Thanks for all the great information. I am having the same problem that Curt is having. I used brand new 75/11 sharp needles, made adjustments in the density of the design, sewed slowly through the seams of the hats, and I'm still having problems with needles breaking. At first I thought my machine was out of timing, but the design is sewing beautifully on a flat hoop. I made sure the hat was properly hooped and moved the design up more on the hat (away from the bill). Aside from all that, I'm still having issues. I do hats quite frequently but I've never had this problem. Could there be anything else going on that I haven't tried??
This is all great information! I too am getting a butt-kicking from trying to make caps...so much so that I don't try anymore! I've asked the question at the last 2 ISS shows I attended, and got various answers. One person always uses sharp needles...another always uses ball point needles...but 1 answer has always been consistent...I probably am not hooping the hats tight enough, causing needle deflection and breaking. Does any one have a recommendation for what cap hoops to use? I saw a demonstration at the last ISS in Fort Worth from Hoop Tech...and it sure looked easy! I guess that comes with experience.
Is your design sewing from the center out? That can make a difference also.
Im using Embroidery Office Max and I am having a problem figuring out how to make the design sew from the center out. Is it as simple as moving the start/end points? Deric
I agree with other guys, There maybe many reason. most needle break occurs when stitching close to bill(visor) area. I don't know if your machine new or old but You should also consider the HOOK TIMING of the rotary hook.
good luck.
Some caps just don't have the right shape and consequently sew like hell. Only trial and error will reveal what caps run well.
These problems can occur across the same brand of cap too. (ie. some Otto cap models run well on my Tajimas, some just don't work). Although, I have never had an issue running Richardson brand caps. They are a superior cap in every way.
We recently purchased a Tajima "stretch 8" and had the tech in 3 times in 2 weeks. We were breaking a lot of needles on cap jobs. Like 1 or 2 per run.
Turns out the factory set the gap between the needle and the hook too tight. A slight, ie. normal, amount of deflection was breaking the needle on the hook. That gap had to be re-adjusted (should be at least the width of thread). And we had to polish any burrs on the hook.
So check the gap between the needle, at the bottom of the cycle, and the hook. Not the timing but the gap. If it's close then bump the hook assembly back a skosh.
In addition Hirsch reccomends facing the eye of your needles "straight out" as opposed to a few degrees to the right. This is a simple way to increase the gap between needle and hook.
Re: Embroidering caps 
