WACF hat hoop-take it away!

[signman]

Just spent the last 3 hours trying to do one hat with my remaining WACF hoop-had saved it 'just in case' it was needed when I got rid of the others 2 years ago.
Well, now I know why I got rid of the others...but i won't go into that here.
Anyways...I KNOW there are people out there that swear by the WACF...whereas I swear AT it.
This has been used ONCE in 2 years for ONE hat.
I have both 'black rubber' strips for it also.
Anyone want it...first $150.00 gets it and that includes freight.
In New Hampshire...I can take CC over the phone and ship it out same day.
[email protected]

[THREADS]

Hey Signman.......

What type of Cap Frames/Hoops do you use with your Amaya XT besides the WACF?

I have tried to exorcise the Demons out of mine too, without success. I would like to do more caps, but the frustration level is so high with these things, I am very hesitant!

Proper registration is a real nightmare for me.
Any design with an outline stitch or Fonts with Border stitches....Can't get proper registration!

Somehow, the cap is moving on the frame, just enough to ruin the design....no matter how I hoop it. I have had Herb walk me through the whole process. I watched his Video....etc, etc..

THREADS@Toucan Embroidery

[signman]

I don't have an XT...its a Big Red original.
Only cap frames I've been using for over 2 years is the CCF...never got a single usable hat off the WACF. Learned right off never to try outline or border stitches on any hat design-no way you can hold the material still without it moving somewhere. On the CCF hoops the hat was visibly moving while sewing-tech showed me it was almost 1/4" and that was cured with the hat brim 'clip' assembly I installed on all my CCF hoops. Still some hats that just won't work right-realized yesterday that my favorite hats-the Flexfit line-have 4 panels of STRETCH material, only the front panels are poplin and rigid. So if I hooped it wrong, the hat was like spandex-moving all around. I spent couple hours yesterday fighting thread breaks-every color change, every needle. Put in new needles, slowed it down, speeded it up, changed density, changed underlayment...nothing worked. Gave up on trying to sew names on the sides of two hats-didn't even bother to attempt the back...refunded the customer's credit card and will hand his hats back to him when he gets here.
I have a couple dozen visors...been trying to sew them out for THREE YEARS and haven't succeeded once-no matter how I try to hoop them-I end up with 1/2" of sewable height.
So I am going to just do it with heatseal vinyl and give them to the association for free...another wasted job.
Roland

[GF]

I don't have any experience with the Big Reds. I have two XT's and use the WACF. I embroidered 500 hats with 3 logos (left/center/right) and only spoiled one hat. I'm assuming the problem is probably with the Big Red and the WACF? I also embroidered 40 flex hats without one spoil. I'm not bragging, just want to share my experience which is very different. Maybe someone knows the difference between the two machines and maybe the WACF is only compatible with the XT? Just a guess. It's a bummer you can't use it.

On another note, I experience a lot of conversion problems with my designs that I have digitized. They're created in Wilcom by an outside digitizer and sent to me as EXP. When I bring into Design Shop, I get a lesser quality design that the original. Anyone else experience this? Is there a better format than EXP that works better? I have Design Shop Pro Plus, Version 7.00.114.

[Just Sew It]

I just don't understand all these problems with hats. I have two 2005 Amayas and only use the WACF. I have used the CCF with the SWF machine but sold machine and all hoops with it. I have done mostly hats since 2004, all kinds; visors, buckets, fishing, Flex-fit, 5-panel and 6-panel.
All digitizing is done by pros, I am too busy learning other things.
I won't do a visor without a sweat band.
I use clips on Flex-Fit, 5-panel and unstructured caps.
I hoop only the front half of a 6-panel.
I wish I could stand beside you, roland and just see everything that is going on.
JO

[Carolyn M]

GF,
Regarding bringing your files into Design Shop. I digitize in Wilcom as well, but I never bring my digitized files into Design Shop at all before stitching. I save them as DST files, and then load them as DST files in Amaya OS. There's no need to bring them into design shop at all. Someone else that I digitize for brings the files into their own digitizing software and it always changes the file if they resave it from their software. Sometimes certain software will try to interpret design elements as satin columns, fills, etc and some do a worse job than others. I would try using DST files directly.

[Maritha]

I digitize in Wilcom and save it in EXP format (with the exception of the sequin files that go in DST format) than I load straight into the OS program without problems to the design.

[Nevi]

hi
I think most generally have the best results with DST files on average. ZSK format is also nice , but I'd say theres a much wider use of DST on average.

Over the years, I think I fixed a high degree of cnd or exp files..The problems with cnd have been overall worse..or with dst files converted from melco files. The degree of weird machine functions that occur in conversions is amazing.
Editing some can be challenging, and some files even require parts to be redone for the files to work well.

It would be nice if machine manufacturers created a nicer standard format ...but, so many years down the line, that somehow seems far from happening

bye