Brother KR580 ribber was first introduced to the market in 1966 to knit with 8-push button machines (KH552 and above all the way to KH560-KH588). According to some charts by creationgroup.com, KR580 ribber can even fit KH800 knitting machine. Genie 710 machine (sometimes called Brother KH710) is also an 8-push button machine but I could not information anywhere whether KR580 ribber will fit it. KH710 had some innovative design features (like all-plastic end-caps) that none of the earlier 8-push button machines have (KH562, KH581, Profile 585, KH588) but the width of the bed is the same and the needles are all interchangible among all 8-push button machines.
Because it is an older model, capable to create purl stitches when coupled with older models, the main carriage knits first and then the ribbing carriage moves the needles to working position.
The ribber needles simply latch on the yarn hanging between the needles on the main bed creating purl stitches. See a full demo in my video.
I feel that this gives a knitter a better idea which carriages causes troubles (if any) and see that needles are knitting and what not. Later ribber setups (equipped with a connecting arm, that attaches main carriage and a ribber carriages) work the same way but they ensure that only one movement is needed because the main and ribber carriage move at the same time.
About this particular ribber:
It was tested on Brother Profile 585 machine.
It has a pretty white color This is the first ribber for 8-oush button machines I’ve seen in real life and worked on. So, maybe all of them come in this pretty white color but I like it. It has such a classic 60ies look, like those corvettes you see on the road that cost nothing for the car insurance companies but are so pretty and so valuable on the used market.
The retaining bar is plastic – big PLUS: no need to replace it and worry about decomposing sponge in retaining bar corroding needles.
The machine comes with ALL assesories. Hard copy of the manual will not be included but it can be found online for free.
Tested a swatch on 1×1 ribbing
and 1×1 ribbing on the full bed but when every-other-needle was selected.
Hard copy of the manual will not be included but it can be found online for free.
Photos below show how the ribber fits onto the machine. The manual describes step-by-step instructions how to attach the ribber to the main bed.
The large screw goes into a place where a rail guard normally attaches.
Leave a Reply