Has anyone ever ordered any of his kits? I have been looking at the quilt kit, and the tarp kit. Are they hard to put together?

I ordered the Ray Way 2 person with split zip and Gorget. It took me about 3 evenings to put it together, but I had a few distractions (3 kids). The result is fantastic. I was a little concerned with drafts, but the Gorget does just what it is supposed to. The weight is impressive and the two halves pack small.

what percentage of the weight and materials do you think that the insulation is? I'm going to make a quilt from ray but only using a single layer of .9". I want to try and get an estimate of weight.

I sewed up a grey and black two person tarp last spring useing the instructions from Ray's tarp book. Though we purchesed our own materials (as I wanted a two color pattern) and thus didn't use his tarp kit, we did purchase his kit for the two person bug tent. Both turned out very well, and were wonderful shelter on our month on the PCT in Oregon.By the way Ray sells the absolute best thread for hiking gear. The stuff works easily and seems almost indestructable.

I have Ray's thread as well. While it is quite strong, I stopped using it as it explodes in my bobbins when they about 1/3 full resulting in a rat's nest on the back side of the fabric. The thread is very springy and under a bit of tension which is why I think it does this.

I stopped using it as I was tired of fighting with it.

I'm sorry to hear that your machine didn't like it. It works great in my Bernina. I wonder if perhaps changing thread tention would help?

I'm not sure that would help. As the thread basically unwinds inside the bobbin holder. Since the bobbin is allowed to spin freely inside the holder (at least I think it does on my Pfaff), adjusting the tension isn't likely to fix this issue.

The same thing happens if I were to just lay a filled bobbin on the table. It literaly unwinds itself in seconds. Does that happen to you? Maybe my spool of Ray's thread is especially springy.

Ray's thread appears to be a monofilament thread. Almost like thin black fishing line. Unlike, say, ACYE's thread on thru-hiker.com which appears to be a traditional multi-strand thread. The monofilament stuff (like fishing line) is a bit more springy.

Edited by tlbj6142 on 06/07/2005 07:52:06 MDT.

Tony, I agree with Whit about the tensioning for your bobin. I use #69 thread for all my prototype packs and tents. It's thicker and stronger than the tread sold by Ray.

It also requires an adjustment to the bobin tension to run correctly through my Phaff. It took a bit of work to get it all adjusted correctly.

You may want to take the thread into your local dealer with some material you're sewing. They should be able to do the adjustments easily.

Ron

Edited by rmoak on 06/07/2005 07:37:43 MDT.

Since the tension adjustment is external to the bobbin itself, I fail to see how adjusting it would prevent this from occuring. Does the bobbin spin freely inside the holder? Or is it locked in place?

I did buy a separate bobbin holder just for my thread, and I have adjusted the tension on holder such that when holding the end of the thread only, allowing the bobbin and holder to hang in the air. It does not drop. A slight jerk of the wrist will cause it to drop 4-6". Which, I belive it exactly how the "old ladies" at the sewing store told me to adjust the bobbin tension.

Thread tension for heavier fabrics using heavier thread is a tricky business. Here are a few things to try. Definately adjust the bobbin tension. If it is too loose, it could cause the bobbin to spin freely to cause the rat nest. You do want the bobbin to fall a few inches after a slight jerk of the wrist, when suspended from the thread. You should also try running the upper tension higher than normal; perhaps just above what the machine says is the normal tension range. Sharp needles can cure more problems than you might think, and they dull quickly or bend slightly when sewing heavier fabrics. A final suggestion would be to try putting the spool of thread on the ground, and running the thread over something so it feed correctly back into the upper tension as normal. The idea here is to have thread come off the end of the spool rather than unwinding from the spool. Some high end machines are designed to work this way normally. BTW, these tips came from my local sewing shop.

Some of the parts around the bobbin can get damaged easily by a misguided needle. This creates burrs that catch the thread and do some strange things down in the bobbin area. If the above tips don't help, I suggest seeking professional help...um, I mean for the sewing machine. :) Good luck.

I do place the tread in a tall cup on the table and run it over the top of my machine (through one of those binder clips) before it enters the upper tensioning arm. The cup is on the ground, though I doubt it would make that much of a difference to the bobbin tension.

Tony, on the top of casing the bobbin is inserted into is a screw that adjusts the tension applied to the thread leaving the bobbin.

This tension must match the tension on the thread coming through the needle. If there is a mismatch the seam will not have the right tension. The crossover between the top and bottom threads should be in the hole.

If the crossover is on top of the seam there's too much tension on the needle thread. If the cross over is on the bottom there's too much tension on the bottom.

Sorry, I hadn't read your full post where you adjusted the tension screew. However, I'd say you need to apply a bit more tension to the bobbin case. I don't believe my bobbin would drop that much if I used your test.

In any case gettting the right tension can be somewhat frustrating. Which is why I won't let my wife touch my machine to sew normal projects.

It may also be the case that the machine won't accept the tread. Though Phaff machines generally accept thicker threads than many general purpose machines.

I've been running #69 thread through my maching for some 5 years now with no problems.

Hope this helps.

Ron

Edited by rmoak on 06/07/2005 10:49:10 MDT.

I do place the tread in a tall cup on the table and run it over the top of my machine (through one of those binder clips) before it enters the upper tensioning arm. The cup is on the ground, though I doubt it would make that much of a difference to the bobbin tension.

My Ray-Way 1-person quilt has two layers of 0.75" batting plus a slightly smaller Extra Layer of 0.75" batting sandwiched between. The fabric is Ultra (no longer offered; a bit lighter than their 1.1oz Light fabric). Finished weight is 37oz.

I over-sized the quilt a bit to (hopefully) work for winter, so I expect I could easily have shaved off 4-5oz by fitting it closer to my (extra-large) size.

We used the Ray-Way thread without problem in a well-adjusted Bernina.

Barry,
Could you give us some more information on your quilt? How much does it weight total(each part)?

Travis