lmanna

I had another thought yesterday while I was quilting a baby quilt on my Forte.

I use Magna prewound bobbins. They have a magnet in them. Remove the tension spring thing from inside your bobbin case when using these bobbins. I had read conflicting things about whether or not to remove that spring and originally did not remove it. When I upgraded my Amara to a Forte the technician that set up the Forte convinced me to remove the spring. It made a HUGE difference!

FWIW I do think a TOWA gauge could be helpful depending on what bobbins you are using. I don't really need it with the Magna bobbins. It is VERY rare that I have to adjust bobbin tension.

mkc

Can you share more details on what seems better without the backlash spring?

I often use MagnaGlide bobbins on my Amara, but I haven't removed the spring. I do have a spare bobbin case so I could dedicate one to MagnaGlide and have second one with the spring still in it for self-wound bobbins.

Thanks!

lmanna

The magnet on the Magna bobbins helps to create a more uniform bobbin tension. The backlash spring seems to interefere with the benefit of the magnet. I feel like with the backlash spring in place the bobbin doesn't run as smoothly as it does without the spring. Maybe because the bobbin isn't bouncing around as much without the spring interference because it's "stuck" to the bobbin case?

You have the right idea to dedicate one bobbin case (without spring) to just Magna bobbins if you are using different types of bobbins. I only use Magna so I do not need to have different bobbin cases.

You can try removing the spring and if you are not impressed, carefully place it back in the bobbin case.

mkc

Thanks for providing the details! I'll give it a try on the next quilt I do with the MagnaGlides and see what I think.

Koda1021

I appreciate all the great responses! I've tried some of them and am going to try others when time permits. As luck would have it, my day job has been brutal (projects) so I haven't had a chance to try the suggestions. Thanks again!

Koda1021

So I had an interesting interaction over the weekend. I'm still researching longarm systems, and part of that, is I'm emailing users (from YouTube) others that have certain systems, etc. One of the systems I am looking at is a pre-owned Innova. So I wrote Innova customer service inquiring about the warranty and whether if I buy pre-owned if the warranty is still valid. I've been burned a few times with other equipment (sewing machines, etc.) where you find out the warranty isn't valid unless you are the original owner (not presuming that is the case with longarms, but figured I'd ask).

Within an hour of my email (bear in mind, this is Saturday night around 8 PM) I get a response from someone whose signature says VP. He asked what state I was in, and said he'd love to talk on the phone so he could answer all of my questions. Being that I'm recovering from bronchitis, talking isn't high on my list right now, and he proceeded to exchange at least a dozen emails with me answering all my questions in regards to the warranty and their machines! He even told me about Black Friday deals going on now.

To be honest, this impressed me. Knowing someone is reachable is a tremendous comfort when investing the kind of money these systems are. I know that sales are different, and companies will chase those, but being that I've heard nothing but great things about service being easily reachable for Innova, I'm impressed enough that it has moved to the #1 position on my list.