Originally Posted by
maxandgeorgia
Thank you, Candace, and I see I used the wrong terminology, long bed rather than long arm! Thank you for your response. I guess that the long bed must have more space for "stuffing" your quilt as you are machine quilting? Would someone be able to tell me the horizontal space difference between the needle shaft and the machine body of the long and short beds? Is the vertical space the same? I love my FW, but I suspect that the same heavy duty body along with the feed dog that will lower would make the 301 just a little better for quilting/FMQ. Comments or help? ~G
The harp space on both the short bed and long bed are exactly the same, so the long bed isn't any better at getting a quilt under it than the short bed. They are the exact same machines, except the flap to the left is a bit larger. The flap actually is removable. Sometimes I see 301 parts on ebay and you can buy the flap and make a short bed a long bed...though the colors will likely not match exactly. I have two mochas, one short, one long and one is slightly darker than the other. It was obviously a different paint lot years later or just environmental sun fading etc. The long bed will give you a smidge more working room for piecing etc. to the left of the needle, but if you want to put the machine in a table, you need to go with a short bed as the cradles and Singer tables are only made for short beds. If I had the choice of a long bed and a short bed in the same condition, for the same price, I'd jump on the long bed. But, that's usually not the case. Long beds tend to be more expensive and IMO the short beds do the job just as well. Hope this helps.