Can some please help me pick the right embroidery machine

I am an industrial embroidery machine technician with 20 +yrs and have worked on numerous brands of machines,I always lean towards barudan, as they are very well engineered,good electrics, reliable, and sew very well. generally are a little pricier but you get what you pay for.
feel free to call for advice 253 8332157 (Brian)

Visit an ISS Show near you and visit with Bob Stone at the Barudan booth. Nice guy and I bet a new single head will be under 20K.

I recommend SWF. I have been using them for the past 10 years.

Karen Castillo
Karen's Embroidery & Digitizing
karensdigitizing.com
karensemb@dishmail.net

Agreed. Barudans are a little pricey, but worth every, and I do mean every penny.

I would save the money for now until your business was strong enough to warrant such a major purchase. Sub out the embroidery until it made sense. You dont know what you dont know...better to learn before you plop down that kind of money only to possibly have a machine sitting in a corner collecting dust .. not being used. Hey, reality check... I have seen SO many people do just that... sort of like going out and buying all that fancy expensive exercise equipment.. best of intentions, but nearly always ends up a waste of money.

My first order was from the goverment for 4000 caps front and back. I did these on a brother machine. If you are intrested I have a 6 head Brother for sale in central Alabama.
It is in great shape. Has been serviced regularly. I have would not be afraid to say I have embroidered over 125,000 caps with this machine. On another order for 6000 caps we got those out in 6 weeks.
you may contact me at hathornecarol@yahoo.com
or 256-831-9999
Thanks

Barudan . Yes, they are more $$$. But I have had mine for 20 plus years. First one was
$20,000.00. They have come down in price. Then the second one I bought was another
brand because I wanted to go cheap. That lasted 6 wks. I sold it and bought another
Barudan. Like they say don't waste your money. I lost $2,000. being stupid. If you are
serious about being in this business buy a new machine the first time. Get all the training
and know you don't have to worry about something going wrong. Barudan has a great
support system. And the tech service even after 20 some years with them is super.

Go to their offices or even visit a shop, might be a 100 miles away , but well worth the
investment of time.

Good luck.

You'll have to purchase second hand to obtain a good machine. In addition to this site I would also check out the Embroidery Yellow Pages

http://www.embroideryyellowpages.com/

for used equipment. Tajima and Barudan have always had the reputation of being good with caps. I run Tajima machines and they have been fine.

If you are doing cap embroidery you would need at least a 4-6 head machine to make any money and make the most of your time. Too many people think that getting a single head will do, unfortunately the time involved to hoop, position, sew and un-hoop all will eat up your profits. I have used Atlas Embroidery in Florida for contract work and they are very good at what they do.

Hi Mite.

They are correct, you can try ads on here, embroidery yellow pages, and craigs list/ebay, but just beware on there for your first machine. Cause you get it, and good luck. No warranties or anything.

Here is post that I wrote a while back for another member, I'm pasting it here to save myself the re-type, forgive me if its info overload. Feel free to post any other questions.

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in an attempt to answer your furhter questions about machinery and jobs here goes.

Machines: I personally would tell you to buy either a Tajima or Barudan. I own both. Both of them are great machines, I probably favor Baurdan a little more so, just because they seems to behave better on the extremely fine details. OK, now in effort to give you an un-biased opinion on machines here goes.

Barudan: Japanese made, awesome machines, nothing bad to say. I LOVE their cap system, due to their rounded arms.

Tajima: Great machines as well, the "M-Series" controllers are probably a touch more user friendly than Barudan.

Toyota: Basically a tajima, with a few less bells and whistles (that you probably don't need anyway)

SWF: Korean made machines, Cheaper, many of their parts are based of Tajima "old school" technology, the new LCD controlled ones I find to have an overly compliated control, everything is in a menu, and a sub menu, they run fast, still nice, but I haven't seen the fine detail quality come out of them like others. I can't endorse them, let's call it a bad experience, and leave it there. lol

Melco/Amaya: No matter what they say ... They ARE NOT MADE in USA. They are ASSEMBLED in USA. Start taking off covers and looking at solenoids and boards, they are mostly made in china. Although, I have never owned one, I have heard some REAL horror stories about them. Melco reels you in with a cheap price, but then they've got you with their funky proprietary file formats and stuff like that.

