stablemom

Good morning everyone!!! So I am thinking of setting up my LA in my dining room and wondering how much floor space this takes up. If you have the backside of it close to a wall, how many feet should it be out from that wall? Thanks folks!

feline fanatic

It is always a good idea to keep enough room on the backside to walk behind the rack. I don't know the TL setup good enough to know if the machines rear handles extend far out behind the carriage. But you will need to account for that. You also need to get behind the machine to pin the quilt backing to your take up roller and leave room for doing pantos should you ever decide to do one. So at a bare minimum I would leave 2 ft back there if not a bit more. You also want room to walk around your rack at least on one side. My set up is in a small bedroom approximately 11 x 14 and I have a 10ft rack with a 26" machine head. I have about 3 ft floor space behind the rack and that is a snug fit. I have approximatly 4 ft in front as the bulk of my work is done in front and I have about 3 ft on one side to walk around. The other side there is a radiator so I could not move the rack all the way to the far wall.

btiny36

Feline fanatic is pretty much on the mark for setting up a machine and frame. I have the tin Lizzie setup and it take a fair amount of room. My machine is 18" though. I still think I need more room at the back but 3ft is good for sure.

DogHouseMom

Go to the TL website and look up the rack you are interested in. It should give all of the dimensions. Jot those down, then add the footage as stated by FF to the back and at least one side. Take a look at the pic of the TL to see how far the rear handles extend and keep that into consideration. Mark out the size of the frame on your floor starting at the point that you will place the frame (ie 3' from back wall, 3' from at least one side wall), then step back and see how much room you have at the front of the frame to work. If you will primarily be working from the back of the frame, I would add more than 3' to make it comfortable (also add more if you are a person of larger size).

I just bought a LA and because I didn't want to squeeze it into one of the spare rooms (doable, but not ideal), so I elected to set mine up at our shop about 7 miles from home.

PaperPrincess

Don't know the exact frame you are looking at, but I have an 18" tin lizzie with a 10' frame. The base is about 42" deep, and I have about 2 feet in back, it is really tight, but I don't do pantographs. 3 feet would be much better. With the smaller 18" unit, you can easily pin the quilt to the back rollers from the front. So 3 feet in front, 3 feet in back plus the frame is 9 - 9.5 feet, and you need to get to both sides to raise an lower the rails, so at least 3 feet at one end, and a foot or so at the other so you can reach around. You are looking at 9 by 14 minimum.

mighty

This sounds pretty much right on!