bernamom

Maybe you could try going through the dealer since they are the ones that delivered them originally. If they have changed their packaging as you described, maybe they are aware of the problem and will help you get new ones.

IJustWant2Sew

LOL... yeah, the dealer knows the problem... She is sent a copy of every email I send to the owners of the company.
She was here when I first discovered I had a problem, ( at that time I thought it was because my leaders were taped on the pole all wonky.. They were the ones who taped it on, and when I told her about it, she just stood there like the cat who ate the canary. She did not own up to it or give any helpful hints. Then I thought he leaders were crooked, I bought more and when I took the old ones off, I noticed the warped poles. When I contacted the owners of the company, they told me it was my fault for keeping the quilt to tight, then changed to something else when I showed them my pictures of the first quilt I did and you can clearly see the red snappers going up on the end.
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This is not my first quilt, but you can see the red snappers going up on the ends. This is just a twin size, the king size is much worse.... I will try to find the picture.
I would like to know if every quilt that comes off of random machines sucks up in the middle . They are trying to tell me that it does!

Peckish

It sounds like you already have your mind made up about what the problem is, despite everyone else's suggestions and comments. Now I guess it's up to you to fix it. Either fight with the manufacturer, or go to Home Depot or some other merchant and buy new poles.

quiltingshorttimer

sure a peculiar problem for a long arm--and the brand that most LA on this Board rave about! Since I don't use this brand, I do have a question---what is the narrow bar on the side? Is that your side tensioner? How does that work? It doesn't look like traditional clamps at all.

I would add that your basting across the top looks very straight despite the slight bow. Good luck on getting this problem resolved.

IJustWant2Sew

Back to my original question "Do you loose inches in the vertical center of your quilt after you finished quilting."

I would not be opposed to buying new poles, I have already looked at Home Depot, they do not carry 12 ft poles.
We thought about going to an Electrical supply too. I am trying to find the specs on the poles that are on my machine and call around about the powder coated bars that have no seams... So if you have any information please share!

No, the quilt is not more densely quilted in the center. I have done ruler work, but it was equal all the way across.
I have done pantos and it was the same all the way across. Both still pull up in the center.

Feline: Yes feline, my quilt draws up 3/4 of an inch to 2 inches in the center. The last king quilt I did was only 3/4 of an inch, but It was after I tried bowing my poles back down. The king quilt before I bowed my poles was drawn up 2 inches. This si the same quilt that I posted the picture of with all the slack on the left side. (before I realized I had bowed poles, my quilt measured the same on both vertical sides before going in.) Before I worked with the poles, the arch was higher on the pole on the left side. They told me to push harder on my pole so I pushed harder on the pole and it past that fine point where the bow went on the other side. So I won't be able to push the bow out of it..

4 poles.... Dead bar (worse) take up bar (2nd worse) backing bar and top bar... 4 poles. I don't float my quilts. The dead bar makes a big difference where it is turned as if i get slack on the left side or not. the take up bar has it all attached, the backing bar and top bar both have fabric wrapped around them and it does make a difference with warped poles. Its hard to explain but yes, they all have tension .

Prism... I use side clamps . My last quilt measured the same across the quilt at the top, middle and bottom. The thing you see in the picture is a curtain rod and I use it to keep my side tension clamps raised up.
Yes, the poles are warped..
I think the poles are 1 3/4 outside, not sure about the inside.. They are 12 ft long.
When I roll the quilt, I stand at the side, if I see the dead bar move out, then I loosen the quilt. I don't do it so tight that you can bounce a dime on it! Matter of fact I have gotten puckers in the back because It was not tight enough.

JJs56: I have to agree with you.... The quilt would have to be rolled really tight to warp the poles, however, I think the fabric would give first before a big beefy stainless steel pole! Then you have to wonder how did the left side of the poles get bowed more than the right side? ( must be going over the seat to the back of the SUV) I have been speaking to the owners. Sadly, I did not pay with credit card! I would have had then take the machine back a long time ago... I even asked them to! THEY WOULD NOT DO IT~

Anyway... back to my original question... Any one measure their quilts going in and coming out of long arming and do you loose inches in the center.

And as pecks mentioned.. get new bars... What kind of bar do I look for>

Thanks

feline fanatic

I am shocked the dealer was able to warp the stainless steel tubing like that. I always thought heat needed to be in the equation. I am wondering if the tubes weren't defective to begin with. You should not have to pay shipping as these were delivered like that and you are not responsible and you have photographic proof that they have been like that since day one. You already paid shipping when you bought the machine. I would be raising a huge stink for sure with Michael, Neal, Candy and everyone at ABM! They and the dealer need to be held responsible for all charges. It is then between the dealer and ABM to work out the costs but there should be no cost to you IMHO. You may wish to strengthen your argument with some research and additional photos. I would remove the pipes in question and lay them down on a flat surface so the bend/warp in the pipe is easily visible in a photograph. I would then find a local welder or some other expert in your area in metallurgy (local university or a welder maybe??) to ask if this kind of distortion can happen with the delivery you described. Additionally I would confirm with an expert that there is no way cotton fabric can warp those poles (from loading to tight). I feel that fabric does not have the strength to warp steel but I am not an expert.

