Bringing embroidery in house

[ebscreen]

Do I sound like a first year diesel mechanic looking for spark plugs?

[Big Frank Sports]

I have a Tajima Neo single head... Great starter machine as it is portable for those booth jobs. 

I just outsourced a 78 piece job with 27k stitches on left chest design...

I also outsource our digitizing as I am doing a lot more dye sublimation and screen printing than embroidery until Mid November then it kicks in for Christmas.

We are also looking for a 4 or 6 head but have a 2 head Barudan in my sights right now at a great price.

Frank

[mk162]

eb, embroidery is simple once you have it down.  I have some great resources built up over the years for our supplies.

I can share some things with you, drop me a line sometime.

I am willing to share them here, I just don't have the time to type them all out right now.

[ebscreen]

Right on. I was wondering how much operator error there is.
Also, embroidery suppliers don't seem to be a dime a dozen like the ink
slingers are.

[cyw]

Yikes, I must be seriously challenged
Been embroidering for more than 20 years and I'd never use the adjective "simple" to describe the process

guess it may be time for me to start buckling down, huh?

[mk162]

It's easy once you have the hang of it.  I find it easier than screen printing.

[squeegee]

Had forgotten about Hirsch being support for Tajima. Glad to hear
they do a better job on that than the MHM side.

Eb, you know I wonder if your MHM's age has something to do with your bad experiences with Hirsch?  Remember, Hirsch got into the game with MHM back in 2005-2006.  Seriously because I've had no issues getting parts or service with my machines.  Not M&R or Workhorse instant gratification, but nonetheless I would rate my experience as above average.  I just wouldn't want anyone reading this to go away thinking that Hirsch is terrible, because I would certainly disagree.  Maybe I have a better rapport with them than most?  I dunno.

[cyw]

You sound like one of customers........"don't you just press the start button? and the machine does all the work?"

[ebscreen]

Squeegee, on some things I would agree. But many (~%95) of the parts are the same as the new machines.
Maybe things have changed recently, I haven't contacted them in a year at least. When I did, if I could even get
someone on the phone, I was usually referred to Action Engineering (pallets, squeegee's/floods) or Gaylen at MSI
for any parts. Occasionally they would direct me to MHM Austria? I've heard horror stories from others as well, I'd consider
yourself lucky Squeegee.

[squeegee]

Lucky I guess, because I've never been refered to Austria for anything, and only have been refered to Gaylen at MSI for buying his flashes, and to Action only as a state-side source for squeegees and pallets as you said.  I've been dealing with Hirsch for close to 10 yrs and though it's not been a perfect relationship (which is normal), I'd still say overall it's still been better than other companies I've dealt with in this industry, my opinion, sorry I will shut up now.

Oh yea, back to your post, yes we steam our embroidery after most jobs to remove the hoop marks.  We use hooping presses as well, which are worth a look if you want to make your life easier.  I'd say overall, aside from digitizing that embroidery might be a bit easier than screen printing.  Very low losses with a well trained operator and a well maintained machine.

[Denis Kolar]

One more thing, Hoopmaster is a must!!!

As far as Hirsch, no issues with the. I live about 30 miles from their offices and they have been nothing but helpful to me with anything concerned with my Tajima.
Rob Giradot (or something like that) is my sales guy, and he is great an very helpful.
Make sure you negotiate a hell of a deal, I got a lot of extras with my machine (that is if you look new). And If you want something nice that will not turn you away from embroidery, I would buy new if the money is there. With an used machine, you can buy someones headache, especially if you do not know what you are doing,

[bj]

I have worked on tajimas, barudans and melcos.  I have also worked on single heads to 18 head machines.  They are all the same to me.  There may be a few things you may prefer over the other but I bought the machine that I had the most experience with and new I could fix on my own since it is very costly to get a tech. out.  The main thing is to know your machine inside and out.  It's like your car, take care of it from the start and the less issues you will have with it.  Know how to clean it, oil it and fix it and you will be a happy camper.   As far as starting out I would get a double head that way you can take on more jobs and when you do get the full back order you aren't spending the day just doing only a few jackets. 

[ebscreen]

Awesome advice BJ. Yet another machine to become intimate with. I don't like not knowing the inner workings
of my my tools. It's good to hear that it is possible to know these machines, I was under the impression
that they were a bit like rocket ships or something.

Care to divulge what brand you use?

[bj]

I only buy Melcos because it is the machine that I have the most experience with.   I saw at my old job how much it costed for them get a tech. out to fix their machines.  The guy lives on one of the islands across the puget sound so they had to pay for his travel(ferry), his hotel, labor.  It was outragious, so I knew when I had my own machines I would buy the one that I knew the most about, how to oil it and fix it.  Knock on wood-I called a tech. once because it always happens of course when you are in the middle of a rush job but I finally figured out what was wrong and was able to cancel the tech.  Like I said-it's like a car, if you grew up with a certain type of car you can change the oil in your sleep but buy a different brand and then you have to take the tire off just to find it, get out the manuel and eventually end up taking it into the garage  because it is just too complicated and you don't have the time.  When you buy your machine make it part of the deal that they will train you and show you how to maintain your machine. 

[cyw]

For what it's worth, I think BJ hit the nail right smack on the head.
We all tend to 'like' the machines that we're most comfortable with.
Each may have slight idiosyncracies but basically they're all the same.
Baraudan, and even Happy have  good reputations..............but if you browse the forums for those machines, folks are having the same issues that folks with (lowly) Toyotas and SWF's are having.
Over the years I've worked with Melcos, Toyotas, Tajamas and Happy.
We're now using SWFs
Am I happy? Yep
When I bought my double-head, it wasn't much more then a singlehead Tajima

Now all that being said, you can get a lemon anywhere
Just exactly like cars.

First and foremost make sure, make really, really sure the machine comes with top-notch support.
Especially for a newbie, I firmly believe that might be the most important factor in the whole darn (complicated) equation.


Diane