Stretching my machine
 

I am thinking about having my brother's 1500se stretched. I have a mid arm already but would be able to put this machine to much better use if it had a longer throat. Has anyone done this with the brothers machine. I know I have read were the JUKI has been stretched and some say with success and other say not. Will it be worth my $$ or better to leave things as they are. I want to be able to pass this to my granddaughter to learn some of the basics of machine quilting. You comments will definitely help with this decision.

I would be afraid to do that. I would be much more inclined to buy a machine already made "stretched". There are so many to choose from, it would be the much easier and more reliable route, imho.

I'll be watching this thread. I would love to get one of my vintage Singers stretched. Is there still a company that does this?

I have no idea where you would get a machine stretched, but I image that it would be fairly expensive, I bought a 20" sit down Bailey for under $3000, I would love to have a frame, but simply don't have the room for one.

There used to be a gentleman who did the stretching process on some machines but he hasn't done it in years. I'm not sure if he passed away or not, but I know he stopped. A lot of people had issues once it was done, too, others didn't.

I can't imagine how stretching a machine would be accomplished. How do you "stretch" the mechanicals inside the machine? Is the whole inner structure of the machine rebuilt?

Years ago a friend had her Bernina stretched and it cost around 25;000$. There is a wide throat straight stitch available, believe a Brother. I would consider something already done.

Sell the 1500SE and look at the Babylock Jazz, it has a very large throat. I don't think it would be worth the money or risk to have a machine stretched.

The Brother PQ1500 is a high shank. Is the Jazz? If not the space will be longer but shorter vertically - different. don’t know how much more actual room the Jazz would give. You could look at the Q’nique 15. They sell the set up at Joann fabrics and Leah day sells it. Brother has a machine that looks identical to the Q’nique and it comes in a table or frame. More expensive though.

For the money you'd be spending, you could get a used sitdown longarm...or buy a new Bailey Home Quilter, now available in 20" throat! Reasonably priced because it has no computorized anything...a functional quilting machine, no feed dogs, no gizmos to break. I bought a 15" in 2012 before they put out the larger versions...love it!