I have the Bailey and he's rather temperamental. My machine is very particular about thread. He loves Connecting Threads 100% cotton and Aurafil, does OK on Superior Thread cotton, but hates any polyester thread, even the Perma-Core cones used by many longarmers. I am on the Facebook group and there are lots of experienced Bailey owners on that group. The Yahoo group is pretty much dead at present since so many switched to FB.
For the first two years I owned the machine I had Chuck Bailey on fast dial. 1-888-333-1938. I didn't think I'd ever get the hang of the machine, but I finally have. The only thing I really have problems with now are batiks. I had some problem with the needle getting stuck in the down position and finally figured out I was trying to move too fast. The Bailey is a rather slow machine and doesn't like to be hurried. For that reason I now pretty much only use pantographs as following the line keeps me from stitching too fast.
As Macybaby suggests -- use a tight quilt sandwich. I use the O rings on the take-up lever that came with the machine. I tried the trick of threading it from L-R and it didn't work for me as the thread kept breaking. My favourite needles are Superior titanium topstitch in both the 14 and 16. Second favourite is Organ titanium. BTW, if Chuck hasn't mailed your order yet get the needles from him. He includes a set of Organ titanium 16 with new machines.
One other thing. If you still have the back cover off, remove the needle, put some cloth under the machine (to catch oil) and oil the dickens out of the shaft in the back. Oil, let the machine run 5 - 10 minutes, oil some more, let machine run. Do this three or four times. According to Chuck, this shaft and gear assembly dries out quickly.
Do come over to the Facebook group as you'll get responses within minutes.
Last edited by Belfrybat; 04-24-2018 at 05:33 AM.