Computerized long arm quilting machines cost 15 to 40k, which puts them out of reach for most households, and hand quilting, as the maker puts it, never looks good and lacks accuracy. Joshua Brown's answer to both problems is a CNC quilting machine, built as a gift for their wife, that stitches decorative patterns automatically while costing a fraction of a commercial unit.
The build is refreshingly practical. Rather than engineering a custom stitching head, the maker mounted a regular quilting machine on a trolley that rides the rails, and the rails themselves tension the material, so no hoop is needed. A black stepper motor on a mounting bracket drives a timing belt along the frame rail, and the controller plus a perforated silver switching power supply with a blue indicator light sit under the frame. The wiring is routed along the metal frame members with zip ties, which looks tidy in a way that matters on a machine that moves a lot. The frame came from Kijiji and the motors from Amazon, a sourcing approach that seems like a smart way to keep costs down.
In operation, the machine moved on its own, stitching petal and leaf outlines in light-colored thread onto red-brown fabric, with floral and scroll patterns running continuously across the piece. The head uses a needle, needle bar, and a circular hopping foot above the fabric, and the foot pedal runs off a 0-5v potentiometer.
It is not finished as a system. The x axis stepper vibrates and makes a loud engine-like noise, though that improves as the feed rate rises, and the maker went slow on a first run. The maker also wants to connect the sewing machine foot to spindle control so stitch speed follows CNC movement, and a how-to walkthrough is in the works.
Project by Joshua Brown. Watch it on their YouTube channel: