Timing off?

[JeriGirl]

How can you tell if your timing is off? I am quilting with a flannel sheet on the back. My tension will look great for awhile then all of a sudden, the bobbin thread is just laying there and the top thread is showing underneath. I tighten the top tension and all is well for awhile then it goes crazy again. Does this mean my timing is off?

Thanks for any help you all can give me...........newbie here!

[matildanme]

Hello Shirley,

I\'m no expert but I don\'t think thats a timing issue. If your timing was out it your stitching would be consistantly bad. I usually rethread the machine and make sure that all is where its meant to be. If all ok there then you could try to loosen the bobbin tension a little so that the top thread can pull it up. Also make sure that your bobbins are wound up nice, tight and even. I feed the thread through my fingers while filling bobbins. Make sure that theres no fluff in your bobbin area.

Hope that helps

cheers

[JeriGirl]

Thanks so much for the information. I will try your suggestions. I am using a new prewound bobbin I got ( have never used this kind before ) so maybe that is part of the problem. Half way through the quilt so can not change bobbins now but will loosen the bobbin tension and see if that helps.

[TracyeQ]

Shirley you can rewind your prewound onto a real bobbin and see if that doesn\'t help. I think prewounds can act goofy sometimes.

[Mary Beth]

Could the weave of the flannel sheet have anything to do with it?

I use prewounds all the time - no problem, I love \'em!!

But sheets can be a problem because of the tight weave. I think that is where I would start.

[TracyeQ]

Too funny, Mary Beth, I blame the prewounds cuz I use sheets all the time!

The reason I\'d suspect the bobbin instead of the sheet is that when the weave is too tight it railroad tracks ALL the time, or at least pretty consistantly. From what she describes it\'s fine for a while then all of the sudden RR tracks. That makes it sound like something screwy is going on in the bobbin to me.

Do you take the cardboard off one side when using a prewound? If so which side? The one going in or staying out?

I\'ve only used a prewound once and that was the one that came w/my old machine over 4 yrs ago so I don\'t have any tips, but I\'ve heard some of you who use them a lot have some things you do. Maybe you could tell her how you run them and make sure she\'s tried it that way.

[Mary Beth]

I don\'t remove the cardboard at all. I do have a Towa Bobbin Gage and use is all the time. I would have prewounds in every color if I could. I love them. I hear of people having trouble, guess I\'m just lucky.

[JeriGirl]

Pic of sheet disaster.

[JeriGirl]

Guess I do not know how to send a pic. I finished the quilt and part of my problem might be that I was using a flannel sheet and it stretched pretty bad so I may have had the backing to tight as the gal only gave me about 4 inches top and bottom to work with and I was afraid I would end up short. I have used prewounds before and gotten along great with them. I was using the cardboard sided this time and took off the cardboard side that went into the bobbin and left the other side on.

The sheet frayed really bad and I had to stop several times and get the string out of the wheels. The whole thing was a bad experience.......but I am sure learning what NOT to do.

Thanks gals..........I will try to post another picture

[Mary Beth]

Shirley,

Sorry you had such a terrible time. That can be so frustrating. I don\'t know why it is one thing works for one person and not for another. I thought, in the beginning when I bought my machine, it was kind of a dumb thing to name them....but the longer I know her, the more personality she has. Maybe names are good...probably not the names you want to say right now...but in general

[TracyeQ]

Mary Beth,

So you DON"T take any cardboard off the prewounds right? What Towa tension do you run w/them and is it a different tension than you run with metal bobbins?

My machine likes between 9-11 old Towa, 90-110 mine (newer one) and I was able to switch from aluminum to metal by adjusting it to that reading. I want to try my prewounds but was leary after hearing everyone\'s problems.

[ffq-lar]

Tracye,

I love pre-wounds and after placing them correctly in the bobbin I tear off the outside cardboard. It is all personal preference and what you find will work on your machine.

I set my bobbins at 17 or so on the Towa gauge. Again, it\'s all about how loose you run your top tension--it is a tug-of-war between the threads and if you run the top thread loose, the bobbin should match.

I know you can take both sides off the bobbin, but my backlash spring would tear up the side on occasion, so now I leave it on.

I think originally someone thought of tearing off the cardboard sides so the pre-wounds could be used on DSMs. My Viking uses plastic drop-in bobbins and will use a pre-wound nicely in a pinch.

[TracyeQ]

Thank you Linda!

I had no clue you could run them in a DSM! That\'s cool, I have a viking too and the bobbin winder quit once and I was totally down because nothing else I had would wind the bobbins. If I\'d only known I could have used a prewound!

Okay, I\'m going to remember this. Tear off the cardboard AFTER it\'s in and set it to the usual tension.

Thanks again. I\'ll have to break out the ones I have and play.

[roberta]

Wow, it never ceases to amaze me the new and interesting things that I can learn from this forum. You quilters rock! It never occured to me to use a sheet. Now that is an interesting idea.

