Ohio LongArm Quilters
Tips and Techniques
Click here for more tips
A tip from member Linda Cline
Use pant hangers as clamps
You can remove the clamp from the velcro strip and attach
the pant hanger or just clamp on to the hanger.  Then
attach the hanger to the edge of your quilt layers - it 'grabs'
a larger area than just a single clamp and holds nicely.
(Thanks to Linda Cline for this tip.)
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Links to Clip Art for quilters:   
Quilting Clip Art
Dawn's Quilting Clip Art
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Click here for instructions on how to time a Gammill machine
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Dick Fuller's 44 Longarm Tips

Top Thread Breaking
1. Try different thread or put thread in the refrigerator for several hours.
2. Replace needle and ensure the scarf faces the throat of machine.
3. Check thread path. Re-thread the machine if necessary.
4. Sew 8 to 12 itches per inch.
5. Use larger needle to reduce needle deflection.
6. Loosen fabric roller.
7. Adjust Needle Bar so all of the Needle Eye can be seen while looking into the Hook Basket with the Bobbin Case removed.
8. Time: Turn machine forward with Hand Wheel and place the POINT of the Sewing Hook in the middle of the scarf of the Needle
as       it rises 3/32", less than 1/8" or the thickness of 8 business cards, from the lowest position. The Hook should almost touch
the            Needle. To check: turn the Needle with the scarf facing you and it should juuust miss. Don't forget to turn the Needle back
to sew.
9. Polish Hook Point with fine (800) Emery Cloth.
10. Hopping Foot at the lowest point of it's stroke should be the thickness of one dime or three business cards.
11. Loosen top tension.
12. Tension Check Spring broken. It should be at 11 o'clock.
13. Turn thread cone/spool upside down.
14. Turn the Needle Slightly to the right.

Loops on Under Side Of Lining Fabric
1. Moving machine too fast for selected needle speed.
2. Tighten (to the right) top thread tension adjustment 1/2 turn at a time until corrected.
3. Clean under the Tension Spring on the Bobbin Case.
4. Bobbin thread not in tension spring delivery eye.
5. Put a sock on the thread cone.
6. Check thread path on machine
7. The stationry finger that holds the Hook Assembly and prevnts it from turning should be 1/2 to 2/3 into the depth of the notch.

Loose Thread Tension On Top Fabric
1. Tighten Tension Adjustment (turn clockwise).
2. Loosen Bobbin tension.
3. Center the thread cone directly under the guide.

Machine Hard To Move
1. Raise Take Up Roller to clear the machine lower arm by 1/2" to 3/4" or the width of your finger.
2. Thread clogging wheels
3. Center wheels on the track groove by adding or removing washers.
4. Increase Hopping Foot height

Skipped Stitches
1. Replace Needle, insert all the way up with the scarf toward the throat of the machine.
2. Re-time (See #8 Top Thread Breaking).
3. Take-Up Roller too high.
4. Loosen Fabric Roller
5. Poish Hook Point with fine (800) Emery Cloth.
6. Thread not on Take-Up Spring
7. Check thread path on machine.
8. Hopping Foot too high.
9. Tension Check-Spring at 11 o'clock with moderate resistance.

Needle Breaking
1. Replace Needle and tighten Needle Set Screw.
2. Use larger needle.
3. Moving machine too fast for speed setting.
4. Re-time (See #8 Top Thread Breaking).
Timing: Adjust the needle Bar height first. While in the lowest point of the stroke, look at the sewing hook, and the entire needle eye
should be visible. None of the needle above the eye should be seen. Ensure the Needle Bar does not rotate from its original
position.
A Proper stitch has both the bottom and top threads meeting at the center of the layers. The top thread and take-up lever have much
greater affect on tension adjustment than the bobbin tension. The take-up lever takes the slack out of the top thread as the needle
comes up out of the fabric.  Thread can become wrapped around the encoder wheel, causing the stitch regulation mode to
malfunction. Grasp the thread-end with tweezers and move the machine to unravel the thread.
Regards, Dick Fuller..Georgia...UglyRanger@Earthlink.net
(printed with permission from Dick Fuller)
A tip from member Sue Smucker
If you have a sewing machine with a knee lift - try pulling it out and turning it so the part that is usually pointing
down - is now pointing up - and partially insert it back into the hole - now wind up that long binding around your
hand and use this to hang it on when you are sewing it down to the quilt top - it works GREAT!  I used to just let
it lay out on the floor but it kept getting tangled up - this saves a lot of time and rolls of neatly.
A tip from member Shirley Stutz
I am under the gun to finish a quilt to have it photographed by next Monday.  Some of the thread beginnings
and endings I want to knot and bury.  Martha Creasy gave me a needle for this purpose which worked
really well.  Oh, my, I lost that needle.  Recently I had purchased a package of self threading needles.  These
are the kind which are supposed to have a slit in the top of needle, and you are supposed to be able to slip
the thread right down through the top.  Tried this.  Wouldn't work.  The thread just shredded.  Got a new
needle out of package.  Wouldn't work, either.  I could see there was supposed to be a slit there, but I could
get nothing through.  So I went for my trusty tool, the nail file.  With this, I pried the two sides of the slit apart far
enough to accept a piece of thread.  Presto!!  It works.  With mature vision, this is such a help.  Also if one of
the threads managed to be much shorter, you can thread them one at a time in a split second.  So...the tip is..
pry open the slit in self threading needles to be able to thread from the top.
Click here for more tips