But when I am doing customs at the front of the machine one hand is usually on a ruler and the other is on the handle of the machine or both hands are on the handles, so no additional leverage and it feels like the power stering is going out causing more fatigue when quilting.

So my question is how easy is it to adjust the wheels and which set should be adjusted first the ones on the carriage or the ones that attatch to the table? Also how loose should they be? What should or can you compare it to?

I think my McTavishing will improve alot once I take care of this wheel thing, because I can draw a mean McTavish but when it comes to stitching it out, my machine's movements are restricted do to the stiffness of the wheels and my stitching is not as good as my drawings.

Any help on this would be very appreciated...planning on getting this worked out this weekend after the quilt I am working on is removed.

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Hi Joann,

I posted a similar question some time ago, but got very little response. The wheels are very easy to adjust. Just follow the instructions in your manual. I have adjusted and readjusted adnauseum! I seem to like mine a bit looser. It seems to make the machine easier to manuver. I don't know if they are "right", but if I make them any looser I'm afraid they'll drop right off the rail! Everyone says PPP which I have been doing. My circles are getting rounder but I have a long way to go! I prefer working from the front of the machine as I find pantos difficult to follow. I hope this helps. I set my wheels just like the manual said and then kept loosening until they felt right to me. Good luck with this. Let us know how it turns out! By the way, any tips on following those pantos would be appreciated!

Carol

APQS Liberty

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Joan asked what you could compare the feel to.

I can push the machine both front to back and sideways along the table bothways with gentle pressure using just two fingers and the machine should glide at least 5"s easily.

If your table is level is should move the same amount to the left and to the right and back to front.

Sue in Australia

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I have adjusted my wheels a few times per the instruction manual. Not hard. Like Carol, my circles are not quite round yet. I was blaming my Freedom but it sounds like it takes practice. I am told you should be able to turn the wheels easily, by hand, with the machine staying still. Mine sometimes seems to hang up a little on the left side of the table. I am not sure if it is my cord or the rails are a little wider there. Will have to check both. I just went from a New Joy mini frame to the Freedom a few months ago. I think I have to conquer the weight and inertia of the long arm. Is faster easier?

Don F \\_o

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Not sure if I can help but, this is what worked for me. A few months ago my machine was very very tight close to the front roller but further back it seemed fine (when standing at front of machine it was the closest to you that it wouldn't move!) I did everything I could think, leveling, adjusting the cams as per the book. Finally I said to my husband that my machine "schnalls" which is a low german term and he laughed and said he wondered what APQS would say if I phoned and told them that! So he got out his tools, wrenches that fit both the top of the cam and the bottom nut, told me to just move the machine and he adjusted until I loved how it feels. Amidst all of this I kept saying that this wasn't how the book said to do it to which he said," Just move the machine head around, this is just like adjusting the canvases on a swather!" You wouldn't believe how it glides, at least 5" either way very easily. My cams are about at 11 oclock but remember he also had a wrench on the bottom holding the nut in place so the adjusting was a bit easier. So, maybe if you both work at it together you can get it just perfect. You should not have trouble making perfectly round circles even if you are a brand new machine user. APQS machines should just glide, if you consistantly have trouble getting squared corners where you wanted a curve something has to be adjusted. Honestly, I make any size circle I want, or any curve I want easily (now if I had just a bit more artisic ability I might be able to draw something that was recognizable!) with no squared corners unless I really mess up. Hope this helps a bit.

Let us know how you do. From your post I think that your cams are too tight.

Cher

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I'm another one who has adjusted and adjusted, and talked to Amy on the phone, and adjusted and . . . I've been doing this for 3 years! I just can't get the stiffness out! I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the sideways-wheels system.

I'm glad to know it isn't just me . . . but that doesn't help me quilt better!

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Hello Joann. If you could, when you get them adjusted could you post your wheel adjustment success on this thread? I'd love to hear the outcome of adjusting the wheels as I am getting the machine soon and I really want them "loose". That is how they have been adjusted in the classes I've taken and I really like the loosy goosy feel. Thanks so much! Renee

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I too thought that "the looser the better" was the way to go. Wrong!! After 2 years of having my wheels loose, almost to the point of fishtailing, my machine started to move very stiffly. I think it ruined my wheels, they stated to almost grind and grease was coming out of the bearings. After much discussion with Amy and John Mitchell, it was determined that I had my wheels too loose. Having them too loose is just as bad as having them too tight. I got new wheels from Amy and have them adjusted properly and the machine is gliding so beautifully again.

The way Amy explained it was : "you don't want the flat part of the wheel to be resting on the rail, that will cause drag. You need to have an air gap between the flat part of the wheel and the rail." Meaning the wheel needs to be touching the rail on the curved part, kind of off-center. I know this sounds kind of funny and I hope it makes sense. It really did work for me. I love how my machine is moving now.:)

Patty

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Originally posted by Katydids

The way Amy explained it was : "you don't want the flat part of the wheel to be resting on the rail, that will cause drag. You need to have an air gap between the flat part of the wheel and the rail." Meaning the wheel needs to be touching the rail on the curved part, kind of off-center.

Patty

Would it be possible to post a picture showing this?

Patti

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OK, now I'm concerned I've made my wheels too loose! I set the wheels on the carriage to the 9:00 position as directed in the manual. It felt tight so I loosened until it felt good to me. They are now between 7:00 and 8:00. The sewing head wheels are set at about 4:00. Since the concave portion of the wheels does not contact the rail it seems to me there will always be a bit of "play" in the carriage. John maybe you can help me out here. I don't mean to beat a dead horse or make a mountain out of a mole hill. Just trying to take the best possible care of my investment! Many thanks.

Carol

APQS Liberty

ps Patti, there is a picture in the manual on page 25.

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Oh Yea, Joy!!!! :P:D

That is exactly what I was talking about. I don't know if my explanation made any sense, but that picture tells it all.

I didn't mean to scare anyone with my post, but that is what happened to me.

Thank you for putting up the photo. I didn't have time to go take one to share.

Patty

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Thank you Patty and Joy!

Patty, I wasn't really "getting" what you meant by the flat part of the wheel not resting on the rail. Once Joy posted the photo it all clicked!. I went and adjusted my wheels again. (They were too loose!). OMG, OMG, OMG, this machine moves beautifully now! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I am jumping for joy!

Carol

APQS Liberty

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Hi Joy

Thanks for posting that. I adjusted mine when Amy sent it to me yesterday and I can't believe the difference. I thought my wheels were set the best they could possibly be before but now the machine glides all the way along the table.

Thanks Amy for sending us those clear pictures. I found I had to have my head resting against the rail so my eye was in a straight line with the rail to get the best "fit".

Best wishes

Sue in Australia

Sue in Australia

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Hey everyone,

One more thing to look at is if your wheels came on your machine in the right spot!!!! I have had my Millennium for over a year now, and have recently tried to put on a Hartley Fence and realized that at the APQS factory they put the front wheels on the wrong spot!!! They have been mounted where the HF is supposed to go and now I get to drill two holes in the machine and move the wheels forward myself. Needless to say I am anything but happy about this especially when APQS was just like, "Yep we put them in wrong place--too bad, so sad--fix it yourself." So, anyway, it really will make a difference in the stablity of your machine head--who knows how badly it has messed up my wheels and if I really ever got the "soft-mount" wheel upgrade that it was suppose to come with!!! Must say, it makes me question a lot when the wheels get mounted incorrectly!!!

luv2kwilt

APQS MILLENNIUM

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Hi Luv2Kwilt,

Do you have a Green Milli? If so, the production staff forgot to drill out the holes to move those axles forward. All of the new machines now come that way, but the Greens are a refurbished U-I made into the Milli and the older machines didn't have the wheels in that position. I'm sure it was just an oversight by production. But it is really easy to do as we have had customers do that to their old machines for a better glide. You will get along fine! :)

Take care,

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OK, so I re-adjusted my wheels today. I didn't pay any attention to where the screw was (other that to make sure each pair of screws was in the same place) but I did pay attention to where the wheels "sat" on the rails. I now have them set so they look like the wheels in the previous posted picture.

The machine now moves a bit stiffer than it previously did but this may be a good thing?

My next quilt is loaded and it will need lots of SID. I'm also using some elements from Karen's Secret of Elemental Quilting book. I'll see how the new wheel adjustments work!

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Thanks Joy for posting that picture which clearly shows how the wheels should rest.

Here's an update on my wheel adjustment situation...last night I had my DH adjust the wheels (couldn't wait until today because I really needed to finish the custom on my machine the one that has been on my machine all week, I had everything done on it except to add some stippling around the feather border. I was having trouble moving the machine around in such tight spaces that I said that's it and made him adjust them right then. It helped enough for me to finish the quilt (just have to trim it up and take some pics but will be posting them later tonight).

But today after comparing my wheels to the pic that Joy posted I realize that my wheels still didn't have the "air space" so I did some more adjusting myself. Now they look just like the pic. Can't wait to load another quilt Monday to see if this is finally what will make machine glide. I think it will because the machine already is gliding across the rails better than before.

Thanks everyone for your help! The picture is worth a 1,000 words of description :cool:

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