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Embroidery => General Embroidery => Topic started by: tancehughes on July 03, 2013, 11:54:13 AM
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Well we have our caps sewing but I keep breaking needles. I'm embroidered on a structured cap, using 80/12 titanium needles, with 1 piece of backing and in a few cases we've tried it with no backing. Obviously, my needle must be striking the needle plate right? Well I adjusted the plate forward since we believed that needle was closer to the front than the back, but no luck, still breaking. What else could be the cause of this?
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The needle is hitting the rotary hook not the plate. Easy to tell, you would see scratches on the plate where the needle hits. If the needle is hitting the side of the throat on the way down or up you might see bent needles. Almost always broken needles while running hats is caused from the needle hitting the hook. For flats and best quality the needle is very close to the hook but when running hats the needle flags and hits, its not worth readjusting needle/hook spacing just to run hats so you have to find the right balance of spacing the needle.
Now that you have hit and broke several needles there is a good chance you have scratches and such on the rotary best check it and smooth with some emory paper.
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You know, that crossed my mind. The hook can be too loose correct?
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All of the hooks seem to be the same "looseness" or whatever. Plus I haven't been having this issue on flats, only on caps.
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Our machine has a raised needle plate for caps.
That's all I got.
We only do two figures in embroidery.
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Go back to 75/11 needle see if it happens then, we use them all the time never sharp.
We run 2 swf single heads and a 4 head swf.
Shane
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Yeah we have the cap needle plates on, and have run 75/11 sharps and ballpoints, and now 80/12 titaniums.... all have broken. That's why I think it's a plate/hook/alignment issue. Hopefully not machine timing?
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Machines are always adjusted for best running on flats thats why you are not having issues on flats. If the needle/hook spacing is to great then when you run hats you will start missing stitches have bird nests etc. Like I said its a case of finding thew right spacing, on our Barudans we set it by eye and seems to always be right.
If you know how to adjust your hook correctly try spreading the gap a tiny bit then run some hats, if stitch quality starts to suffer you went to far.
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Tance, your needles might be to long, check them with your other needles, or your not putting them up in the holders far enough.
Darryl
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if on flats your machine runs ok
then to me seems like the needle/hook gap need to be increased a bit more, by that you need to adjust hook timing/gap.
needle deflection its the problem, very usual on hats.
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I haven't done embroidery in years, but another thought? Tried slowing the machine down a touch?
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Yeah I have slowed it down, ran around 500-600 spm. I think it must be the hook settings because on flats we're good. I just have to figure out how to adjust it correctly now.
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If you are hitting the hook with a 75 then going up to an 80 will only make the gap less and cause even more issues. Adjust your gap and you should be fine. 600 spm is and should be just fine.
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Don't take this this wrong way, but did you get any training? It might be a good idea to seek some out. It will pay for itself quickly.
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I did attend a class at GSG for some basics and had a tech come in to do maintenance and some teaching as well so yes we've had some but not a ton.
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im a little late to the party...
did this problem just start happening or are you new to the embroidery world? If new, you may want to check how you're hooping the hats...you could have too much slack in them...are you flattening the bills before hooping? Are your hoops so tight that the hat isnt going anywhere when you pick it up by the bill and shake it? your cap hooping jig thing is mounted securely...if its wobbly, that doesnt help.
i tried titaniums and they broke far more often than regular ones, so i quit those and went back to regular 80/12 sharps...
Is the break happening in a certain location of the hat? if you're sewing too low (about a finger width up from the bill) they will break....same if sewing too high (anywhere near the curvature of the top of the hat). youre more likely to break a needle on the center seam because it's so much thicker than the rest of the hat...hats with very thick buckram (the structured material) will sometimes break more often if the needle hits just right on the weave of that stuff.
ALWAYS USE BACKING, EVEN TWO PIECES SOMETIMES.
make sure youre pushing the needle all the way up there when you replace it, you need to have the concave part toward the back of the machine...if it is in wrong, guaranteed break also.
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Thanks for all the suggestions shelly, yes we are new to embroidery. I am going to make sure we try all of your suggestions. Also, I think maybe my needles weren't lined up exactly with the hole that it goes down in and I've adjusted that now so maybe that will help?