bunniequilter

Have been thinking about a long arm for awhile now and have decided I want one. I cant afford the highend frames so am thinking of a build your own kit or something like a Gracie. Do you have any suggestions or adivce in making my final choice?

crashnquilt

By the time you get done buying all the wood, screws, and all the other stuff to make the frame, then toss in the time it will take to make it...............BUY ONE

dunster

I would recommend deciding on what brand of longarm machine you want before worrying about the frame. For many longarms, the frame provided by the longarm supplier is much better than any frame purchased separately.

Prism99

I really like my Hinterberg stretch frame. It can take the weight of my Voyager 17 (an old, heavy, industrial stretched Singer), which many frames (including the Grace frame) do not handle well. You can start with this frame and a standard sewing machine (takes some tinkering to figure out how to use it) and not have to change the frame later when you buy a larger throat machine. See http://www.hinterberg.com for more info. Sometimes you can find the Hinty stretch frame used on Craigslist.

Edit: If you really want to make your own frame, several on the QB have successfully used the Ken Lund frame kit. Do a search on the board for Ken Lund to find posts about it. Here is a link to one:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...e-t195959.html
He has a lot of Youtube videos about quilting with his frame. Here is one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F24UUQdBW5I
and I think his blog site where you can purchase a kit is mentioned in the video.