Machine differences? Specs, reliability, etc?

[IntegrityShirts]

I'm starting to begin to think a little about maybe just maybe down the road some time this year of offering embroidery services.  I'm looking for advice on machines, number of heads to start with as a super small timer that gets asked often if I do embroidery, and tips and tricks that all embroiderers should know.

I read a few threads down that most would suggest starting out with a minimum two head machine?  Are there any online resources that you all use for help with machines or digitizing?  I imagine 90% of my embroidery would be sport shirts and the other 5% hats.

Barudan, Tajima, SWF.... I know are all good brands.

What about Happy? Toyota?

Are there any characteristics normally associated with a specific brand?  Like "blank" is a better machine for hats etc.?

Number of colors.  I'm a complete newb when it comes to this so bear with me.  Everyone says get the most needles as you can.  How long does it take to swap out colors on machines if you need to thread a different spool in there?  How many colors would you use for 98% of your jobs?  Is the point to not to have to rethread for different jobs and just keep common colors loaded in all 15 spots?  I can't think of any embroidery I've seen that had more than 3 or 4 colors in it.

Thanks!!

[ebscreen]

Same boat. We were subbing out enough (and having enough difficulties with) contract embroidery that it made
sense to bring it in. Starting with a single head SWF 15 needle with the LCD panel. You'll hear good and bad things about
every brand except Tajima and maybe Barudan. We likely should have gotten at least 2 if not 4 heads, but this is
my first foray into the field so I didn't want to dive in head first. I figure we can always add more down the road, and running
the machine is easy down time work for the dryer girl.

Stick with a commercial machine, pretty plain and simple. Tajima, Barudan, SWF, Toyota, Happy are all good. I think
 Brother (at least some machines) are a little more on the craft side, and any off brand (Ricoma, Prodigi) etc. is generally
warned to stay away from.

[GraphicDisorder]

Do yourself a favor and skip the single head, you cant make any real money with a single head.  You can use it sure as a way to learn, but if you want any real money, you will need more heads. 

SWF is what we use, I would for sure say they are not the best, they are however not the worst either.  I would say they are probably 3rd behind Tajima and Barudan.   You pay for both of those machines.  SWF comes in a good bit cheaper.

I would get a 15 color machine, no reason for smaller.  Really isn't.  Re-threading doesn't take long no, but if you have say a 30 hat run, and each are different colors, that would really slow you down.

My BEST advice is also this, the single heads (most of them) are smaller sewing fields.  You wont be happy with that in the long run.

[JBLUE]

I have looked at these also. Subbed out more crap this last year that I should have kept in house. I could have bought a couple of machines. I am down to Barudan and Tajima. SWF is third. We well be pulling the trigger on at least one in the next 90 days too. I hate sending that much money out the door.

[JBLUE]

Do yourself a favor and skip the single head, you cant make any real money with a single head.  You can use it sure as a way to learn, but if you want any real money, you will need more heads. 

SWF is what we use, I would for sure say they are not the best, they are however not the worst either.  I would say they are probably 3rd behind Tajima and Barudan.   You pay for both of those machines.  SWF comes in a good bit cheaper.

I would get a 15 color machine, no reason for smaller.  Really isn't.  Re-threading doesn't take long no, but if you have say a 30 hat run, and each are different colors, that would really slow you down.

My BEST advice is also this, the single heads (most of them) are smaller sewing fields.  You wont be happy with that in the long run.

I have to say every time you guys post some of your work it makes me want it that much more.

[GraphicDisorder]

Do yourself a favor and skip the single head, you cant make any real money with a single head.  You can use it sure as a way to learn, but if you want any real money, you will need more heads. 

SWF is what we use, I would for sure say they are not the best, they are however not the worst either.  I would say they are probably 3rd behind Tajima and Barudan.   You pay for both of those machines.  SWF comes in a good bit cheaper.

I would get a 15 color machine, no reason for smaller.  Really isn't.  Re-threading doesn't take long no, but if you have say a 30 hat run, and each are different colors, that would really slow you down.

My BEST advice is also this, the single heads (most of them) are smaller sewing fields.  You wont be happy with that in the long run.

I have to say every time you guys post some of your work it makes me want it that much more.

Thank's!

Also in my opinion, stay away from Brothers and Melcos.  Both of these are hoobiest companies as far as embroidery goes and they are trying to play in the big kids world.  Heard too many stories.

