6 panel hats

[cmack]

SO! Here is the hat issue again.
who sews on 6 panel hats, and how do you do it?
I can hoop the hat and get that right. However when the needle goes through the center seam of the hat I have nothing but thread breaks.
I crank up the material thickness to get through the center seam and then, the false thread breaks start.
If I turn on auto feed the machine does not notice the material thickness change in time to adjust so more thread breaks. so needless to say my hats look like crap, and I am going to need a hat soon to cover up the fact my hair is falling out in clumps.

[cmack]

By the way I am running tho old AMAYA the red one with version 7.00.115 if that is a question.

[Judy]

Lotsa questions:

Are you changing the needle plate?
Are you adjusting the presser foot height if changing the needle plate?
Are you using poly thread?
Are you using #12 SHARP needles instead of ball points?
Are you adjusting bobbin thread tension?
Are you using at least two layers of hat backing for an unstructured cap, one for a structured?

I was taught to turn off bobbin thread detect, and just check the bobbin between hats, and change when it's getting toward the end.

[Judy]

OOPS, and are you slowing the sewing speed down?

[Rod or Sharon]

CMack,

Yes, that would have been an important question. Knowing that you have 7.00.115 means that you have the Auto Lower Limit tool at your disposal. This is found in Settings, Thread Feed.

Now having said that, it is imperative that we know that the thread break sensor/auto acti-feed is working on Big Red. When it is running in Auto, do you have a lot of activity showing on the display graph?

In Settings, Thread Feed, what does the Auto Lower Limit show for a setting? When you are doing caps, this should be set from 6 to 10ish depending on the cap. This will give the auto acti-feed the head start you are looking for to go over the center seam.

You didn't mention what type of thread you are using, how dense the design is in the center seam area, if the design is for caps, i.e....digitized to sew bottom up...center out...small lettering?

Column width on the small columns???? How tall is the design? Speed of the machine, tight hooping on the cap (I see that you mentioned you I see that you mentioned you have that right ....but gotta ask anyway...., backing and how much, Flex-Fit style or not, proper hoop designation selected and what type, CCF/WAD or WACF, etc....how close to the bill are you sewing? ....using a Sharp style needle?? Organ DBX-K5 75/11? Straight with no burrs!!!

Lubrication on the machine??? Tension on the bobbin??

Those are a few that quickly come to mind...the list goes on...

;-}}

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[Rod or Sharon]

And all the things Judy just mentioned that I didn't......!!!!

[Jenny]

We sew on the 6 panels all the time and have no problem with the sewouts and the caps look great.
I am sure the pros here can help you. Have a great day and until next time...

Jenny
Westbrook Wonders

[cmack]

WOW lots of questions, lets see if I can answer them all.
yes I am changing the needle plate. I adjust the presser foot so it is just lightly touching the cap prior to sewing.
I am using poly thread
I have used 75/11 sharp
and I switched over to 70/10 sharp and it got a little better.
the bobbin tension drops about 1.5 inches as I hold it and drop from thread

bobbin thread detection is off
I am running the machine at 800spm
its a WACF hoop


it is a structured 6 panel hat and I was using 2 layers of cap backing.


I am going to try and bump up auto feed minimums to 10 and see what happens.

any other ideas?

[cmack]

oh and yes there is alot of activity on the bar graph actifeed.

[signman]

Density...what's the density of the sewing on the center seam? Hat's must be digitized differently than shirts and flat sewing. The center seam on some hats can be 6 layers of cloth thick-take a look at them. You have the folded over edge of each panel (that's 2)plus a doubled bias tape under that (2 more) and then a 'cover strip' to keep the seam from irritating your forehead, doubled up to hide the edges-another 2! We've taken some apart to check. Lettering on hats has to be less dense (instead of 4.5 for example, try 6.5) with less or no underlayment. Short stitches off, minimum width 10. Sewing has to be from the bottom (brim) UP, and 'center' out. We gave up on the WACF hoops and went with just CCF on our Big Red and got much better results. Pressor foot down to the panel and back 1 click-leave the plain needle plate on-don't change it. (THAT made a big difference to us!)
Sharp needles, slow speed, and magnetic bobbins kept the breaks down. Some designs-with a high density center logo-just are the worst thing to try on a 6 panel but with enough tweaking it can work! We found that the 'better quality hats' were the worst ones to sew on because of the extra layers down the seam-flexfit hats-customers love them-the Amaya hates them.
There's a couple folks here that specialize in hats-hopefully one of them will jump in to give you some help!

[Steve]

Seems a lot has been covered in this forum except who makes the cap? If it not something purchased from common shirt distributors, where did the customer buy it? I used to have have a lot of problems many years ago when customer went to WalMart and brought me the $2 paper thin Chinese made T-shirt and expect the embroidery to be perfect. I no longer deal with customer issued items and always buy from the shirt distributors.

[Dorothy Compton]

One thing that always helps me is rubbing the center seam a bit (Some will use a cap press and do a quick press) just to relax the material. Good luck.

Dorothy

[cmack]

It is an OTTO Flex fit

[cmack]

My Customers all want the Flex fit hats. My machine sews ok on the 5 panel. However the customer wants 6 panel flex fit.
I would think that this is the best that can be done, however I have seen my competition sew this same design and it is fantastic on a 6 panel.

I hate when the competition is better.

[Dorothy Compton]

Ahhh....with flex fit using 2 pieces of heavy cut away may help. It certainly has helped me in the past.

Dorothy