Just amazing I didn't know about this either!

I am a Bailey sales rep. and let me make it perfectly clear that the Bailey machines are not stretched.
I did have a conversation with Mr. Bailey about this as he use to say they are stretched machines but only because he honestly didn't know what they do to stretch a machine. I asked if the Baileys were made with the 13, 15 and 17" harps or were they cut, stretched and welded to make them larger. He said they are NOT cut and stretched. I asked him to stop saying they are stretched. I hope you didn't get that message from him recently. :)

Desertdebbe

The price difference between a stretched machine and a non-stretched longarm was often the reason people did this. I'm not so sure that's the case now, the market is growing and we have so many more options and price points than we did a few years ago.

Some of them ARE made that way, and some are stretched. :thumbup:

Beware of having any machine stretched by WOW quilts at this time! He may have hired help, but the workmanship on this year stretches is awfully shoddy. I originally sent my Juki TL 98 QE to WOW to be stretched in January 2012. I
did not get it back until July and it has never run right since. When I first got it back, husband said it didn't sound as smooth as it did before I sent it out. Figured out that the needle bar was not high enough. Called Rick and did not get any help. Had hubby set it up according to the specs in the service manual. The tension was not right when it was returned either. Loosened the bobbin tension quite a bit and tightened the top tension. However, after only 3 quilts it began to skip stitches and the top thread was nesting on the back of the quilt. In trying to find the solution, my Grace Sure Stitch quit altogether which made me think that was the problem. Replaced it but didn't clear up the problem. Then the thread started breaking after 5-6 inches of quilting. Took it into the shop and it was out of timing. 3 quilts later, the thread started being pulled to the back and
looping. No skipped stitches, no breaking thread. So loosened the bobbin even more and tightened the tension as far as it could go. Didn't help. Back to the shop. This time the tech took the whole machine apart and found that the welds on the back of the motor had cracked and twisted up the inside of the machine throwing everything out of balance. The welds that cracked were to weld aluminum together which is very, very tricky to do and you need the right equipment. He said he tapped the weld and it felt and sounded like plastic which is not the way to make a secure weld. It was also extremely sloppy. He was also very critical of how the additional "shafts" were attached on the top and bottom to lengthen the machine - only by clamps which could twist (and mine did) or come completely off instead of welding the additional metal shaft to the existing one. He can't fix the machine and doesn't think it can be salvaged. I have an email into WOW and plan to call them Monday morning.

There are about a dozen folks on the Juki and Home Quilting message board that have experienced problems, too. The most simplest ones are the needle up/down button didn't work, but Rick at WOW requires the machine be sent back to him, at the owner's expense, to be fixed and he's had one lady's machine for three months!

Just my humble opinion.