[mk162]

Melco is so-so.  I run an SWF and I've heard more bad about them than I have about Brother.  To be honest, I have never really looked that far into embroidery machines.  We started with a Melco and moved to an SWF. 

[GraphicDisorder]

Here is the kind of work you can do on a SWF, thats all I know:
http://www.graphicdisorder.com/gallery/display.php?t=bycat&q=29&nr=410&st=0&upto=24&p=1

[stitches4815]

Like everyone has said, Tajima, Barudan, or SWF in that order.  We have a Tajima TFMX 1504 and have had zero complaints or problems.  Don't cheap out and get some cut rate machine, you will probably regret it.  I would suggest a two head at the very minimum.  The nice thing about a 4 head is you can bust out more stuff in half the time of a two head.  The only drawback is when you get people wanting onesie, twosie orders.

Brandt, you link keeps causing my antivirus to block it.  It says that it is infected with HTML/ScrInject.B.Gen virus

[GraphicDisorder]

Like everyone has said, Tajima, Barudan, or SWF in that order.  We have a Tajima TFMX 1504 and have had zero complaints or problems.  Don't cheap out and get some cut rate machine, you will probably regret it.  I would suggest a two head at the very minimum.  The nice thing about a 4 head is you can bust out more stuff in half the time of a two head.  The only drawback is when you get people wanting onesie, twosie orders.

Brandt, you link keeps causing my antivirus to block it.  It says that it is infected with HTML/ScrInject.B.Gen virus

Ya our host got hacked recently and some of the files on our site was affected, interestingly they are doing nothing about it. 

We are trying to schedule time to deal with it. 

[IntegrityShirts]

Like everyone has said, Tajima, Barudan, or SWF in that order.  We have a Tajima TFMX 1504 and have had zero complaints or problems.  Don't cheap out and get some cut rate machine, you will probably regret it.  I would suggest a two head at the very minimum.  The nice thing about a 4 head is you can bust out more stuff in half the time of a two head.  The only drawback is when you get people wanting onesie, twosie orders.

Brandt, you link keeps causing my antivirus to block it.  It says that it is infected with HTML/ScrInject.B.Gen virus

Thanks everyone for the replies.  I do have a noob question now.  If I have a 4 head machine and someone does want just one or two garments.  How do you do it on the machine?

SWF seems to be the most reputable budget friendly option.  Tajima and Barudan are top dollar even in the used market.

Do you all test emroider before running jobs like in screen printing?  Seriously this is all greek to me.  How long does it take to learn and do digitizing for an illustrator geek?  Any free software to download to try my hand at it?

[Homer]

we were in the same boat, I just bought a single head toyota 850 for 3k, it arrived today. 12 colors, 12"x16" sewing field, cap attachment. hoops, all kinds of goodies. I went with a single head for a few reasons. if we start doing more and more, I will need to upgrade to a multi head - but what one?, I don't have any expierience on anything so I need to learn on something. I'm ok with learning on a 3k machine, then I will know what features I like and have a better understanding of what to look for. We will always have a use for a single head, names and junk...so it can't hurt. check out digitsmith, there's some deals over there.

[stitches4815]

Thanks everyone for the replies.  I do have a noob question now.  If I have a 4 head machine and someone does want just one or two garments.  How do you do it on the machine?

SWF seems to be the most reputable budget friendly option.  Tajima and Barudan are top dollar even in the used market.

Do you all test emroider before running jobs like in screen printing?  Seriously this is all greek to me.  How long does it take to learn and do digitizing for an illustrator geek?  Any free software to download to try my hand at it?

You can shut each head off.  On the Tajima's there is a toggle switch of each head.

We test all new designs.  As far as digitizing that is one of those things where it takes a lot of time to learn.  When we first started we sent our designs out to be digitized.  As part of our software package we got a free digitizing class for two.  We do a lot in house, every now and then we will ship something our for digitizing because of the difficulty.

[ebscreen]

Exactly my reasoning Homer. My machine will be here Friday though. Here's to hoop strikes!

After seeing how long an average design takes though, it likely won't be long until we have
a multi-head machine.

[GraphicDisorder]

A average single jacket here takes 2hrs to do. Just a insight to why you will want 2 or more head quickly.

If I had it to do over, id have got a 2 head first.  then several 4 heads.