Colin

First things first...Liberty gave you just about the best and most complete answer you could receive. I'll just add a couple of points.

Go to the trade shows and see the various brands first hand. Don't belive everything you hear a salesman say.

Machines - Tajima is a workhorse...I wish we had gone with Tajima out of the chute. We are running the older Melco (pre-Amaya) and Brother equipment. My sister-in-law has SWF. I would have no problem buying Tajima, Brother or SWF. Your first machine should be new, only after you are comfortable with the machinery should you consider used equipment.

Dealer - Just as important as the brand. Sometimes the sales rep will have to do battle with the manufacturer on your behalf regarding things that should be warranty items. My wife actually called tech support for each brand we were considering after our original purchase to see how long it took for a response.

Software - I totally agree with Liberty. Most industry experts agree that you should run designs for a year before you think about digitizing. It truly is an art and there is a lot to learn about push, pull, and density. You need at least an editing level -- you would not believe how many bad stock designs are out there. We are partial to Wilcom and use their ES-65 top of the line. Hey, it was either that or a new car so we got the software. At the trade shows you will hear salesmen say that their software is as good as Wilcom...hmmmmm

Hoops - Almost all cap frames from the mfrs are poor -- go with Hoop Tech and get either their hooping stand or something from P&F. Look into hooping systems -- a board (stand) and hoops that are made for each other. Hooping is just about the most important part of the process for turning out good embroidery. Check out the weird looking hoops, too. We do custom work and would be lost without our collection of special purpose hoops.

No matter which way you go, hands-on training is critical -- forget lectures for your initial training. You'll need training on the machine, the software, and how to hoop. Get different types of fabric and practice with it. Allow 2 or 3 months to come up to speed.

Good Luck

Chuck,

I appreciate the information you're providing.

I think it's important to have an excellent working knowledge, of as many processes as possible, in order to be ultimately credible before our customers, regardless of which processes we perform in-house.

Between your previous post and Liberty's, this has become a very informative thread (no pun intended, this time) :-) 

Sorry to be so late to the discussion. I haven't sold my machine yet.

Barudan is known for having machines that almost never break unless the operator does something dumb (like hit a hoop). Charlie (my rep) has a tech that can answer your questions over the phone most of the time and walk you through whatever needs to be done. As for price, they are comparably priced to Tajima or Toyota.

I know Charlie would schedule training for you (for a price of course). He knows I am selling my machine. I am sure the rep in your area would do the same.

Barudan has a 270 hat frame that makes doing hats a breeze.

As for your question about Tajima responding - I could never get anyone to return my calls and at shows they never seemed interested in answering my questions.

Helen Hart Momsen ( http://www.helenhart.com/index.html ) has a set of books she wrote about embroidery that are wonderful. They are well worth the money. I wish they had been out when we started, it would have saved us tons of money.

The more I think about it, I am reluctant to take on a large $ burden with the volume of embroidery that we currently have. The guy that I was using for embroidery is encouraging me to pursue starting with a new machine but one that is simple and pretty small. Based on what he has done for us so far, he feels that us buying a new machine for $15 - $18 K is too much for us right now.

He and I have had long discussions about where our business might be going once we purchase a machine and as a result of those conversations, I am reluctant to take on a lot of wholesale work in order to help pay for the new machine. I could take over many of his customers but most are low to medium volume with the expectation of paying low prices.

The question for this group is whether anyone has any experience with a small machine - I don't know that they exist - but maybe one that is more for a small amount of embroidery on small items. I know that there are home sewing machines that do embroidery and that doesn't seem like a good thing but are there any machines that are in the middle of these home ones and what I would call an industrial machine?

I am going to the SGIA show in Vegas next week - originally to look at Tajima and Barudan - but if there other machines I should look at while I'm there, I'd love to hear about them.

Brother makes a 6 needle and SWF makes a 12. Both are less expensive than Barudan. Depending on your needs one of these may work for you.

One of the other vendors at shows the shows we do has a Brother. But all they do is lettering and offer only a couple of colors. It does take the abuse of being hauled all over the country and long hours during the show.

I believe the sewing field on a small Brother is about 8x12? So logos can be done, even smaller jacket backs would fit in that. I'm not sure on a small SWF what it's field is.

I see you found your way to eline :)  That is a very helpful group.

As for software, you can get by using Embird which costs about $200 instead of spending 10 times that for commercial software. After 4 years, I am still using it and just now feeling the need to move onto commercial software.

Thanks for everyone's valuable input. I ended up buying a Tajima NEO mostly based on my assessment of Hirsch's training and support. I went with their Creator software which supposedly lists for $4500 (!). I like the idea of being able to grow into the software without worrying about upgrading later. I received lots of valuable input from eLine folks and I went to the SGIA show in Las Vegas in late September to look at machines. The SWF rep was extremley helpful and the Barudan rep didn't even want to answer my seemingly stupid questions. The Tajima reps seemed to understand my concern about training and support and they answered most of my questions.

The SWF training and support got rapped pretty hard on eLine - and perhaps the MESA people are being painted with the same brush as the SWF reps on the East Coast - who appear to have a pretty bad reputation when it comes to support. This uncertainty in what I would be getting turned me off of SWF - but boy was I close to buying one!

The Tajima machine arrived when promised in an extremely well-made and intelligently engineered crate, the admiration of which helped lower the post-purchase anxiety. With 2 hours of training from the Tajima rep, we were sewing names and monograms on stuff. We have a long way to go, but I am pleased with my decision so far and I want to thank all of you who provided such valuable input. I couldn't have made a decision without you.

Colin

Rebecca,

Do you still have your machine? I know a while back you were trying to sell.