Hi, I'm new to the board, but I was brought here looking for information on this machine and frame. Is there no owner/operator manual? Ours didn't have one.
We got ours about three months ago and the dealer (Coastal Sew & Vac) and her spouse came to the house and where they helped set it up and gave us a quick tutorial on it. It's been a really good machine for us. I've completed about 30 baby quilts and a dozen bed quilts on it since then with very few breaks and only one instance of eyelashing, so maybe I can offer some help suggestions to the people having problems with theirs.
We started with 30 wt Star thread on top, but recently switched to C&C 30 wt because we can get it significantly cheaper. Haven't had any problems with breakage but have only been using it for two quilts so far. For the bobbin, we started with So-fine #25/3. It's expensive but it's a very fine strong thread and you can load a lot onto a bobbin so you can sew longer between bobbins. We'll probably stick with that, for that reason. I have only had to adjust the tension a couple times when switching battings. We've got a BIG needle on it. It's a Groz-beckert 10 Nm 110/80 and it has never shredded thread, we swapped it out after about 20 baby quilts. This combo has been working great for us.
At one time, I tried to switch to a smaller top thread because we wanted a variegated thread and it eyelashed and broke the thread three or four times before I said ENOUGH! and pulled it off the machine. Went back to the heavier thread and didn't have any problems once we got the tension put back.
I have had a problem recently with the stitch regulator. When I press "jog" it starts slowly stitching instead of jogging once and returning to the UP position, which makes it difficult to start and stop when I just want to pull the bobbin tail up. Still searching the forums for suggestions on that one.
Also there seems to be a spot on the rail where the rail extensions meet and the machine likes to lurch over that spot, but I'm aware of it and just keep a firmer hand on it in that spot.
Peace!