Decisions Decisions..what machine to get ..is embroidery for me!

well ill be honest with you, most of the machines today are being sacrificed with plastic parts.
not all. the amaya xt is pure garbage, the toyota is excellent. tajima barudan and swf great machines. Now the question is how much are you willing to spend, how big are you planning to get and what sort of embroidery are you willing to do.

Firstly i would not buy a new machine. The depreciation of a new machine vs a 3 year old machine is a big savings.

so i would buy used. dont forget if you stick with the good brands i mentioned to you a 3 or 4 year old machine will last along time.

Also if you buy a single head like i did with plans of expanding its hard. Theres only so much a single head can do. For instance i had a job way back when, it was 300 polos with a 15,000 stitch logo. when i did the math on how much i could charge to be able to compete i was working for pennies an hour. Now if your only planning on catering to the 30 pcs a single head is great. If your planning on doing larger quantities id buy a 4 head or a 6 head machine. if you buy a single head with intentions of growing later on buying single heads one at a time can actually become very costly. for example a 1 head tajima is about 8500 used a 4 head tajima is about 20,000 used. if you get busy enough you will have to buy another machine. So my advice to you is..

if your planning on big orders go with a 4 or a 6 used machine. if your planning on doing monogramming and sticking to smaller orders id buy a single head.

good prices for machines ill give you a few sites in a pm that you can check out. and good fair prices

for using a machine its really not that hard. i learned the basics in about a day. The only thing that is tricky is tension i found and making sure the colors are right.

anyway i hope i helped

If you can attend an ISS show http://www.issshows.com/issshows/index.jsp
that would help some of your questions. Buying a single head is a big investment. BTW single head means the machine can embroider one item at a time. A four head can embroider four items at the same time. Besides the cost and the required space you'll need large order of the same item if you purchase a multihead but if you plan on doing onsies a singlehead is what you need. Spend time on line in the different embroidery forums so you'll know what you're getting into. I would purchase a better known machine (I use Tajima). If you purchase used you'll need an experienced embroiderer (a few years experience) to evalute the machine. Many of the better known single heads don't have much of a price reduction after a few years use - at least the advertised price. If you buy new you may receive valuable training but if you buy used how will you learn to use the machine and the software? Definitely spend time thinking about what type of work you want to do.

go to the shows but dont be fooled by the plastic toy machines..

Work at a local embroidery shop for at least 6 months.... learn the business from the inside, you may find that you like working at a shop better than actually owning one. It all sounds so easy, but it isn't. You don't know what you don't know until you experience it first hand. Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Digitizing, Embroidery, Shipping, Taxes, etc... it goes on an on.. the learning curve is steep.
When you have the experience and you still think you want to own your own company then I would suggest purchasing a NEW machine as your first one.... for the training and support and peace of mind that you are not getting someone else's headache.

If you purchase a used machine you might considering apprenticing or working for someone. One of the issues with that is you'll probably need to find someone that isn't in your area because most people don't want to train potential competitors even for a fee. You might be able to pay for training from the manufacturer of your machine. You would have to check into this. There are basic training seminars (different than the classes) at the ISS shows. I haven't attended these but I would guess the embroidery seminar would be very helpful.

The machine running time for the average polo is about ten minutes. The time varies greatly depending on the number of stitches in the design, number of trims/color changes & speed of the machine. Although a machine may be marketed at being able to run at X speed you probably won't be able to effectively run it at that speed without having thread breaks. Once you get some practice you'll find the speeds that work for you. Some designs/fabrics/caps must be run slower. Those are some of the things you'll learn when you start.

As far as reading material goes - Helen Hart has written two books on the business. I haven't read them but I've heard that they are very helpful and can be used as reference sourches when problems occur:
http://www.helenhart.com/page/page/1749255.htm
Sign up for trade magazines such as Stitches (free)
http://www.asipublications.com/Stitches/
There is a wealth of material inside these magazines.

Also, join embroidery forums such as eline and elist. Some of the machine manufacturers (Tajima, Amaya & SWF) have an online user's group which would be very helpful.

i really like this site everyone is so helpful and gives off good advice.And all the advice given is pretty good.

For your training question that all depends on you. For instance, when i got into this business i thought you threw the shirt on the machine and the machine did all the work. Not quite that simple. One of the biggest learning curves is confidence. The other ones are of course thread tension bobbin tension etc.. Now this is only my opinion. I find today alot of machine companies are compromising on the structure of the machines. I have a 1990 tajima 12 head and im telling you it looks like a tank!. i also have a 1999 tajima still looks beefy buy not like the 1990. i had 3 amaya's sold em they broke constantly, plastic construction. So rest assured if you buy a used machine which is all ive ever bought but a good brand used machine i think you will be fine. I bought a new machine once and ill never do it again. my 1990 the new machine i purchased broke in a month maybe a little more but i wasn't impressed. As for training i dont know about where you live but here even if you purchase a new machine the warranty is one year parts and 6 months labor plus traveling expenses.
And the training is 2 days and 250$ a day after that. Honestly you cant learn everything in 2 days. trust me took me alot longer than that. maybe im a slow learner. i thought about it this way and maybe im wrong but it made sense to me. I spent a third of the price on a machine and spent money on training, a hooping aid which we'll discuss in a sec. thread, and electrician. software.

hooping device. some clients dont notice and some do, and when they do its a problem.
I bought a hoop master . The hoopmaster allows you to hoop in almost the same place every time. which is an important thing. because if you have a hoopmaster it relieves alot of stress from the design from being out of place. that can run you about 650$-1000$ right there.