ZSK: German made, fast, reliable, nimble, but if you have something go wrong, they are a FORTUNE to fix. Also there is no universal timing on them (unless they've changed that in recent years) so in other words, every machine comes with a "timing gauge" if you ever need service, and you loose that ... in so many words ... you're totally screwed.

Brother: Good machines as well, Japan mande, not super common, however I did own a 4 head back in the day, was one of my first multi-head machines actually. I don't really have much bad to say about it, other than the bobbins, while yes, they do use the Jumbo-M bobbins, tensioning them can be a bit funky. If you use them, you should really use the magnetic core ones, this will help greatly.

Happy: Like using a jackhammer to embroider, lol. They are LOUD machines, their control panel desperately needs an update, and they are all in all quirky.

There are others out there too: Ricoma, Meistergram, Schiffi, Prodigi, I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but the moral is ... stay mainstream manufacturer.

Now as far as cost: This is going to hurt, and I'm sure there will be some rebuttals to this, but, I am going to say $20,000. Here's why. We all know that there are wants, and there are needs. I am saying that number bracing you for "impact" so to speak. I'll try to take this one thing at a time again.

Machine: For your first machine, buy new, reason being, if you buy new from the manufacturer, you get usually a 5 year warranty, and they will train you for free. They will teach you the basics and the not-so-basics and get you started, then if you find the need for another machine down the road, then you can buy used, cause you already know how to run it, so you're not buying a machine off craigs list, getting it home, and then saying to yourself ... ok, now what? Lets assume you buy a Tajima, NEO which is a good starter machine, it doesn't have the LCD screen, but its VERY easy just the same. You should be able to pick one of them up in the neighborhood of about $13,000 (I hope I'm still current on that assumption)

Software: You really do not need some fabulous or elaborite digitizing suite, start small, get a nice lettering & editing software that will allow you to do name drops and make very minor adjustments to files. You can easily send your logos out to a digitizer and have them done, then just mark them up a few bucks and charge it back to your customer. I'm going to say, you'll probably end up spenindg in the neighborhood of $1,000 for a nice setup here. NEVER under ANY circumstances buy used software, 99% of companies will NOT offer you upgrades or support for a re-sold or used product.

Hardware: Most machines come with everything you need to get started, 2 of each of the popular hoops 12cm's, 15cm's, 18cm's, some sort of jacket back hoop, and cap frame and driver. If you do a lot of heavy or odd things like dog collars, golf bags, ultra heavy canvas jackets, you may want to invest in a clamp system, Those are about $1,500, but not really a need.

Thread: It goes quick, and adds up faster than you think! For round numbers sake, lets say you have 30 colors and at about $7 (industry average) a cone thats $210 for one set of colors, not to mention you will probably want to have at least a few cones of each on your more popular colors. Trust me, its VERY easy to blow $500+ dollars on thread just by doing the, one of these, two of this, oh, thats a cool color. I've done it MANY times. lol

Other supplies: There is cut away stabilizer, Cap backing, tear away in different gauges and textures for various things, this all adds up as well, not to mention bobbins. There is spray tack for applique (if you get into that) there is spot remover, which is cheap and very handy. Oil. Spare needles.

Hoopmaster: This is a Godsend, and its a minimum of $1,000 for a complete set, while you may not need a complete kit for every hoop, its going to be at least $800. This is the board that helps you hoop things square and uniform every time. You really DO need this, just adjust once, hoop your shirt and go, then every time you re hoop a shirt you just make sure the garment is pulled down, and presto! Hoop. Same place, every time.

There are a million more goodies you can buy. Its very easy to to crazy here. Again, perhaps $20k is an exageration, but its a good number to prepare you, so you don't have "sticker shock" lol

Hope I've shed some light on a few things for you

Let me know if you have any other questions!