When looking

[whitewater]

When looking at used embroidery machines...what should you look out for?  What is considered too old? 

I am thinking of adding a single head to get started...but i know absolutely nothing about embroidery...LOL

thanks

Rob

[Get Shirts]

I'd like to add to this - what would someone be missing by not buying new?.. Aside from warranty.  What sort of technological advances have been made in the past 5-10 years that can't be lived without? 

For example, I have the chance to pick up some well maintained machines that are 12-15 years old.. Workhorses.  The issue is I transfer info to them via floppy disk!

[gtmfg]

We have some older machines that we have converted from floppy to a system that takes file from computer to machine. 5 machines all hooked up to one computer

[Doug S]

When I purchased the 2000 Barudan I asked the same question "what would I be missing out on as opposed to buying new?"  I was told that the newer machines are much quieter as well as the fact that they are faster. 

[Get Shirts]

Thanks ShirtShack, that's what I'm looking for!  I don't want to buy new just to buy new, but I don't want to miss out on any groundbreaking features that I (currently) am not aware of.

[GraphicDisorder]

Older machines are fine just generally less features, slower, and sometimes smaller sewing field.  Personally I don't think I'd buy a machine older than 2000 today in 2014.  But oldest machine in my shop is a 2005.  Even the difference between that and our 2013 machine is a lot. 

Watch on older machines...  Check the hoops and see if they have hit he hoops a lot or at all.  Careless with hoops often means machine will not be maintained either. 

[whitewater]

thanks guys..

I wasn't thinking from the 90's..maybe within 5-6 years...

I really do not want to deal with old software and such..

Just trying to figure out what i can afford at the moment..we do offer embroidery and send it out. Which works out well, but i would like to do the smaller orders and alo if we have a good customer we can do a 1 off fleece or polo or something to help sell..and also for the few that come back and need a couple pieces.

[abchung]

5-6 years machine is good.

As for embroidery software, they use their own language/format. So if you have a design in Corel/Illustrator, you will need a digitizing program to do it or get someone to do it.(http://www.wilcom.com/,http://www.wingsxpsoftware.com/)

As for what to look out for:
1. Look at the room it was used in (humidity, dusty, heat). We run our machines in an air conditioned room to keep the embroidery computer system cool and dry. It cost a lot to replace one of those things. We also dust once a week.
2. Do a test run on the head to check if it can do good smooth simple stitch. Then check it by looking on the back of the embroidery. It should be smooth and straight.
3. Hoops has to be well maintained as stated by GraphicsDisorder.
4. USB is better than floppy, we converted all our floppy to USB. It is faster and cheaper to handle.

[inkman996]

Check all the belts. Make sure they are not dried up and cracking or loosing teeth. Trust me a belt on some machines is a major project to replace.