CNC Quilting forum

[lmlamb]

Larry: I have a screen that is used for quilt loading and setup. What I do is record the position of the upper left hand corner of the mounted quilt top and then I record the position of the right hand corner. This gives a reference point for where the quilt top is located. This data is stored in DROs and is used by other scripts in creating the executable pattern file. See the attached image of screen-1.

Hi WindRidge,

I am very interested in the method you have developed to measure the quilt. Of the subject now, my wife would like to know where you are located, and where do you get your patterns. What I would like to know is this! Do you use a mathematical formula to calculate the length, and does that formula also determine number of patterns that can be placed in the area that you have calculated?

I see that as one of my greatest needs right now. I have been away from working on that aspect of the quilter for quite a while now, and I have been very lax in reading my forum mail as well. Please drop me an email at the following address: lmlamb@windmill-sbs.com

[trickey]

Hi Larry,Ed and Dan
Hope that Christmas holidays treated you all well,Larry how is your recuperation going,Ed have you had any success with the needle up sensor up yet, a friend of my wife's has a Gammell with all the bells and whistles she was feeling quite smug with herself and walked to make herself a cuppa while leaving the machine sewing when she came back the gammell had sewn a pair of them small scissors onto the quilt broke its needle and had made a mess of the quilt,moral of the story never leave any machinery unsupervised

[trickey]

Hi Ed
Just sitting here thinking about the thread breakage, would there be any way that you could incorporate a micro switch with the cotton holding the micro open/closed then if the cotton broke it would act like a limit switch, Just a thought maybe incorporating a slight tensioning device similar to the old singer bobbin rewind thread tensioners
Dick

[trickey]

Hi there, was a message about a screen I did not catch where the chap was from and I lost posting that he had put in could you please resend that post

Dick

[MetropolisCNC]

Ok, I read the first 3 pages and the last 3 pages. Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but can't you just put the quilting(sewing machine) head on in place of a router?

I have a 6'x10' cnc router and my wife does quilting. Recently the shop she takes her quilts to get quilted closed down. I've been thinking about routing a Little Gracie machine for her.

My biggest question is I've seen how sewing machines work, but have never seen the underside of a cnc quilter. There are two spools of thread on a sewing machine, is there the same on a cnc quilter? How is the bottom thread pulled up through the fabric or even moved around?

-matt

[trickey]

Hi Matt thanks for dropping us a line,there is no such thing as a dumb question.if you do not know something ask away,as we have all learnt something from asking,to answer your first question.in principal there is much common ground between a router and a computer quilting system, you will not have to change.how the sewing machine it self works,but you will need a longer arm sewing machine at lest 9 inches,there will be add ons required to make the s/machine more functional such as cruise, it is not a must but makes things easier
But I see that you live in the USA and I often look up some of the sales,and you may find It cheaper to buy a quilting frame an mid arm used or new s/machine as a package. and then computerise that. If I can be of ANY assistance feel free to contact me
I suck at programming but construction side I'm fine.
By the way I started with the same idea as you but I had already constructed my wife a quilting frame some years before,

Dick

[MetropolisCNC]

Ok, so design-wise you guys are thinking a CNC driven long arm sewing machine?

I rewatched the videos on youtube for "cnc quilting" and see they actually have moving tables. This would account for the lower thread question I asked about. Which is a bummer I was hoping that somehow I could just add a sewing head to my machine.

-Matt<--will be keeping an eye on this thread

[ronb]

"you may find It cheaper to buy a quilting frame an mid arm used or new s/machine as a package. and then computerise that."




Dick,

Hi, is this thread still active. I believe you are right and am in process of building cnc hardware. Have good background in mechanical, electrical, electronic controls. I am at a total loss when it comes to exporting usable dxf files, I have visio 2000 plus freeware drawing programs. Mach3 or emc2 , probably emc2 will be used. any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ron

[trickey]

Hi Ron, there has not been much activity on this thread of late, I am in a similar position as you, when it comes to programming , and I rely heavily on a friend to do this for me, but there is very little difference when it comes to programming, between quilting and a 2D mill,and there is a lot more members doing milling than quilting and it may be of more benefit to you to seek help on them threads for programing, If I can be of ANY help to you in other areas , such as motors, drivers,construction, pictures of my wife's quilting frame please contact me.

Dick

[lmlamb]

"you may find It cheaper to buy a quilting frame an mid arm used or new s/machine as a package. and then computerise that."




Dick,

Hi, is this thread still active. I believe you are right and am in process of building cnc hardware. Have good background in mechanical, electrical, electronic controls. I am at a total loss when it comes to exporting usable dxf files, I have visio 2000 plus freeware drawing programs. Mach3 or emc2 , probably emc2 will be used. any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ron

Hi Ron,

My name is Larry, I am the original designer of the CNC quilter. When it comes to the patters to use, if you have access to the DXF version of the files, it is fairly easy to convert them to Gcode, when can then be used by most all of the cnc software packages, i.e., Mach3, etc. What we normally use for drawing is either coreldraw, illustrator, or inkscape which is open sourced. For the most part, Mach3 is the easier software to use and setup.
By the way all, I am back from the hospital for the second time in less than a year, but now I'm active again. Dick, I have located a thread break detector for about 60 euros ($65 US). It can be interfaced with Mach3 inputs to detect the opening of the switch (optical). If you would like the website I can send it to you.

[lmlamb]

Ok, so design-wise you guys are thinking a CNC driven long arm sewing machine?

I rewatched the videos on youtube for "cnc quilting" and see they actually have moving tables. This would account for the lower thread question I asked about. Which is a bummer I was hoping that somehow I could just add a sewing head to my machine.

-Matt<--will be keeping an eye on this thread

Hi Matt,

In reality, moving tables are a bit too cumbersome for a home cnc quilter. For the most part, it is necessary to have either a sewing machine, or a mid-longarm quilting machine that runs on a table track from left to right and perpendicular back and forth (these are the X and Y axis). This requires only two small stepper motors to drive the motion. Just adding a sewing head is really not a viable answer, due to the cost of the head. It would also require a bobbin mechanism to provide the looping chain stitch to the action.

[lmlamb]

lmlamb: I am new to this forum but I have been working on automating my wife's quilter since last February (You were th inspiration). I have written an extensive software system using Mach3 basic scripts for computing the placement of quilting patterns. I might be able to help. I need a little more information about what you are trying to accomplish.
Dan

Hi Dan,

I am trying to design a calculation that will tell me how many repeats will occur in a given length, based on the size of the pattern (x axis length) and the size of the area to be stitched, the formula would be something like this n=p/L, where n = number of repeats, p=pattern length divided by the length L of the area to be stitched. Is this of any help?