thread looks awesome.. cant wait to read completely..looks very confortable.
thread looks awesome.. cant wait to read completely..looks very confortable.
That is a great design!
Hey Bill,
What type/size needle do you use with the Tera 60?
Peabody, I use a #14 needle for Tera 60. If you're concerned about holes in the fabric, try #11. (I'm not; I use long stitch length. Zig-zag would be even better, but my machine doesn't have it.)
Peabody, I use a #14 needle for Tera 60. If you're concerned about holes in the fabric, try #11. (I'm not; I use long stitch length. Zig-zag would be even better, but my machine doesn't have it.) See what works for you. A test seam will tell you a lot.
Thanks WV, I bought two spools from WAWAK and hope to start on another bridge soon.
More or less agree with WV...
I use an #8 or #10 for .67 ounce fabric on quilts.
I start with #11 or #12 (one ounce vs 1.6ish) for one to three layers on hammocks.
Bump to #14 for assembling heavier stuff like channels or attaching webbing.
#16 when doing heavier stuff like double webbing and even #18 when going through amsteel on the big guy bridges.
Still believe in the smallest size you can use, but realizing that often it's using too small a needle that tangles you up (or causes you to short stitch) as it gets thicker or heavier.
Which threads do you use, Bill? Most of my sewing recently has been channels and webbing on hammocks and pole pockets, but I have some Tera 80 that I use with a #11 needle for lighter fabrics (insulation layers), but I think Gutermann Mara and other threads would be just as good. I haven't encountered fabric failure because of needle holes yet.
Last edited by WV; 12-27-2018 at 09:23.
I've more or less switched over to Tera 80 for general sewing and Tera 60 for nearly everything else.Originally Posted by WV
For a long time it was Guttermann sew all for general, Mara 70 for load bearing, with Mara 50 for straps/webbing (heavy structural connections).
It's hard to say if the Tera (with easier sewing, smoother feeding, smaller needles, and overall cleaner stitches) is the reason my fabric failures have gone down or it's better design. Likely a bit of both.
I was a bit hard headed on the Mara as it had done the job for a long time, but I know several here contacted Gutterman and Tera has always been their recommendation.
It's not perfect, but over the last 18 months or so I've come to enjoy it and trust it. My only real gripe is that it can be hard to trim cleanly.
Though worth pointing out that I'm on that Juki 8700 industrial and that machine loves this thread.
I tend to make a bigger deal out of it than needed; I've worked with lighter fabrics and more dramatic geometry than most will ever want to. I had frequent failures with rolled webbing bridges at the center and the ends/corners. That was what led me to abandon them and pursue the various channel suspension methods overall, but it also made me very sensitive to the issues.
If you build a hiker dad bridge with a two ounce or so fabric... and you're a decent bit under the weight limits... then it probably doesn't matter much.
If you build a bridge with one ounce fabric and increase the depth of cut enough to belly sleep... and you're probably a bit over the weight limit... then the stitch elongation issue can show up on the first hang.
The recessed bar designs tend to elevate this issue as well.
I've only really had about a half dozen true *** on the ground failures. But I've had at least 50 odd bridges that developed enough needle elongation that they never got much beyond backyard testing before retirement.
I do agree with many others... that in heavy fabrics (especially gathered ends) that stitch elongation is not automatically a structural issue. The threads of the fabric are not necessarily cut/broken or over-stressed.
However I believe many of us bridge nerds understand there is a huge difference between loading a 200lb person in a gathered end and it's 10' or more of structural seams vs. sitting into the center of a bridge and dumping that same 200lb person onto about 24-36" of seams at the highest stress point of a curved seam. There is also a big difference between loading the fabric along the length vs the width... and as a worst case in a gathered end when someone sits down they are loading roughly 2' by the length of the hammock's worth of fabric (18-22 sf). In a bridge that can easily be putting that same seated load onto three square feet of fabric or less
I'm no sewing expert by any means... just ended up getting into a fairly specialized niche.
My horrible combination of screamingly stupid UL along with dramatically over-stressed bridge geometry has probably led me to way more issues than most would realistically have to deal with.
That micro bridge and it's various incarnations led me down some pretty deep rabbit holes. Much like Grizz and his Cuben Fiber experiments it was mainly disaster after disaster.
On the plus side when Mark here twisted my arm enough to try the Big Guy bridge out... that ended up being pretty easy by comparison.
Catching up - this has been fascinating read!!
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“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”
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