Hoops: its nice to have at least 2 sets of each hoop for your work. while one set is on the machine the other set is being used to hoop up the new garments going on the machine for the next run. hoops can be costly and extra when buying a machine. so thats a good thing to keep in mind.

Training: research around for the nearest dealer to dispatch someone to train you on the machine if its 500$ it will get you into the groove of things and than you can at least start learning more. The most important things you need to know is... Hats, backing types, when to use toppings, how to operate the machine. how to thread the machine etc.. so thats a good thought. Also if you decide to go used. explain to the used dealer or the person that you want the machine checked or inspected a 100 extra dollars now may save you allot later.

Software: don't let anyone tell you to buy 4500 software 15,000 software etc.. you dont need it right now. i have some basic lettering software im not using you can have it. i suggest you farm out your digitizing for now thats a big part of embroidery and that will determine how nice your design will sew out. So id leave that to someone else to do for you.

Electricity, a single head runs off of a standard 110 outlet nothing extra required. but a 6 head machine is 220v and a 12 head machine is 3 phase. if your starting out i dont suggest buying a 12 head. 3 phase cost me around 12,000$ the regular 220v that i put in was only about 500$ so thats important to know too.

Find a good thread supplier

use isacord madeira big companies i find polyester to work the best.

anyway i hope that helped

keep us posted

i really like this site everyone is so helpful and gives off good advice.And all the advice given is pretty good.

For your training question that all depends on you. For instance, when i got into this business i thought you threw the shirt on the machine and the machine did all the work. Not quite that simple. One of the biggest learning curves is confidence. The other ones are of course thread tension bobbin tension etc.. Now this is only my opinion. I find today alot of machine companies are compromising on the structure of the machines. I have a 1990 tajima 12 head and im telling you it looks like a tank!. i also have a 1999 tajima still looks beefy buy not like the 1990. i had 3 amaya's sold em they broke constantly, plastic construction. So rest assured if you buy a used machine which is all ive ever bought but a good brand used machine i think you will be fine. I bought a new machine once and ill never do it again. my 1990 the new machine i purchased broke in a month maybe a little more but i wasn't impressed. As for training i dont know about where you live but here even if you purchase a new machine the warranty is one year parts and 6 months labor plus traveling expenses.
And the training is 2 days and 250$ a day after that. Honestly you cant learn everything in 2 days. trust me took me alot longer than that. maybe im a slow learner. i thought about it this way and maybe im wrong but it made sense to me. I spent a third of the price on a machine and spent money on training, a hooping aid which we'll discuss in a sec. thread, and electrician. software.

hooping device. some clients dont notice and some do, and when they do its a problem.
I bought a hoop master . The hoopmaster allows you to hoop in almost the same place every time. which is an important thing. because if you have a hoopmaster it relieves alot of stress from the design from being out of place. that can run you about 650$-1000$ right there.

Hoops: its nice to have at least 2 sets of each hoop for your work. while one set is on the machine the other set is being used to hoop up the new garments going on the machine for the next run. hoops can be costly and extra when buying a machine. so thats a good thing to keep in mind.

Training: research around for the nearest dealer to dispatch someone to train you on the machine if its 500$ it will get you into the groove of things and than you can at least start learning more. The most important things you need to know is... Hats, backing types, when to use toppings, how to operate the machine. how to thread the machine etc.. so thats a good thought. Also if you decide to go used. explain to the used dealer or the person that you want the machine checked or inspected a 100 extra dollars now may save you allot later.

Software: don't let anyone tell you to buy 4500 software 15,000 software etc.. you dont need it right now. i have some basic lettering software im not using you can have it. i suggest you farm out your digitizing for now thats a big part of embroidery and that will determine how nice your design will sew out. So id leave that to someone else to do for you.

Electricity, a single head runs off of a standard 110 outlet nothing extra required. but a 6 head machine is 220v and a 12 head machine is 3 phase. if your starting out i dont suggest buying a 12 head. 3 phase cost me around 12,000$ the regular 220v that i put in was only about 500$ so thats important to know too.

Find a good thread supplier

use isacord madeira big companies i find polyester to work the best.

anyway i hope that helped

keep us posted

hmm.. confidence is key the machine looks so big at first and scary at first. But it's really not. but its a hard thing to overcome. what i did was i went out and bought 25 hats like the dollar store ones. and about 20 shirts. i pretended it was a job for a customer. so i did the job like it wasnt a practice run to see how confident i was. Mind you i screwed up allot of stuff haha. but after time i forgot about that and the more i used the machine the better i got. But the more you play the better you get. Trust me though anyone can do this. If the design is well digitized and your tensions are good. The only worries are making sure you dont sew the shirt together which i have done, really not fun. and making sure its hooped correctly.