Long Arm Question
 

I'm new here and I may not be posting this in the right place so if not please redirect me. I've had my long arm for about a year and have had a great time with it but I have what is probably a dumb question. When I advance my quilt to the take-up roller when/how often should I adjust the take-up roller height and do I also adjust the backing roller height? I do mostly small quilts which never give me problems but I've had several tshirt quilts lately that give me fits because my machine seems to drag on them after a couple of advances. I've been adjusting the height but it seems to take a lot of time for me to do that so I'm sure there is a better answer out there than what I'm doing. Thanks for any advice. (If you have good sources for long arm info please let me know that, too.)

What brand of frame do you have? I got a wooden Gracie frame with my Tin Lizzie and it can be a pain to advance, you have to adjust at both ends. If your quilt is not laying flat, level with your machine, it will drag.

How often you have to advance really depends on the thickness of the quilt sandwich.

I have a Hinterberg stretch frame and, when I first got it, I had to do as Gramie bj and adjust both sides. It wasn't all that time-consuming for me to do it, but definitely did interrupt the flow of quilting. I purchased Bower lifts and now it is much easier and faster to raise the takeup roller: http://www.kathybowers.com/ . I think these are only for the hinterberg frames, though. The only roller I raise up is the takeup roller (underneath the arm of the machine). There is no need to adjust any of the other rollers.

What a lot of people do is install a dead bar. Basically this is an extra roller underneath the arm of the machine. You raise the takeup roller and install the dead bar below and maybe a little forward of the takeup roller. This means you never have to adjust the takeup roller. You keep it raised, and the dead bar keeps the quilt sandwich at a constant height. If you Google "dead bar on a quilting machine" and click on "images", you should be able to find some photos to help you see what a dead bar looks like.

A good group to join is the homequiltingsystems group on Yahoo. You have to create a Yahoo ID to join, but here is their home page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homequiltingsystems/
Once you join, check out their "files" area and "photos". If you view threads online, you can also search for old threads there on the dead bar.

I have a Gammill, and adjust the takeup roller when necessary in order to be able to just slide my fingers underneath it, with no extra space. Check it with each advance. I never adjust the height of the backing roller. On my machine, the backing roller and the quilt top roller aren't adjustable. HTH

I have a Pfaff GrandQuilter 18.8 with an Inspira frame. I will definitely check into the dead bar option. So...if I understand what you all are telling me is that I should not have to adjust the height of the backing roller...just the take up roller?? I've been adjusting both so maybe I'm doing overkill for myself.

Like JustAbitCrazy, I have a Gammill and only adjust as necessary. If I am using a thin batting, I can often advance 3 -4 times or more before I have to adjust. However, if using a high loft batting, I may have to adjust more often. If the machine doesn't move as easily, I know to adjust the take up roller. That being said, I read a tip somewhere in the past suggesting that you can lower the take up roller to create a small amount of drag if you need "more control" while quilting. I don't recall where I read the tip and it's not something I do but thought I would share...

It is only the takeup roller that needs to adjusted, no matter what the brand of frame (as far as I know).

I rarely change the height of the backing roller but on each pass I check the height of the take up roller by attampting tp slide my fingers between it and the base of my machine.

I adjust according to each quilt, I keep it so that my finger tips will go between the quilt and bed of the machine.