I am brand new to long arm quilting and have a lot to learn that is for sure. I just got my Lenni and it came with a few pre-wound bobbins and a little plastic portable bobbin winder. I have a stand alone bobbin winder on order. Because I don\'t think this particular bobbin winder was meant for the large cones a long arm machine most often uses, I have been using the pre-wound bobbins for my practice and have had no problems with them, well except for them running out when I wasn\'t paying attention, ha ha.

Can someone tell me what a Towa bobbin guage is? I am very curious. It sounds like something I should have.

TIA

[Mary Beth]

I do leave the cardboard on the bobbins. Use them just as they are and I set my Towa gauge at the same as Linda, about 17ish. I just don\'t have problems. I have never taken the cardboard off because this works for me and I\'m not going to fix what ain\'t broke!!

Here is a link to show you the gauge.

http://www.kmquiltingsupply.com/Parts/TensionGauge.asp

[roberta]

Thanks Mary Beth. That looks like a handy little tool to have

[RitaR]

I can use prewounds with no problems or changes, as they come, in the Penny and in the Viking Designer 1USB.. the towa shows about 200.

RitaR

[TracyeQ]

Roberta the thing to remember w/sheets is that they are tightly woven and you will sometimes have railroad tracks on the back. I wash mine to soften them up first. I\'m also very bad and use the ones w/poly in them and those have more problems than those that are 100% cotton.

Mary Beth I\'ll try the prewounds and see what happens. What\'s funny to me is how loose my machine likes the tension. If I tighten it up then my top thread breaks. I do use the "fussy" threads, Glitter, Rainbows and such pretty much exclusively, but only have problems w/them when I get things too tight. Maybe it\'s a Freedom thing. It seems like Barb in Hawaii\'s Freedom was liking things looser in the bobbin too.

[belquilt]

Interesting topic and here is my 2 cents.

I think these machines all have a personality of their own. My Liberty loves prewounds, Rainbow and King Tut thread, towa guage is 18 to 20. I have never tried a sheet and have heard some people love them and some will never use them again, as you have all said. I have met another Liberty owner who hates prewounds and only winds her own bobbins - metal not aluminum. These machines have a mind of their own I think!!!!

Tracye - try prewounds, you might like them I have a separate bobbin case for poly prewounds and cotton prewounds.

Here\'s my challenge - using So FIne thread in both bobbin and top thread - takes me forever to get the tension correct and that\'s from different colors. Once I do get it - its smooth sailing. Go figure!!!

The most important thing is we are having fun!:cool:

[Mary Beth]

Beth, there are some days when that becomes a mantra..."I am having fun!! I am having fun!!" Some times you just have to convince yourself. Sometimes you just have to wale away and go have some chocolate. When you come back it is all new and you can start all over.

It took me a little while to get use to what made my machine tick. Once I figured out how to adjust my tension, and I knew I could crank around on the tension knob, things are pretty smooth. Growing up I was threatened within an inch of my life if I touched the tension knob on our DSM, these machines are quite different.

[countrystitcher]

I also think the little plastic bobbin winder is not meant for our machines. I finally got one bobbin wound and my machine didn\'t seem to like it at all. Maybe it didn\'t get wound tight enough. I put on a bobbin wound from my old stand-alone and it worked fine. Go figure!

This weekend I had trouble with skipping stitches on top using So-Fine thread ( I usually use Signature Cotton). After some frustrating hours, and adjustments, it finally settled down. My Discovery never liked So-Fine, maybe it was just me. Yes, I think each machine must have it\'s own personality. I haven\'t named this machine yet, working with her to get to know her first.

Sharon

[zeke]

Here is another idea to mull over. Take a look at you top tensioner. Sometimes lint will get between the disc\'s. Pull you thread out of the tensioner and gently pull the disc\'s apart with you forefinger and thumb. If there is lint than just give it a little blow. If that doesn\'t do the trick than your going to have to take it apart and really clean it. Other times gunk just starts building up in there for no reason. Give it a look.................zeke......

[TinaCollins]

Having the backing leader tension too tight can cause trouble, especially when using a high thread count fabric. Both of these can cause excessive deflection of the needle.

Here\'s one way to see if your hook timing is almost right... but still not there yet. Quilt circles in a row without stopping in between them. If your tension is "not quite there yet", you will see problems such as railroading, skipped stitches, etc in the same place in the circles. Depending on where the "bad place is", you can tell if you need to advance or slow the hook.

Zeke brings up a really good place to check for debris. Also, don\'t forget to swipe a business card under the tension clasp of the bobbin case too when you have ocassional tension woes. It seems I always have a little bit of junk under the bobbin tension clasp whenever I start to see the sudden dreaded railroad tracks on the bottom... so I make sure to clean this every time I change bobbins since it only takes a second or two- Hope this helps!

[jacksong]

I just purchased the stand alone bobbin winder at APQS when I went there for the maintenance class just this month. Oh MY Gosh. I love it. I run out of thread, take a tiny break to wind another and go right back to quilting. It winds the thread on just right and so fast. Wish I had it when I was doing a custom quilt recently. I don\'t quilt as a job, just for me and my sister mostly, so purchasing the pre-wounds isn\'t in the budget. Check with APQS on the $$$$ for the winder. I believe it just went up though.

[John Mitchell]

$325 now.

John