Originally Posted by
CatD
OK, tried a different thread and it seemed to work fine. (Although I left the rayon in the bobbin. Wonder why it's fine there but breaks in the upper?)
The top thread goes through the needle about 70 times - back and forth - before it gets laid down as a stitch, so that is why you can use more fragile thread in the bobbin then on the top...friction will wear it to breaking point unless you have a strong thread. My favorite threads are all Superior Threads - King Tut (cotton), SoFine (poly) and for the bobbin I love BottomLine. We pay a ton for a longarm, fabric, batting...don't skimp on cheap thread for quilting, it just doesn't pay off! Specialty threads like Rayon have their place, but they are too fragile for use in a longarm. Without a bobbin in or thread in a needle, run your machine at the slowest speed and just watch how fast the bobbin race goes around and it takes 2 complete revolutions of the bobbin race to make a single stitch...and it is the upper thread that is going around and around!