sewing hats - best machine

[Shuffletown Embroidery]

It seems a shame to run my Amayas at 600 s.p.m. so that I can sew hats. (Although, often I need that much time to hoop another hat. [img]smile.gif[/img] )
Anyway, is there a better machine to get just for running hats? Assuming money's not an object. Ha!
Mary

[Rod or Sharon]

First question....why do you say that you have to run at 600 spm to run caps....are these XT Amaya's or the standard Amaya machines.... If the design is properly digitized, i have no trouble running my older Amaya at 1000 to 1100spm and my XT at 1200 spm...on caps..??

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[Juli in Kona]

I am running my hats right now as I write at 1200 spm. Lots of narrow satin stitches, so it do a lot of the design at that high speed..

Juli in Kona

[Shuffletown Embroidery]

Was I dreaming every time I heard someone say to slow the machines down to sew caps? If that's not necessary, tomorrow I will try to run them a lot faster.
Mary

[Shuffletown Embroidery]

Rod,
I'm running these on an XT. I just finished a bunch of visors using the extended WACF. After your response, I boosted the speed and didn't have any problems except for the noise. I adjusted the presser foot to as high as the stitch quality would allow - 3 clicks from the top.
I haven't done many caps, and no visors until this job. So even though I am not an Amaya novice, I'm a cap novice.
I still have trouble hooping caps, but I think it's because of arthritis, not lack of understanding the concept. As with everything else, I tend to get better with practice.

[Rod or Sharon]

Mary,

No you were not dreaming....but what you have to remember is that the Amaya's have been going through an evolutionary process. The standard Amaya ( Big Red ) as everyone calls them, has a flat sewing arm, an intechangable needleplate, a different cap driver, etc, whereas the XT versions have a round sewing arm, is not necessary to change needleplates and so on....

The Reds needed to be slowed down a bit to get them to run caps without excessive fraying or thread breakage...this was mainly because of the shape of the sewing arm and the flagging that was present with it at the higher speeds...(it's the reason the extra raised needle plate was provided).

With a properly digitized or edited design, cap designs on the XT can be run a lot faster..because of the round sewing arm, cap driver design, etc.....1200 spm is not uncommon.....

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer