Metallic thread we use is ARCs brand (melco)
it works as good or better than many we have used.
we sew these thick insulated Saddle covers made out of
600 denier quilted Nylon and have a 30,000 stitch design
in gold metallic. we use 80/12's because of the bigger eye
and slow the speed way down to 450 but only because of the material thickness.
metallic is thick and brittle and it doesn't like tightly packed stitches.
but I always slow our metallics down to 750 or so. I have sewn them at a full 1200 but
not often.
Ron Vinyard
Body Cover Design
1-888-435-0176
Thread feed rollers are like eating, the more you use the needle the faster the thread grooves
the roller, we replace whit and black every couple of weeks, a lot of ours are grooved but
we only replace them when we are having problems with the sewing quality.
back to the eating analogy, everyone gets hungry at different times and situations
bottom line is when your hungry, Eat... so when you see the groove and the quality
deteriates then change them, thankfully Melco has decide not to charge a lot for them
so we always keep a few dozen on hand, and some of our old ones get a once over with
alcohol and or an eraser to make some emergency back-ups if we run out.
some have grooves and are shot, but some build up a gunk and glaze over and don't
function consistently, those are the ones that we can clean and get extra mileage out of.
I understand that melco understands the quick failure (for lack of a better word) and is always researching and trying to develop a longer lasting part, but has always viewed these items as a consumable and intend them to be replaced frequently as needed.
I'm sure others will chime in but this has been our experience.
Open questions I have that are bugging us... 1) many times I have part of a design, such as a Maltese Cross-with the 'outline' around it. Column is set for centerline underlayment, yet some parts of the outline will have the single centerline repeated! I have one design with a large circle, and it goes around it FOUR times to do the centerline. How do we stop this or control how many times an underlayment is done? 2) metallic thread-I want to get a 'chrome' or 'silver' bright thread to use in firedept. logos, like Maltese Cross-for the Ax and Pike heads. What needle size and how small a stitch is possible with metallic? Only thread I've tried is the varigated from Melco and it is lousy for any small stuff-and too 'stiff' to do a nice pattern fill. 3) Needle sizes...we have 75/11 sharp and ball-that's all we've been using. Found a box of 80/12 sharps, and have 65/9 in ball. What would we use these needles for-and are the 75/11 a good 'all purpose' needle or should we be changing to something different? 4) on the Amaya head, how often should the thread feeder rollers get changed? We've already replaced all of them once, have not used up more than 6 full cones of thread total....and wondering if they are not lasting as long as we think they should? Many times I'm getting the thread 'unraveling' before it breaks, and then it starts winding up on the feeder roller before it stops. Yes, I know-if the roller is worn replace it-but how long should they last? 5) tracking or head error...machine is 'stopping' in the middle of the design once in a while-usually we just push the green button and it continues. Sometimes we hear a 'thunk' and then get the tracking error-have to shut it down and restart and hope it starts in the same place. Was just changing the hoop arms-used the keypad to run the carriage all the way forward to get to the screws-and heard the 'thunk', got the tracking error, and no response to any of the keypad or program commands-had to shut down, move the carraige back, and start over. So, I'm ready to listen to comments and suggestions....thanks everyone! And the 'new' upgrade just came in-but we aren't loading it until we get all the current jobs done-so sometime next week I'll be looking for help installing the program. I am 'PC challenged'-haven't a clue how to even load or upgrade or delete programs. Roland
