Full Version: Which Machine?
From: Jim (RETAIL74) [#9]
14 Sep 2006
To: Colin (MATROPHY) [#8] 14 Sep 2006
A six needle machine does not have enough needles to do complex logos. The six needle machines are perfect for monogramming or uniform name tapes. But when you get a design that is 7 colors, you will need to stop the machine and change out the thread to complete the job.
So if you have six pieces to sew, you will have to change out the thread 12 times, because you will need your original colors to sew your next garment.
The more needles, the less thread changes. You will get more done with a 15 needle machine.
From: John (ICTJOHN) [#10]
14 Sep 2006
To: Colin (MATROPHY) [#8] 14 Sep 2006
Colin,
To expand on what great advice Jim gave you,
Just because you have a design with 6 colors in it does not make it convenient to sew on a 6 needle machine, you may have a color or 2 that will need to be sewn at different times than other ares of the same color, so your 6 color design may take 8, 9 or 10 needles to sew out those 6 colors without you having to manually change thread.
Rebecca/Sunny on this board has/had an embroidery machine for sale. It is a Barudan*, very fine top of the line machine. Might be a good fit for you, I don't think it is very old.
Some other brands you might look at are:
Melco
Brother
SWF
fyi,
* Barudan - the guy that designed this machine loved Bridgette Bardot & Pierre Cardan, so he used a combination of both names.........
From: Colin (MATROPHY) [#11]
14 Sep 2006
To: John (ICTJOHN) [#10] 14 Sep 2006
From: LipChip [#12]
14 Sep 2006
To: Colin (MATROPHY) [#11] 14 Sep 2006
From: Stunt Engraver (DGL) [#13]
14 Sep 2006
To: LipChip [#12] 16 Sep 2006
I'm sure they're out there, but I don't know of an embroiderers forum.
If anyone knows of one, we'll be sure to add it to our links of interest.
From: Liberty [#14]
14 Sep 2006
To: Colin (MATROPHY) [#8] 15 Sep 2006
The single most important reason to go with 15 colors is thus - by having all of your common colors already on the machine you don't have as much down time tying on different colors. Tying on thread is a major time waster and if you think it is bad on a single head, wait until you're tying on thread on a large machine.
If you are doing mostly personalization, your designs will be one or two colors and even with stock designs thrown in, it is pretty rare that you need more than 6 or 8 but you don't want to spend your time tying on thread before each job.
15 needles will cover the basic colors like white, black, red, the local school colors, etc., and leave you about 5 needles for colors that vary from time to time.
We also leave one needle setup all the time for metallic thread and another setup for 60 weight thread with a smaller needle for tiny lettering.
We even go as far as to batch different jobs with the same colros so we can minimize the down time from tying on thread. Once in a while on our eight head machines we even assign a second person to tie on the thread for the next job while one is running.
Years ago we had single needle machines with no trimmers. The operator spent their day trimming and tying. Technology is wonderful.
From: LipChip [#15]
16 Sep 2006
To: Stunt Engraver (DGL) [#13] 16 Sep 2006