Maintain Your Longarm Machine! Sit Down Quilting #9
Click Here to learn more about this Grace Qnique machine.
One extra place I like to place 1 drop of oil is about 1/2 inch above the needle so that bar doesn’t go too dry. That’s just my personal preference.
Of course the best place to check for details about your machine is the machine manual. Always double check where your company recommends oiling the machine just in case your machine has different oil spots than the Grace Qnique.
For changing the bobbin, yes, it’s a bit of an ordeal when the machine is dropped down into a table like this. I have to move the quilt, the Queen Supreme Slider, and the acrylic insert to change the bobbin. This is one good reason the quilt with one single color of thread – you only have to change when the bobbin runs out!
If you’re changing thread colors a lot on a quilt, try quilting as much as you can through one color, switch, then quilt as much as you can with the next color and so on. It’s certainly not a deal breaker for me because I like quilting with white Isacord thread for pretty much everything.
It is tough to keep track of how often you’re changing the needles and oiling the machine. Another idea for keeping track might be to mark an X on your calendar. That way you’d know when the machine was last cleaned and maintained. Sometimes that’s all it takes to guilt trip me into changing needles when I know I’ve been running the same one for a solid month!
It is a bit tricky to change needles as you can probably tell from the video. Just be sure to insert the needle so it faces the right way and make sure it’s fully seated in the needle bar.
Please check your manual for better instructions! It’s really hard to make videos like this because the angles are so weird and it’s also hard to describe directions on the machine because technically the “front” of the machine is the side facing the needle (the side handle bars would be attached to if this was set up on a frame). *Sigh* I hope it made sense!
Let me know if you have more questions and as always, I love hearing your suggestions for future videos!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
I just had my Grace Qnique installed in my house as a stand-up long arm. The installer instructed me to oil the bobbin with every bobbin change and to put the drops in the top once a month. The once a month is reasonable but with every change of the bobbin seems excessive.
That may actually be good advice because the bobbins are so huge. I know vibration can be an issue with these machines when they aren't oiled enough so if you notice issues like that with the machine that might be a sign it does need to be oiled more often.