You pin your backing to the one in the middle first and thenjpin it to the one in the front, then you roll it all up on the one in the middle.Then yo place the batting on the frame, pinning it to the front, rolling the backing and the batting onto the front, then you pin it to the backing edge on the middle pole. I always leave about 6 inches more that the length of the quilt and at least 2 in on the sides. then,, you roll it all up on the middle pole, using the gears to make sure it is straight and tight! Then you pin the top to the last pole on the back, making sure that it is pined straight across. Then you roll all of the top on to the back pole. Then you bring the top across and pin it to the front.by now you should have all of them pined in order to the front. Now tighten the back pole and your quilt should be sandwiched and tight! I use flat head quilting pins to do all of my pinning, so that it lays flat.
I don't know if this makes any sense, I hope so. I can put a quilt in mine in about 20 minutes all by myself. And the nice thing about your new frame is that you can turn it my yourself real fast!!! Since you are using an old method, you can have 2 quilts going . You can have 3 or 4 quilting on the new frame at the same time! If you have any trouble pm me and I will be glad to help.
Ninnie