Speed % on Cruise/Long Arms
 

Can you all please share with me your % on regulated cruise. Im at 12 SPI and have no clue what to keep my percentage at. Im new to the LA and so far am just stippling/meandering..nothing fancy and not working with rulers yet.


Thanks so much for any input..appreciate it!

My understanding of cruise is that it keeps the needle moving at a fairly slow rate even when the machine head is not moving. It's useful when you are doing sharp corners, but not so much for stippling/meandering. I think it is probably dependent on the type of work you're doing. If you're zooming around and trying to form angles with the stitching, a higher number would be better. If you're doing smooth curves, it's probably better not to use it.

Do you mean what stitch length to use with the regulator on, I can only answer whatever length looks good to you. Probably 10 or 12 spi, and as Dunster said, smaller if stippling or very small designs.

I have mine set around 6 percent, sometimes I'll slow it down even more if I'm doing micro work, but I rarely turn it off (precision mode). It's probably stitching at about 1-2 stitches a second in this mode, when I'm not moving the machine. I really like having that to make sure I get stitches in corners, and I don't get the jerky feeling of the machine starting and stopping when in precision mode.

This has no effect on your spi when the machine is moving faster than your cruise setting, it's just the slowest the machine will ever stitch, instead of stopping completely when the machine is stopped. This does mean I have to be quick on the stop switch when I am stopping completely, but that has not been a problem. Often a stitch or two in the same spot it not going to cause problems if I"m stopping to tie off anyway.

One more item, sometimes when I'm doing a very tight stippling, I'll turn off the regulator all together, and just stitch at a constant "stitch per second". That way the stitch speed is not changing as I'm doing very tight corners and curves, and I can get into a rhythm with the machine.

I keep my cruise at 8%. Average 11 spi.