Thursday, April 15, 2010

Turmoil, No More



For the past few days I have been in turmoil about what I should do about my APQS Liberty. It is 5 years old and since day 1 I have had issues with my wheel/table adjustments (everything else about my machine has been perfect for the most part). Anyways I was planning on sending my Liberty back to the factory for it's LONG over do "Spa Treatment" this summer, it needs it's grease box repacked, needs a new hook assembly, the mother/daughter boards checked (because I started having problems with my stitch regulator increasing stitches on it's own), my needle bar needs a minor tweak etc...basically a little pampering will do it a world of good.I want to do it in May because I can block some time out easier with my customers since the snow birds will be gone and business slows a little.


Ok so the spa thing is not what has had me in turmoil. APQS announced this week that they have a newtable/carriage system for their machines called "Bliss" from what I have learned and read it will address all the wheel tweaking/table truss issues that have been an issue for me since day 1. The problem is that it costs $3K for the upgrade :0( and altough this sounds like it would solve all of my issues with drag etc... I was having a hard time with the cost. If I was planning on keeping my Liberty for decades than this would have been a no brainer. But I would really like to upgrade to a larger APQS machine (maybe the Freedom SR) in 4-5 years and then eventually add the computer upgrade to it. So if I add the Bliss system now it will take me that much longer to save for the larger machine.


I started asking questions about the edgerider wheels for my Liberty, I got ALOT of great feedback from friends at the APQS forums and decided that I can achieve the smooth as silk glide at a much cheaper cost if I just change out my wheels and make an adjustment to my table's truss. Then this will allow me to have the $ to send my Liberty back to the factory for her spa treatment. It will be like having a new machine when she gets back together and I can have some fun practcing my custom quilting this summer. And while she is gone I will have time to piece some quilts of my own.


Oh and having the taxes done and between the state & feds actually getting some $ back which also eases turmoil, LOL

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