Diy cnc quilting machine

This is the long story, but i will describe you breifly.. I made 03 CNC router for my hobby work...and my wife see these router getting a large part of her home... She is interested in Sewing and she said me lot of time to build some Quilting frame and CNC's it...

So my research started.. I saw various machines on the internet but the price are very high...Simply i can't afford... As it is said that the Necessity is the Mother of Invention so i started working on it..Bought the second hand JUKI machine for US 50$... this machine ha lot of functions and my wife trying to learn Japanese for that;)..as the instruction manual and llthe buttons coded with Japaneses only :)...

I know for Quilting i just need a simple sewing machine with big throat ... but currently i have no such arrangment so start experimenting with the machine on hand...

Drawings of this build is in Progress... The complete machine will be build up of MDF.. We will have 04long rollers on it... The top roller will roll the top fabric sheet.. The bottom Roller will roll the bottom fabric sheet...And between the two sheets we will have thin Quilt Foam..

Basic Idea is the roller will be advanced and tightened manually....The machine will work on two axis , we will make a contineous design so that machine can go along the long axis in single run..Then we will home the machine and The roller will be rolled manually for next position and tightened...

I think the quilting machine has nothing to do with Feed Dogs, so We will remove the Feed Dog or lower it down and we will install the Quilting drain feet... The Biggest Problem is that, I have search the Quilting drain feet and its not available herehttp://www.cnczone.com/forums/images.../chairshot.gif....

Today I will do some TOP SECRET EXPERIMENTATION sshhhhhhhhhhh...http://www.cnczone.com/forums/images.../stickpoke.gifand the complete project is based on success of this experimentation...http://www.cnczone.com/forums/images...s/drowning.gif

Lets Cross the fingershttp://www.cnczone.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gifhttp://www.cnczone.com/forums/images...s/beerchug.gif





So this new project begun and todays was a great day as i did my first experiment on my MDF machine...see the pictures below...



PS: Dont show this thread to your spous/GF, you will be in trouble;)

Yes..You are looking what you couldn't think off..The sewing machine riding on the MDF router..http://www.cnczone.com/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif Here is the story...

1- I kept a wooden plank on my Z-axis top and secured it with two sided tape..
2- Removed the Presser Feet from the machine..
3-To make the Feed dog inoperative i took a piece of card, made a slot in it and pastetd over the bed of sewing machine..

4- Made a simple Pentagon in the VCARVE PRO 4.6 and generated the toolpath for only X-Y moves..I kept the safe-Z=0 and all z-height=0, just like a plasmahttp://www.cnczone.com/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif

5- Started the sewing machine....

7- Now I just hold the workpiece (Fabric) in my hand and my wife Pressed the Cycle Start button in Mach3.

8-Machine worked partially fine and u can see the first experiments results...

LESSON LEARNT:
1- I must have to keep some sturdy arrangements for holding Fabric without human interaction. (Sturdy set-up)

2- Told the wife to make straight sticthes in one minute.. she started the machine and made 27" of stitch/30second...so got the sewing machine speed as 54"/minute

3-Now i will make toolpath for 54"/minute for checking the synchronization...


NOW YOU CAN TELL ME HOWZ THE RESULTS AND WHAT IMPROVEMENT CAN BE TAKEN FOR ENHANCING THE QUILTING RESULTS...

My mother has an embroidery machine, which is basically a cnc sewing machine. The method for her machine is that the machine is stationary, and the fabric moves in a quilting hoop along the x and y axis. It's rather simple, but very expensive to buy. Hers keeps the presser foot, but loses the feed dog. I would look at keeping the machine stationary and making the fabric move like the commercial machines do.

What I would envision is a wooden frame to hold the fabric driven by dual drive screws on each side of the x and the y to prevent racking from occuring. Each set of screws driven by a cog belt arrangement attached to a stepper motor. I would put as much tension on the thread as possible, because each step will cause extra slack to be put in the thread unless you could match the up stroke of the needle with each step.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Justin Leiwig

My mother has an embroidery machine, which is basically a cnc sewing machine. The method for her machine is that the machine is stationary, and the fabric moves in a quilting hoop along the x and y axis. It's rather simple, but very expensive to buy. Hers keeps the presser foot, but loses the feed dog. I would look at keeping the machine stationary and making the fabric move like the commercial machines do.

What I would envision is a wooden frame to hold the fabric driven by dual drive screws on each side of the x and the y to prevent racking from occuring. Each set of screws driven by a cog belt arrangement attached to a stepper motor. I would put as much tension on the thread as possible, because each step will cause extra slack to be put in the thread unless you could match the up stroke of the needle with each step.

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Thank You Justin for enlightment:)...Basically this machine will be work as a Quilting machine, so we will not able to do any sort of embroidary work...
This is just as difference between the POCKETING and PROFILING in CNC Router... This Quilting machine will work as Profiling operation in CNC router....You can give any sort of Open continues vector design and the machine will do it for you...

The second thing is that The Quilting area is too large as compare to embroidary area.. For example you can make a quilting pattern on entire Bed sheet and theis machine will Move as per RASTER MACHINING strategy....as the working area of X-axis is too small, machine will travel to the end of Y-axis and when the design is finish, the thread will be manually cut and machine will be move to its home position... The Fabric will be rolled on the roller manually and the machine will be started again...

The making of Embroidary machine is somewhat difficult and time consuming.. I am attaching the picture of the machine that is in my mind;)


P.S: This machine will have Feed Dog removed and Quilt drain Feet will be installed... Currently searching for Quilt drain feet and i hope i will found the one in scrap yard;)

:( Sorry for my bad english, after reading it u must need a coffee cup to refresh your mind;)

The machine will be not only run with CNC but u can easily convert it into manuall operation mode...