Quiltingboard Forums - Red Snappers

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We use Leadergrips where I rent longarm time, and they're great! There is one machine that doesn't have them, and pinning is soooo slow (and painful). If I buy a longarm, I will definitely use a system like this. Worth every penny!

Love my red snapper NO more pins for me. The more you use them the easier they get to put on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaryKatherine (Post 8000396)

I don't know what the prices are like in the USA but here in Canada they were outrageous. I went to the hardware store and bought LED lighting track,(flexible plastic type), and plastic hollow tubing to fit. Works just fine for me at less than $20.

Amazing that I seem to be the only one that did not like the Red Snappers. I have bilateral carpal tunnel and have had 2 surgeries on each hand, which causes weakness in my hands. I was unable to apply enough pressure on the red snappers to get them to lock on the backing fabric. (I also did not like the “flapping ends” of my leads when I had a small quilt loaded.)

I sold the red snappers to another longarmer. I also made “a more flexible type snapper” like you did. That did not work for me either. Like farmquilter, I prefer to pin.

I've looked at different videos, and read comments and don't see where this is going to save me a lot of time over pinning. I read one person say it took them 45 mn to pin on a quilt vs 10 mn with the snapper. It might take me 45 to fully load a quilt, but that is the whole process, not just the pinning.

I'm not keen on the idea of having extra fabric for the backing so the tool can be rolled so it's behind the deadbar before starting. I have a 24" machine, and prefer to have the start of the quilt much closer to me, usually with a lot of the leader in front of the deadbar to do this. I do normally have the quilt within 2" of where it's pinned to the leader.

It only takes me about 5 mn to pin each side, and I don't measure anything. I also pin the lower end so that the end folds over the pins. It is so much easier to do this, and I've not had it cause any problems doing so.

But I also only quilt for myself so I know what my backing is, and that it is "square" to start with. I float my tops so I just eyeball them to get them centered. Almost makes me afraid to quilt for others, I might start dealing with all sorts of problems!

I also prefer to have my quilts to one end and leave as much open on the other end for machine maintenance, so I always load from one end to where ever it ends up.