Hints for using your G-carriage
- Try to practice good housekeeping on your G-carriage. Clean and oil it after each garment you knit.
- New owners often find hanging the cast on comb difficult to do after the G-carriage has done its E-wrap cast on. It's much easier to use waste yarn to cast on and hang the cast-on comb on to it. Knit a few rows followed by 1 row knitted in ravel cord. Then attach the G-carriage and work the E-wrap cast on.
- The cast-on comb does not need to be hung on to work. For most yarn, no comb is really necessary. To prevent stitches from drooping when the first row is knitted after casting on, set the G-carriage to knit 1 row to the right. Simply move the top switch on the G-carriage from C to G and knit 1 row. Then change to a rib pattern and continue to knit in the normal way.
- For most G-carriage knitting, very little weighting is necessary. One or 2 small comb weights is generally enough. The more weights you add, the more likely you are to drop stitches.
- Patterning errors generally occur when the G-carriage has not been brought out beyond the turn marks at the edge of the needle bed. This is especially true when going from your cast on row to your rib or other pattern. Make sure you take the G-carriage out to that point before turning off the machine or when you need to reset a row if you have had a power cut.
- Although the manual says that it is not necessary for the G-carriage to move beyond the center point of the machine, this sometimes corrects patterning errors when knitting 2 halves of a neckline.
- Remove the extension rails from your machine -- don't worry your G-carriage will not fall off. These may cause the G-carriage to mis-pattern.
- Use stitch cams to prevent edge stitches from dropping. Group cams together to form lines of stocking stitch. These can be used to create cable patterns within the garter stitch designs.
- Yarns with neps don't need to go through the back yarn guide. These often get caught in the guide and cause the G-carriage to stop unnecessarily, as they are not real knots.
- Always be sure to have the needle bed in the flat position rather than on the tilt - this will prevent stitches from dropping.
- When all else fails, turn your G-carriage off, have a tea break and start all over in the morning.
Troubleshooting the Garter carriage.
G-Carriage will not move
- your G-carriage is not plugged in or you have a blown fuse
- you've had a power surge and may have burned out electronic components
- The metal tip of your garter carriage plug has touched a metal part of your knitting machine thereby blowing the main fuse.
- you have had a large static discharge in the area of your machine, possibly blowing a fuse or electronic component of your G-carriage.
- your G-carriage is not situated on the machine properly
- you do not have the proper rails or you have an incorrect knitting machine model for the G-carriage to run on.
- you may have burned out components such as motor, fuse, motherboard, or slave board
- your G Carriage may have been dropped causing broken or disloged componets
G-Carriage Row Counter does not work
- counter may need lubricating
- lost or broken spring
- electronics broken or bad connection
- disconnected lever arm (or lost e-clip)
Garter Carriage Blown Fuse - Replacing the fuse
- The main fuse is located in the Garter carriage Transformer box. Remove box cover and replace fuse.
- The G-carriage memory board also has a fuse. It is not recommended that you try to change this as it can be difficult to disassemble (there are very small snap rings and other small parts that are easily lost) and you can damage the G-carriage and/or the PC board disassembling it - send it to a G-carriage repair shop for professional service.
- Make sure you replace any fuse with the exact size, type and amperage.
- Never bypass the fuse or substitute a higher amp fuse.