Hat problems

[Curtus]

I have a lot of problems with hats....but only some of the time. ???? I get the usual thread breaks and a lot of false bobbin break alerts so any help with them would be appreciated but my biggest problem right now would be concentric circles or designs with outlines. It looks good on the screen but when it sews there always seems to be one area, somewhere in the design, that the object or outline cover the other. I've got the hat as tight as I can get it, and the acti-feed is set to standard & 8 thickness, 80-12 sharp needle, presser foot three click up from flat sewing, sew speed of 700-1000.... What else do I need to do? Another layer of backing? Faster? Slower? Pull compensation? Any help would be appreciated as I'm just taking shots in the dark right now.
Thanks, Curtus

[Rod or Sharon]

Curtus,

How old is your machine? Is it an XT? What software version are you running?

Why are you using standard acti-feed and not auto-actifeed? If you are using "standard acti-feed", disable the bobbin detection found under the "Settings" tab. If you have 7.00.xxxx software, are you using the "min auto lower limit" tool found under Settings,Thread feed? ( You must be in the auto acti-feed mode for this to be operational )

Are you doing your own digitizing? Are these stock designs? Have they been digitized just for cap sewing? i.e. to sew from bottom up and center out? Are you adjusting for minimum column widths?

Why are you running the presser foot at 3 clicks up? ( the rule of thumb is to have it all the way down and up two, but down more if needed).

What stlye(s) of cap are we talking about and which one gives you the most problems. How much and what kind of backing are you using on what styles of caps?

Why an 80/12....75/11 will sew lettering on caps much better. I have yet to need an 80/12 or bigger to sew any caps.

As you can see, lot more questions than answers, but maybe will give you some ideas to try........

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[Di]

Curtus,

I am by far no expert and I'm very new to the business. But I did just complete my first order of 144 hats. Mine were the 6 panel, low profile, brushed twill, unconstructed caps. After many mistakes, this is what worked for me (I have an XT):

Used 2 layers of tearaway (the slimmer roll made for hats). Make sure both layers of stabilizer goes past the bottom bars on the hoop.

Used 75/11 sharp needles.

Used Auto-actifeed.

Put presser foot all the way down then 2 clicks up.

Did not run machine any faster than 850.

I'm not saying this will work for you, but once I ran my machine this way, I hardly had any thread breaks and never had an alignment problem.

But definitely make sure the design was digitized for caps. The design should stitch from center out and bottom to top.

Good luck!