Thread Breaks and Humidity?????

[Mary]

Is it just my imagination or does humidity affect thread? I work out of my basement and starting noticing last summer that I get a ton of thread breaks during humid weather. I've had a hell week this week with a couple of projects and I admit the designs weren't that great. So, I tested out a design that I've done before without any trouble and just had a bunch of thread breaks.
Anyone else out there experiencing anything like this too? Or am I the only one?!!!

[signman]

Last I knew, humidity was good, dry air bad...because the thread dries and gets brittle.
We had more breaks in the winter because we use a ceiling mounted hot air system, and it blows right across the top of the amaya, drying out the thread, evaporating the oil, and unraveling spools!
So we got the Amaya covers (the 'jammies'we got in bulk last year for everyone) and that seems to have taken care of the problem.
Now we're having the worst spring/summer in years for wet weather-humidity is way up-and our thread breaks are way way down!
We also use nothing but madiera and arc poly thread-no rayon.
For my screenprinting-I have to run a dehumidfier-because the shirts pick up so much humidity it prevents the inks from curing to the shirts-we have at times had to run them through the flash dryer first before printing-and sweatshirts have to go through the conveyor to dry out.

[Mary]

Thanks Roland for your input...But, now I'm really confused! The embroidery is great during the winter months with very few thread breaks and the summer is so incredibly busy, but have a ton of thread breaks to slow me down...ugh! I'm very frustrated and don't know how to fix the problem.

[Rod or Sharon]

Mary,

You have given no information for us to go on.

Speeds, backing, needle condition and orientation, type of material, flats or caps, and a biggie....a detailed description of what lubrication you are doing, have done and how you are doing it, auto activ-feed vs what version of software vs standard activ-feed, bobbin tension....overall condition of the machine ....have you checked the condition of the retaining support finger...ie...no burrs on the face of the finger, hook timing......and much more info that is all critical to what your problem may be....

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[Mary]

Right now I'm using the 6.5x5 slim line clamp, 900spm, 1.5oz tearaway,new needle 75/11 sharp, medium weight canvas fabric-flat.
I do the regular maintenance when it pops up.
I use the manual acti-feed for the most part, v7.00 Pro+, bobbin tension is where it should be.
What is "retaining support finger"???
And hook timing?

[Mary]

So far I've discovered a bad needle. I changed it out and seems to be working....I'll check the other needles, as a couple of the other thread colors haven't worked right for me all week. (Although I have changed out the needles already, I'll try it again)

[signman]

double check your needle 'plate' lineup-Sue always gets it off to one side and swears it's lined up-I check and can tell by my finger tips if it's off...get out a magnifying glass and it is.
Just a hair to one side will rub the thread against something enough to break it.
On all your needles, run the edge of a pair of tweezers down each side-if you feel a 'click' then you know the needle is bent on the end-yank it out and replace it.
We find that if we have run hats or totes-usually the needles have taken a beating. Shirts and sweats, never a problem.

[Steve]

I have thread that is 10-15 years old and still runs fine. Usually these are colors that just don't sell like purples, pinks, oranges, etc. but I do get to use them once in a while. All my thread and my machine are kept inside the house where it is climate controled though.

[djames]

Did you by chance run hats or something thick where you raised the presser foot, before this job. I have forgotten to lower the presser foot. Couldn't figure out why I was having thread breaks, and that was my problem. The one machine I forgot to lower the presser foot was the one where I had continual thread breaks.

[Mary]

I did forget to lower the presser foot and realized it before I sent out the first forum post. This happened to be on the needle that I had to replace.
The design only used two colors and after I changed out the needle it worked fine. Now I'm doing the 4 Mil Stich Maint and I have about another hour to go on that one!
BTW I was doing hats the last couple of days and I'm going to assume the needles are bad and just change them out and try them again.
Roland- I will try those suggestions as soon as I can....thank you [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Aaron]

You can take thread that is brittle and put it in the freezer and it will regain some strength. Just a tip of the day [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Ballyhoo]

I was at the Printwear Expo in Baltimore last weekend and asked one of the Melco techs about how environmental issues affect the Amaya. He told me that while temperature is not a big issue, humidity causes more thread breaks because it affects the thread, mot the machine.