Lock stitch question

Wildgoose · February 29th, 2016, 03:42 PM

Being a newbie and trying to learn, I have a newbie question:

I recently built and stitched my company logo on a super heavyweight hooded jacket. (18oz) After some wear and tear I noticed that a few of the tie-out lock stitches were coming loose. I used some gel super glue to hold these and the other stitching but it made me question things.

I used the default 3 stitch tie-in and tie-out that my program has. It has other options with 4,5 or 6 stitch tie outs. (I started immediately using 4 stitch after finding this) I am wanting to understand what went wrong. Was this a product of the thick garment? What is the standard tie and how often do you vary this? Do you see issues with this sort of thing on all garments or just certain fabric types? There are probably drawbacks to going overkill on this. What about caps?

All wisdom and knowledge any of you are willing to dole out is appreciated.I am very new and wanting to learn. I posted this same question elsewhere but I like to garner as much as I can from different sources so if you have seen this already post up (if you didn't already). When I can I have been trying to do my own work even if it's in tandem with a design I have already paid someone to do. It has taken many hours to get passable results but slowly I am getting to where I can get decent results after half a dozen tries. (I'm getting lots of practice at loading and deleting files into my machine at the very least! Ha ha!)

Robert Young · February 29th, 2016, 05:20 PM

hi, It may just be that you had fix/lock stitches turned off on that particular design. I know that that is easy to do on my software so I have to make sure to check each time as mine powers up with NONE. Probably not your fault at all, just an oversight! The main point is you are aware of the issue so I think you will be fine from here on out. Best of luck and hope you enjoy your new machine!

LogoAdvantage · March 2nd, 2016, 08:57 AM

Wildgoose,

Here are a few things to check,
Keep in mind that if you filter short stitches on your machine that some machines can and will actually remove lock stitches as part of the filtering process. If your not getting good locks I would make sure that is not something you are using on the machine. Often this setting can be adjusted based on stitch length and in some software you can also control the stitch length of the lock as well. Make sure these two settings are not conflicting with each other.

From my experience lock stitches work BETTER on thick garments than they do on thin ones so my guess is this is a settings issue.

Does your software give you different lock options ? Standard, Linear, Star etc ? Not all of them do but we use Linear style lock on run stitches and standard on most other types for a cleaner look yet still getting a productive lock stitch as well. You of coarse can also control the number of stitches as well as the length of them to make sure you get a good lock.

Good Luck !

Wildgoose · March 2nd, 2016, 03:57 PM

Mine has settings to add stitches in basically a star pattern. Default is 3 and I started going to 4 after this issue (with up to 6 possible). The 4th stitch appears to travel right back to the number two spot and double up on the cross over stitch. I'll check the setting on the small stitch and make sure that it wasn't something like that. Glad to know it isn't likely a thick garment issue. I can set the lock stitch length. I'm not where I can look it up but I think it defaults to 0.20 Do you have any recommendations regarding the length? I know I can also set it so it doesn't travel during the tie out whatever that means. I may try one and see what that looks like.

digidana · March 4th, 2016, 02:30 PM

my software does an automatic lock stitch with a trim, but on wider stitches, i do a manual zig zag lock stitch, then put the trim on the lock stitch which doubles up the lock stitch. if its a very wide stitch, say, 6 mm, i may go back and forth several times. i'm kind of a control freak with my designs and know that if i put it in there manually, it will be there. i also do a small stitch removal when i'm finished with the designs, but only with satin or fill stitches so it doesn't remove my manual lock stitches.