Needle Alignment

[Guest]

Here’s a question ... on my machine, needles 1 thru 9 aim dead center to the needle hole. However, needles 10 thru 16 are to the right of center. Sews fine. Maybe it was always like this and I never noticed before? Any thoughts?

GF

[Ted II]

Is this an XT?

[GF]

Yes, it is an Amaya XT (black cover).

[Rod or Sharon]

This has to do with the calibration of the needlecase. XT's are calibrated differently than the Big Reds. XT's, with the help of an encoder on the color change motor, will store the exact position of each individual needle. Big Reds do not have the encoder and therefore, calibration is done on needle #9 and by "playing the slice" manually, hopefully all the others will fall into an aceptable range. If not the needlecase will be rejected and rebuilt.

On the XT's, calibration starts on needle #1 and when it is perfect, the needleplate is placed back on the machine, centering the needle dead center in the needleplate hole, and the other 15 needles are then manipulated by the use of the machine keypad and the computer program to line each one of the remaining 15 needles up to be dead center of the needleplate hole individually. The computer than stores these settings.

Many varibles come into play from here on...,bottom line is, the needlecase can get out of calibration and need to be reset. If it gets out far enough, the machine won't sew worth a hoot, if at all. The needle may be hitting the side of the needleplate hole, causing needlebreaks, threadbreaks, dulled needles, etc....this is why, in training on the XT's, we were told to always replace the needleplate at the # 1 needle position and on the Big Reds to always replace the needleplate at the # 9 position and dead center the needle in the hole....

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[GF]

Thanks Rod. What is the procedure for calibration?

[Ballyhoo]

So, on the big red, when I change the needle plate for caps and back again, I should always go to needle 9 to line up the needle plate? Who knew????

David Sklar
Ballyhoo!
Arlington, VA

[Rod or Sharon]

GF,

The procedure is too detailed for me to type it all out...for those that have their Parts and Tech CD, it is described in the Tech side of it.

Care must be taken to follow the instructions explicitly and be "very" accurate in trying to achieve the final result. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, this should be left to a certified tech as it is just one part of several timing functions that need to be checked and/or adjusted at the same time.

David,

As one of the older Amaya Techs now, I was fortunate to get in pretty much when the first Amayas went on the market. This has allowed me to keep in tune with it's evolution and know and recognize the problems with the different series machines.... lots to know and remember...

Rod Springer
Amaya tech & Trainer

[GF]

Is there a list of certified techs in the Annapolis MD area? I don't need one immediately, but I would be interested in starting to do the research. GF

[Mr. Sew & Sew]

Reach out to Hugo Torbidoni. He's probably the closest to you and is an OUTSTANDING tech. He's around Harper's Ferry and he traveled to me in central NJ. My machines are absolutely humming since he came by two months ago.

[Mama Kass]

Like Rod and Sharon Springer, he's also very generous with assistance on this site and will walk you through things over the phone. These people are great techs.