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I have a HORRIBLE time with hats. I have watched the video about 1000 times. I ruin more hats than I make. I actually break out in sweats when a potential customer asks me if I do hats.
I have tried cheap and expensive, doesn't matter. Ever since I got my machine almost 4 years ago, I have always had a suspicion that my cap frames are the issue. I know that sounds wierd, but I cannot keep a hat from moving during the stitch process unless the hat bill is under the "bill stop" on the cap frame. In the video he says "not like this, but like this" where he shows to not bend it under the stop. To just butt the bill up to it. then take the strap and bring it across the front of the hat. I do that and then the strap does not "mesh" with the grabby parts on the frame.
This is so hard to explain!!!! With the strap teeth into the seam and connected but not clipped shut, I then take the hat and bill and push it under the stop, then clip the clamp shut. When I go to put the bill in the bill clamp, it pushes the hat back up to where the teeth then come up together and hold the hat in place. The bill is then bent very badly and alot of times it will rub on the machine when stitching. I have to put tape on the bill to keep it from being rubbed so bad that the hat is ruined. I know that this should not be the way it is done. But absolutely every single time that I do it like the video, it is a ruined hat.
This is on small designs and larger designs.
So ---I am thinking that maybe it is the cap frame. Of course Melco when I approached them was of course it is all me. After 4 years of this it is always the same result. either bend the cap out of shape or have a ruined hat! PLUS I cannot get a design that has a straight bottom..... to be straight. It will curve ever so slightly up on one side. the cap will look straight. the strap will be straight across the seam, but always curved.
I hate to get new cap frames at over $200 a piece! But not sure what else to try. This should not be this difficult! Sorry, I hope that maybe someone can understand what I am saying. If not, well I guess I got to vent.
Thanks for anyone willing to listen.
Melinda
I have tried cheap and expensive, doesn't matter. Ever since I got my machine almost 4 years ago, I have always had a suspicion that my cap frames are the issue. I know that sounds wierd, but I cannot keep a hat from moving during the stitch process unless the hat bill is under the "bill stop" on the cap frame. In the video he says "not like this, but like this" where he shows to not bend it under the stop. To just butt the bill up to it. then take the strap and bring it across the front of the hat. I do that and then the strap does not "mesh" with the grabby parts on the frame.
This is so hard to explain!!!! With the strap teeth into the seam and connected but not clipped shut, I then take the hat and bill and push it under the stop, then clip the clamp shut. When I go to put the bill in the bill clamp, it pushes the hat back up to where the teeth then come up together and hold the hat in place. The bill is then bent very badly and alot of times it will rub on the machine when stitching. I have to put tape on the bill to keep it from being rubbed so bad that the hat is ruined. I know that this should not be the way it is done. But absolutely every single time that I do it like the video, it is a ruined hat.
This is on small designs and larger designs.
So ---I am thinking that maybe it is the cap frame. Of course Melco when I approached them was of course it is all me. After 4 years of this it is always the same result. either bend the cap out of shape or have a ruined hat! PLUS I cannot get a design that has a straight bottom..... to be straight. It will curve ever so slightly up on one side. the cap will look straight. the strap will be straight across the seam, but always curved.
I hate to get new cap frames at over $200 a piece! But not sure what else to try. This should not be this difficult! Sorry, I hope that maybe someone can understand what I am saying. If not, well I guess I got to vent.
Thanks for anyone willing to listen.
Melinda
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