Many of us at some point or another have had skipped stitches occur while quilting. Here are a few questions to ask yourself while looking into the problem. Read further for some answers!
1. Is this happening while you’re in regulated mode doing free motion with the belts dropped (Statler).
2. Is it only on horizontal lines, or on vertical lines?
3. Are there needle penetrations, but the stitch does not form, or does the needle hesitate and not go into the fabric?
4. Have you recently completed a quilt with thick seams or silkscreens (Tshirt quilt), or did you hit a pin or other hard object?
5. Did you just change the needle?
If you’re in regulated mode, and the stitches are skipping in only one direction (vertical or horizontal) you have a cracked or are missing encoder ring. If they’re skipping vertically, it’s the encoder of your Y axis, located on the crosstrack near the back right handle. If it’s horizontal, it’s your X encoder, located against the long back table track or on older machines, it rides on top of the back right wheel of the cross track. Carefully replace it, as you don’t want to bend the shaft of the encoder. We recommend you DO NOT force the encoder ring down past the wheel or you’ll damage it.
If you are skipping in both directions with needle penetrations, and you’ve recently changed your needle, the needle might not be properly seated. We suggest realigning the needle - making sure the needle is seated all the way in the nedle bar and the eye is slightly angled to the right (approximately at the 5:00 to 5:30 position). Also, if you’ve switched to a thinner or heavier needle, your needle might be flexing away from the hook while the machine is traveling or it is not the correct size for the project. We recommend using a standard size 18 (4.0) needles as this is what the machines are generally timed to.
If your belts are attached and you are in computerized mode, and it’s skipping WITH stitch penetrations, your needle bar might have been jarred out of place by stitching multiple seams or hitting something, or Tshirt quilts with lots of thick silk screens can knock it out of position. You’ll need to adjust your needle bar height. For information about how to check this and make an adjustment, click here.
If the needle is hesitating and not penetrating, it’s skipping stitches in both directions and your needle bar is in the correct place with the needle properly seated, your motor belt may be slipping or need replacement. The tension on it will need to be properly adjusted by raising the motor slightly. Please DO NOT over tighten the belt.
If none of the above options are correcting the issues, the last thing you should do is attempt to retime the machine, click here to preview how to retime your machine.