Needles - What Do YOU Use?

[levelbest]

Hey All:

Wanted to get some feedback. Even being in this 5-6 years now, I occasionally look at how to improve the quality of our output which got me to thinking about needles.

I was sewing out a Nike Dri Fit Mock Turtleneck and was getting holes in the fabric (expensive lesson). The design had sewn out fine in the past but I had it redigitized anyway. Same issue. Originally I was sewing on 75/11 ballpoint. I switched to 75/11 sharp. Looked better, but I still got one hole (down from a bunch!). Then tried 65/9 with 60 weight thread. Better but thin thread wise.

Finally went back and (duh) changed the needle. Even ballpoints go bad after a while, because on re-sewing it out, things looked much better and no holes at all. Same thing happened a few weeks ago sewing out caps. Wasn't happy with the sew quality and changed to a new sharp titanium needle. Bam. Looked great.

So, I wonder...

1) How often do you change needles?

2) What brand, size and type of needles do you use most? I think I remember someone saying they used something other than 75/11 bp as their everyday needle? Anyone using a 70/10? If so, why?

3) How do you set things up?

** Currently on our machines **

Needle 1-12 - 75/11 Titanium Organ Ballpoint
Needle 13-14 - 75/11 Titanium Organ Sharp
Needle 15-16 - 65/9 Madiera (w/ 60 weight thread)

I'm hoping a lot of you will give feedback. Seems that folks struggle with this a lot and don't know the basics of what to use when.

Oh, and along the same topic - what do you use for microfiber stuff from addidas, nike & ping needle wise?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

[Juli in Kona]

I use a 70/10 when doing smallist, but no tinny letters, but use 40# thread with it. I keep a log of needle changes and the problem: reg maint, broken, etc. Sometimes I look at the log and notice that I haven't changed a needle in 6 mos. Way too long! Needles are cheap - I buy by the 100.

Juli in Kona

[HERB]

I use 75-11 ball points on all my knitted fabric. 75-11 sharps on my wovens and some caps. Needles 1-8 are sharps and 9-16 are balls. Then I change to a specialized (smaller or larger) when I need them based on what I am doing. I do replace the 75-11 sharp for an 80-12 for structured caps "if" the element being sewn can accept the larger needle. Small columns will not look as good sewn with the big spike. I have substitued the 75-11 with a 70-10 on knits/wovens without seeing any negative stuff.
One way to look at the needle thing is you want to use a ball point on knitted fabrics as it has a tendency to push the knitted thread out of the way. The sharp will be more likely to pierce the thread and cause it to run or create a hole. The size of the needle is based on what you are trying to do. Heavy/course fabric or some materials that are hard to penetrate need a bigger needle to get it through them without deflecting. Needle deflection can be one of the causes for your broken needles.
When I use 60 wt thread I use the smallest needle that will allow me to go through the fabric. I did run some 5 panel caps with 60 wt and a 70-10 needle with excellent results, but I do not believe I could have done the same thing with a 6 panel.

[HERB]

Start of every day, and often through the day I run my fingernail down the needles I am using and check for burs. Change as soon as you feel one. I ran caps a few weeks ago and was changing needles after about 16K stitches. Check them often!!!

[signman]

I found that if I'm changing needles often, my wife didn't set the needle 'plate' correctly. She has a tendancy to have it 'off' just a hair to one side or front to back...needle rubs and frizzles up the thread, or creates a bur. Started having trouble with this hat order I just finished...after the first couple hats I checked the plate (she sets up the machine, not me) and yup, that plate was off.
Reset it-then started checking needles. Using 8 colors, found burrs on 4 of them. Changed them out from 75's to 80/12's just because I grabbed that size first and wanted to see what would happen. Thread breaks cut in half, but still happening...dang that Port Authority 6 panel seam!
But did some 65-66 hats with not a single burr appearing! Maybe every 3rd hat would run start to finish without a problem-other 2 of 3 would have anywhere from 1 to 3-4 thread breaks. Always a different color, never more than 1 break per color. Before switching to the 80's-had multiple breaks per color.
So I think from now on I"ll use the 80's on hats!
Waiting to see what you folks say about going to the titanium needles...do they really hold up longer and stay sharper or is it just a marketing ploy to make us pay more money for them?
As for broken needles...haven't had a single broken needle since sometime middle of last year!

[HERB]

I am in the process of switching to all titanium. They do last longer. The thing about the needle and the burr is this,,,,As the burr begins to form it pushes the tip in the opposite direction. You wont see this much on a fill but it will show on a column especially as it changes direction. So now the burr is getting large enough to catch the edge of the thread and badingo, you get that nick that causes the thread to begin to fray.

[Rod or Sharon]

Herb is absolutely right. Years ago, in the home sewing world of embroidery, we were told to change our needle with every design---we only stitched with one needle. I felt that was too often however.

Sharp needles are designed to "cut" the fabric to make the stitch and ballpoints are supposed to roll over the thread and go between. Knits will run or create a hole if cut.

Have you ever purchased a garment with embroidery and it looks good out of the store, but once home, worn and laundered, it starts a hole around some of the stitching at the edge? Chances are it was sewn with a sharp needle which cut the fibers of knit.

We should use the smallest needle we can considering the size of thread we use and still get the strength to push through the fabric we are stitching on. The DBXK5 needles have the larger eye and that is to accommodate the thread for faster stitching.

As always, right on Herb!
Sharon

[Maritha]

I prefer to use the Groz-Beckert needles 75/11 RG those give me the least problems and can use them on almost anything. For very fine lettering or very fine fabric I may change to a 70/11 but that is not that often. I don't know what it is but I do not like the titanium needles at all.
What I do find out is that I selden changed needles on my EMT but probably due to the much higher speed on the AMAYA I am ending up changing needles much more frequent.

[Sewfly]

wow, glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like the titanium needles.....I have more problems with them than the standard needles ie, more needle breaks, and more burrs. When replacing with the same sized non- titanium needle with the same garments.....no problems.

Susan
Sewfly Embroidery