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That old leather thang

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  • That old leather thang

    Hi all

    Happy New Year!

    I'm having a play with leather. I generally don't do the normal stuff - polos, caps, etc. I do other personalised stuff. What I'm trying to do is embroider little personalised patches of leather to make greetings cards that can then be framed. So, a name and a little motif that's personal to the person receiving the card.

    What I'm aiming for is to be able to do this on patches of leather that are about 4cm x 4cm. The leather varies in thickness depending on the colour from around 0.8mm to 1.5mm.

    On a 10cm x 10cm piece, it goes pretty well. On DS Lite, I've done some tests. I'm using the musical symbols font and the 'l' (l for lima) which gives a treble clef and a muscial stave winding into the background. Then a name about 2cm high. I've set the column feed down from 40 to 30, the run/fill feed from 100 to 108 and the lower thread feed limit to 5. I didn't change the pull comp or density.

    I ran a test out and had one thread break.

    It's when I start to go small enough to get this on a 4cm x 4cm square that I hit problems.

    I get loads of thread breaks where the thread just shreds. The other 2 problems are that on the satin stitches for the lettering the stitches aren't tight against the leather. Most are quite loopy. Then on the longer stitches on the musical stave, where it's sort of drawing lines, I'll get several stitches where it's like the bobbin gets dropped. So you get 10 penetrations of the needle but 1 big long stitch.

    I've tried running the machine at 600spm and 1000spm. I think it actually runs better at 1000spm.

    So, are there any tips for what I'm trying to do? I've searched on here, searched the net, and watched a few videos. If I could start with knowing some key settings for 6mm text, for example.

    I read about the column feed, etc, on a post on here. The trouble is, I don't understand the mechanics of what I'm changing so I don't know if I've gone too far or need to go further. I think the suggestion was "as low as 20 for column feed and as high as 116 for the run/fill feed".

    Any help would be gratefully received!

    Cheers
    Andy

  • #2
    Andy...when you start reducing/scaling down the size of the lettering and it is satin stitch then pull comp becomes very important. Underlay can cause problems also...I could write a book on just the problems of "narrow column width".

    In a nut shell when a stitch is generated and the needle is at the bottom of its travel and it starts to rise, a loop is formed on the backside of the needle for the rotary hook to penetrate and pick up. As the column gets narrower or a stitch gets shorter, then the "loop" becomes smaller maybe even to the point that the rotary hook can't pick it up at all. This then would do what you described....."quote.....I get loads of thread breaks where the thread just shreds. The other 2 problems are that on the satin stitches for the lettering the stitches aren't tight against the leather. Most are quite loopy. Then on the longer stitches on the musical stave, where it's sort of drawing lines, I'll get several stitches where it's like the bobbin gets dropped. So you get 10 penetrations of the needle but 1 big long stitch.

    The hook timing is critical to narrow columns and short stitches both in the left and right setting AND the needle guard gap of the distance between the rotary hook face and the back side of the needle. If the gap is too large and the generated loop of thread is too small....well...missed stitch...

    Your issues sound like this very thing...narrow columns and short stitches from scaling things down...among other things....

    Rod Springer
    Amaya Tech & Trainer
    Certified tech & trainer<br />208-898-4117

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    • #3
      Thanks, Rod. Now you've explained the bit about the way a stitch is generated, I can see it in my head and it makes perfect sense.

      Before I got my machine, a guy told me they use these at Rolls Royce to do the embroidery on the leather headrests. I'm guessing they probably have someone to calibrate the rotary hook timing and everything to the tiniest margin. When I did the hook timing, I sort of squinted at the machine from the front and side to get it looking about right. That's probably fine for big stuff.

      Back to the manual for me to go through it again. I might nip down the road and get a feeler gauge before I start that one.

      Regards
      Andy

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      • #4
        You don't need a feeler gauge. As far as the gap between the face of the rotary hook and the backside of the needle, the best way I can describe it is, "touching but not touching" and that is "close". BUT...be using the "closest needle designation" when you set hook timing. The left and right position is to have the point of the rotary hook just peeking out from behind the "left" side of the needle.

        By the way what machine do you have? Amaya, XT, XTS, Bravo??

        Rod
        Certified tech & trainer<br />208-898-4117

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        • #5
          Ah. That's interesting. I went through the process in the manual to set up the rotary hook timing. I've got an Amaya XTS. It's this process I went through:



          I have a feeling that I set it so you could just see a gap between the point of the rotary hook and the needle rather than taking it just past so that you can see the point of the hook on the left of the needle. There's probably not much in it but I can now see why it would get worse on smaller lettering.

          I'm off back out there tomorrow afternoon as I've got some more leather offcuts to play with so I'll have another look at that.

          Cheers Rod!

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