thread breaks, etc

[Debbie]

I have tried all that was suggested. Still the thread is coming un threaded from the needle or breaking. Doesn't matter which needle I use.

[HH5131]

I'm hoping someone comes up with something. I was on the phone with Melco all day today trying to figure it out. I'm having the same problem. I hear the click or "snap" and then the thread snaps and frays. I may check the needle plate since that's the only thing I haven't checked yet. It's not my needles and it's not my thread. Settings seem to be fine especially since it was sewing the same thing just fine yesterday.

[levelbest]

So, they gave up - can you tell us what they eliminated variable wise - might help the folks here offer some solutions?

Did you change anything between the two days setting wise (software) or machine wise?

[Rod or Sharon]

Did you try to sew the Ampass test design. Did you try to sew the Amtrim test design?

If you have the machine setting at default and the presser foot down where it should be, your needles properly oriented with NO burrs on them, your hook timing set correctly, your retaining support finger gapped properly, your bobbin tension set correctly, your test material hooped taut (three pieces of CUT-A-WAY backing works very well)....using poly thread....not rayon....no thread bound up in the threadfeed gears or elsewhere and the machine WELL lubricated....all this and more......the Amtrim and Ampass will tell you whether it is a design problem or a machine problem. If it will sew these but not other designs.....wel-l-l-l--then we need to start looking elsewhere.

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[levelbest]

Rod - did you breathe when you typed that - Good advice! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Rod or Sharon]

As a tech ya just learn how ta hold ya breath and mutter sometimes...

Rod

[GF]

Just a poke in the dark, but could it be the thread gear assembly has cracked? This was my answer when I experienced these same symptoms.

[Fabrications]

When I was having problems like that last summer, it was the thread gear assembly that cracked, just as GF mentioned. Once replaced by the tech, the machine worked like new again.

[GF]

If it is the thread gear assembly, it can be replaced yourself. You need to order the "tool" to remove the gear assembly, and a u-ring tool (which gave me the most difficulty because the u-rings on the XT's don't have little holes for the new type of u-ring tool to grab into). Tech Support can email you directions and walk you through the process. It's a good thing to learn because only three months later, my gear assembly cracked on my second XT and I was able to diagnose and change the assembly myself. Do any of the techs have some tips for that little u-ring? Getting it off wasn't the problem; getting it back in place was another story.

[HH5131]

I have a feeling what is giving me a hard time is the thread. I just bought a new color at a local store. It's a poly thread, and a 40wt. I don't know why it's giving me problems. It's called a "trilobal polyester". That is the only thing I can come up with, because today I can sew out the same item on 3 other colors and it turns out fine.
Hmm. It's a mystery.

[Judy]

If you got Coats and Clarks on a small spool, they are sometimes wound backwards, and not wound well. I got the best luck when I had to use one of those standing and holding it, upside down over the spindle, as it stitched.

[Rod or Sharon]

Debbie,

This is why it is so hard to diagnois issues like this...for the most part all the pertinent information is not provided....not chastizing here just stating the facts....

You said...."Still the thread is coming un threaded from the needle or breaking. Doesn't matter which needle I use." Now you are saying the machine sews fine on 3 other colors. Is this one trilobal color of thread. Is it the same cone of thread being swapped around on all 16 needles or 16 different trilobal cones of threads on each of the 16 needles that was giving you problems?? Are the 3 other colors rilobal thread or ARC or Isacord, RA, etc..........?

Most, if not all,of the embroidery problems are solved by a process of elimination. But nothing can be solved except by the "luck of the draw" if all the information is not known.

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[HH5131]

Rod, I see what you're saying. In my case, I was moving around this spool of thread to see if it was the thread. So far, I believe it's the thread somehow. I sewed out the same text I've been trying to sew with this new thread, but used my ArcPoly threads, and i haven't had the snapping of thread and clicking sounds, etc. I've even stood by the machine and held the little spool upside down just as the other poster said she did. That's the only way you can do it with this little spool, but I still had the snapping and clicking. So I have to guess that it's the thread for some reason. Still a mystery to me, but I'll blame it on the thread for now. I haven't completely taken things apart yet, so that's next to come if I continue to have this problem.

[signman]

I don't see if you said how many thousand stitches you were doing with this thread/color...but here's something to try-pull off about 15 feet of thread and throw it away-start again and see what happens. Once in awhile we get spools of thread we haven't used in eons, or 'test' spools we haven't tried before-and the first 'layer' of thread may be dry, contaminated, or coated in dust or something you can't see. Throwing away 15 feet gets you into 'clean' thread...and if it still does it and different thread on the same needle doesn't...you've narrowed it down to the spool of thread you are holding as the problem.

[Rod or Sharon]

HH,

The machine must create a loop of thread so that the rotary hook can go thru it and tie the bobbin thread onto it. This loop can be affected by the type of thread, the size of the cone, how tightly the thread is wound around the cone and how curled it comes off of the cone.

If the thread is coming off of this "small" tightly wound cone with a good curl to it, or it is coming off the spool backwards to the motion of thread coming off of a spool of ARC thread, for instance, then the loop that is created behind the needle for the rotary hoop to pick up may be curling to either the right or left depending on how you are holding it. Normally the thread has a tendency to curl to the right side of the needle and that is why we say turn the needle to the right 5 or 10 degrees. This will pull this loop of thread back more in line with the needle and give a larger presence or hole for the rotary hook to penetrate.

The snapping/popping sound you are probably hearing is the hook point impacting the thread smack dab in the center and either breaking it on contact or breaking some of the filaments which will fray first and then break..

To compound this little problem, the smaller the column or stitch the smaller this loop will be and because of that, hook timing becomes even more important in the scheme of things.

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer