tin lizzie error message

Machine Update

| Cindy Anderson

Anytime a mechanical device breaks or malfunctions it can be frustrating. Having my longarm quilt machine out of commission is downright heartbreaking. This industrial built machine is supposed to be my workhorse. How can I practice my craft if my machine doesn’t stitch?

I struggle to stay in harmony with my Tin Lizzie. There are so many opportunities for things to go wrong. I recently shared two posts discussing some of my issues. The first one called A Bump In The Road revealed the challenge I experienced with breaking/shredding thread as well as a timing issue. Those items, for the most part, had been tackled.

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My second post named Not Again talked about a machine failure. When I signed off, at the end of my post, I was waiting for the Tin Lizzie corporate office to call. Several days later I did receive a call. After asking a series of questions I was told that my issue would be forwarded to a repairperson. This repairperson would then call to discuss my issue. As of today the repairperson has never called.

After my machine sat idle for days I thought I would try turning on the machine to see if for some reason it would mysteriously work. Much to my surprise the machine successfully completed its start-up routine. With hesitation I pressed the stitch button and away she went. Bingo!

I was so happy to get back to quilting! Who knows what was wrong. All that counts is that my machine is working.

I wonder if the repairperson will ever call? 🙂

Thank you for stopping by!

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P.S. My machine did mysteriously stop working again giving me the same error message as last time. I decided to turn it off and restart just like I did before. This particular time it worked right away. I hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence because my machine’s warranty expires midway through 2018. ;(

Not Again!

| Cindy Anderson

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Have you ever a screen like this? I have and it wasn’t for a good reason. This lovely display of colors meant I had an issue with my Tin Lizzie quilt machine. If you recall my recent post then you remember that I had struggled with a timing issue on my machine. Thankfully I successfully overcame that. Unfortunately I have run into another road block.

I recently had the privilege of working with a new quilting customer. She asked me to do the stitching on a quilt she was planning to give as a gift. I’ll share more about her quilt in a future post. After finishing her quilt I decided to get busy on some of my own. I had seven that were waiting to be quilted. I breezed through two of them then loaded on the third. After working on it for about six hours I decided to call it a day.

The very next morning I went down into my studio to pickup where I left off. I went through the usual routine of turning on my machine then pressed the button to begin stitching. The machine paused for a moment then displayed this message on the screen.

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I have gotten messages similar to this when my machine has had a thread jam. Naturally I made the assumption that was the case this time as well. The first thing I did was to check the fly wheel to see if it would move. The fly wheel moved freely so I figured that meant a thread jam was not the issue. While I am thankful that I didn’t have to clear the jam and time my machine all over again I was totally baffled as to the cause of the error message.

Since I don’t have a local repairman my only option is to leave a message on Tin Lizzie’s telephone or send a request for service through their website. I chose to send an electronic message. When I didn’t hear anything for 24 hours I sent a message to the person that I bought my machine from to ask for their assistance. I received a reply that indicated they would contact the corporate office to initiate a service request.

Having my longarm quilting machine broken is very upsetting to me. I am totally at the mercy of the corporate office in Utah for service. In the meantime here I sit with a partially quilted project, four more waiting to be quilted and requests from customers for others.

I certainly hope this issue can be solved real soon because I am very sad. ;(

Thank you for listening to me vent again.

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A Thread Jam

| Cindy Anderson

TL18_FULL_LINE_2015A Test of My Patience

My long arm quilt machine recently decided to test my patience. It was 3:15 a.m. I’d been up quilting for an hour and forty-five minutes when the needle, with its point embedded in fabric, suddenly stopped. Having a needle stuck in fabric is enough to make me panic. Somehow I had to find a way to solve this problem.

 

What Do I Do?

My first instinct was to manually raise the needle. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the needle to budge. My next thought was to enlist the assistance of my spouse. I figured he could probably help but the only problem with that idea was that it was way too early in the morning to bother him. So I decided to throw in the towel, at least for now, and wait until morning.

HELP!

At first light I explained to my spouse what had happened. Between the two of us we were able to do a little research on the Internet by typing in the error message displayed on the machine’s screen. The message read:

TinLizzie Motor Related-Error has occurred Error (0x02)

We were so thrilled when several web links appeared. At the very top was a link to the TinLizzie website. The link was titled, “What to do when the machine jams!”/TinLizzie 18 . The link provided detailed instructions on how to clear the jam. We followed their suggestions very carefully. Unfortunately we still were not able to fix the problem.

Frustrated with the lack of success we decided to look more closely at the instructions. Just maybe we had missed a crucial step. At the bottom of the screen, in the comments section, we found a link to a video. The video walked us through the process of clearing a jam one step at a time.

From the video we learned two things

The first was the need to remove the protective cover from the flywheel belt. By removing the cover we could gain better access. The second tip was to turn the flywheel clockwise. Using this new information we tried again to clear the jam. After several attempts the wheel finally let loose. Dislodged was a small wad of lint. I was sort of surprised to see it because I’m very careful to keep the bobbin area clear.

Time to Try it Out

After reinstalling the belt cover I removed the dislodged lint as well as any other stray threads. I also replaced the needle. After replacing the needle I turned on the machine and tested it to make sure we were successful. Thankfully all went well. I was back in business thanks to the TinLizzie website and the assistance of my spouse. Time to get back to quilting.

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy Anderson of In A Stitch Quilting

Sample of Quilting