Things to find out.

Does the table/system do exactly what you want it to be able to do?

Does the software do exactly what you want it to be able to do? [Sometimes you need addons to the base cost to do these things.]

What is their tech help reputation?

What is their replacement parts/warranty reputation?

Is it a high or low maintenance machine? How long do actual users think it reliably lasts?

Try to get a feel for a few that will do what you need, and are within your budget, and ask for comparisons here. It may be a bit hard if people have not had both, but raves/knocks of a limited list of models can tell a lot without comparisons.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Sub Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Buck,

I just worked the ISS Show in Long beach and several people from Large companies were telling me that Brother has some very Impressive new features with there equipment. I am not affiliated with anyone but this is what we heard.

It would be worth some investigation

Hi, Buck,

I've been researching for nearly 2 months now.

I've had the opportunity to look at 3 machines in action, one "Cadilac", one "Yugo" and one "Ford".

The only reason I rank them that way is to give you an idea of relative quality (my perceptions only). However, the differences in quality were not that wide. In other words, each appeared to be a machine capable of performing as advertised. I've no real feel for reliability, but cadilacs didn't get their reputation by being in the shop all the time (the "shop" is your place of business and even under warranty you will pay travel expenses for that tech rep to come out and help you)

Cadilacs and cadilac wanna-be's start their pricing from $16K to $18K then come down to more realistic figures. Yugos and Fords start from $6K to $9K and work up with add ons (software and hardware).

Look out for snake oil salesmen.

If you want to digitize your own artwork you will have a pretty hefty learning curve.

Michael

Buck,
This is such a personal issue. Everyone is going to have their favorite machine. I have owned Melco, Brother, and Tajima. Which ones do I still own? I have two Tajimas. They are true workhorses. Easy to use. They should paint them pink like the energizer bunny! (just kidding) Regardless of some of the sales pitch stuff they tout, you might consider taking a file to have your "selected" machines sew out. Make sure you use the same thread, fabric, backing, etc. on all the sewouts. Compare the samples. Listen carefully to the machines. Some are VERY noisy. You should be able to check "your" qualifications for the machines if you watch each step as the sales person loads your design and hands you the final sew out.
Shari
Arizona

I've been embroidering for about 7 years. Started with a small Singer home machine and moved up to a used Toyota (with the head made by Tajima), but only 6 needles. It was a real workhorse. Sold it and moved up to a 15 needle SWF with Embroidery Office software. It's a Tajima clone and performs very well and a lot less money.. Love the digitizing software, but it takes a while to learn ALL of the nuances of stitch file creation.

I looked at Tajima, Barudan and SWF. They are all very good machines. Would I buy another SWF? Absolutely! I've had it for 3 1/2 years with no problems. I easily made enough to make the payments and pay it off plus a good profit. You won't go wrong with any of the 3 I mentioned. I wouldn't hesitate to buy either of the others. I have had a philosophy since I was a young carpenter (a looonnngg time ago!) of buying the best tools I can afford, and SWF was what I could afford at the time.

Wilcom digitizing software is supposed to be the best, but wery pricey. I used Compucon's for about a year, but didn't like the lettering results. They may have improved that though. I've been very happy with EO and the MESA people did an excellent job with the training. Went over the machine and the software in detail.

I'm buying a laser in Vegas and am having the same dilema. Don't want to buy a lemon. Hope this is helpful.

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.

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.........

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.