I heard in the old days they used the pipe used to make mufflers which is why the older machines have powder coated pipe (like mine is powder coated black). So you may want to start a search for a local source with automotive supply places. Measure the diameter of your pipe and the length (I can't remember if the rollers are exactly 10, 12 or 14 depending on your rack size) or if they are a few inches longer to slide into those holder rings.

If this happened to me I would be fighting it out with the dealer and ABM. BTW, did you finance this? Bring in the finance company as well. You have a legitimate complaint that needs to be resolved and you should not have to pay one cent.

While you are waiting on resolution I would try a couple of alternative fixes. You say the take up and dead bar are the worst. If the backing bar and quilt top bar are in better shape maybe you can swap them around and see if that makes a difference.
I don't know if this will help but when I load a backing and get those slack areas on the sides (can happen with pieced backs due to all the seam allowances) I roll my take up and backing rollers back and forth several times and that does even things out considerably.

intoquilting

Since you know the sides of the backing bar are bowing, could you take up more fabric on the outside edges of the backing to account for the differences? That might straighten out the backing and your top looks like it is straight. I know what I am talking about but I don't know if I made myself clear to you.

soccertxi

I have this brand of quilt frame. I can see your Red Snappers are bowing on the ends. Mine does this too and I think it is a factor of nothing to stretch on the ends. If my quilt goes all the way to the end of the snapper, I have no distortion. There is nothing to keep that snapper straight as there is no fabric there to stretch with it.

Have you tried to adjust your poles? I had one that was off about 3/4 of an inch. It was not square to the frame.

My quilts change measurements quite a bit in the quilting process. I just chalk it up to the nature of the quilting. Have you tried posting this issue on the owner's yahoo group? PM and I will give you the link. MANY helpful owner on there. Could be someone else has had this issue and has a solution. Just an idea...

maryfrang

I used to long arm and I did notice where the quilt is shorter. How much depends on your batting and how much quilting is done. If you have very dense the quilting in the center of the quilt will pull the length and also the with in that area. I also notice that the back and batting would be drawn up with the quilting mostly on the length. There is a little on the width. I am not sure if this also happens on hand quilting, but I would not be surprise if it does on dense quilting.

IJustWant2Sew

Yes, I have adjusted the poles, and the doohickeys the poles sit in. They were off too. I still can not get all the bow out of the pole.

I have been on there. I could try again.

This is a Cal King size quilt.. Can you see my red snappers do the bow on the end? I left the backing long on the back side so I would not hit the red snappers because of the ruler work. My red snappers were pulled up between the two bars, you can see how they bow. This was my very first quilt I quilted on the frame. It had been on the frame about 2 hours before I took this picture. I had done one practice quilt before this quilt that was 45 inches wide by 60 inches long. No matter how tight or not tight it was, there is no way a 45 inch wide quilt could put a 9/16" bow in a stainless steel pole at the thirty inch mark from the center of the bar.
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[QUOTE=feline fanatic;7552655]I am shocked the dealer was able to warp the stainless steel tubing like that. I always thought heat needed to be in the equation.

My bars sat in the SUV for a few days while the Dealer visited with his son who was in college at the time in a near by city. The Tubes could have been defective to begin with. I don't know...
I have been in contact with all you mentioned. I have spoken to M several times trying to fix all the issues I had with my machine at the start... It was set up so WRONG from the start that the issues it had baffled ALL the techs and M for months until my hubby and I figured out what was wrong...
Then we had to basically unscrew every screw on the frame and redo the whole thing. Finally got that part fixed... I paid 500. for deliver then another 750 to get the machine set up. So I do agree with you... I should not have to pay another 750.00 for delivery.

Thanks Mary frang,
that is the kind of info I am looking for...

Into Quilting.. I have had to put something behind the dead bar between it and the quilt to take up space before....

When I start , I baste the batting on to the backing. To get a straight line, I put a clamp on my wheels at the lowest point in the red snappers. then I use that as my straight line to put the quilt top on and baste it down.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]550258[/ATTACH]When you look at this picture, you can see the sag in the quilt top on the left side... On the right side the quilt is pretty taunt. I have learned if I turn the dead bar, I can take some of that sag out... I did not know to do it with this quilt because I did not realize my poles were warped.