Any Help Appreciated!

courtbro · February 3rd, 2009, 12:05 AM

Hello everyone!
I'm new to the home (online) embroidery business, I started out with a Janome 200e and would like to expand to a free arm machine that I can bring to shows. I'm interested in the Janome MB-4, Brother PR600 and 620, and Babylock bmp6 and 8. Could someone explain to me the major differences between the machines. And which one may work best with my situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would like to understand all of my options before undertaking a big investment.
Thanks,
Courtney

Eric · February 3rd, 2009, 02:58 PM

Hey there courtney ...

Hopefully I can give you a little insight here. I don't really know anything about the janome products, I've seen them in local sewing stores, and for the price tag I would go with the Brother / babylock. I have both brother and babylock's I have a PR-600, 2 620's and a babylock EMP6.

There is virtually NO difference between brother and babylock, they are both made by brother, why the different names I don't know. Are you planning on purchasing new or used? I only ask because if you purchase one new from a dealer, it usually comes with some sort of basic training. Also, you can get some deals at sewing shows, or quilting shows if you buy new from retailer. If not, you can usually pick them up all day on places like here, or craigslist for around $4k to $5k depending on model and included accessories.

I presently have 4 of them, 3 brothers, 1 babylock. They are great for quick namedrops and walk-ins. They do have the stamina to last up to some serious use. I have nothing bad to say about them.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I have gone to brother training and are a certified brother tech, so let me kinow if you have ANY questions, I'd be happy to help.

courtbro · February 3rd, 2009, 03:23 PM

Thanks so much Eric! I already have all of the Janome software, so that's why I wanted to look into the MB-4. I would like to purchase from a dealer, because I want to finance it on my AMEX business card, so I could go with new or refurbished. Do you know of any dealers that sell these? I'm in Louisiana, and the dealer near my home doesn't handle used.
Thanks again,
Courtney

Scooby · February 3rd, 2009, 08:28 PM

Hi,
We purchased an MB-4. It would be a nice machine for shows. Seems light and easy to operate.
If you do decide to purchase, you may have to download the updates for the software (which is relatively simple).
We are new to the Embroidery business and unfortunately I guess we jumped a little too quick (so we're selling our machine).
Our business intention is focused around selling hats which the MB-4 is capable of, but not like the quality of other machines (say a Tajima..which we are in the process of purchasing)
Here in Canada, we purchased the Janome for app 5000 which included the software.
Good luck!

courtbro · February 4th, 2009, 01:34 AM

Thanks Scooby,
Can you tell me if the Janome has any advantages/disadvantages that you have noticed with working with bags, shirts, etc.
I'm not really interested in doing hats, so I guess what I'm asking is how is it with other items.
I really appreciate your honesty.
Courtney

Scooby · February 5th, 2009, 06:54 PM

Well, not really any complaints other than it only has 4 needles.
Any issues we had was due to our own ignorance (not knowing what we were doing).

Bags and shirts turned out good. Quality was good but that often depended on the digitizing (it will make or break your work).

One thing that I don't like, is the Dongle that is supplied with the Software. It has to be plugged into your pc in order to use the software. If something happens to this dongle, you can get it replaced for a fee which doesn't seem right.
I've also read of other types of Embroidery equipment which will not work unless you purchase the updates associated with their software (something to consider).

good luck.

Eric · February 6th, 2009, 01:18 AM

If I could put my 2 cents in again quickly ... The brother / babylock has built in fonts, and essentially can be used stand-alone ... No PC needed. You can even combine, patters on board. So that is something to consider. Plus it has 6 needles, I know it sounds like a lot but trust me, if you have them you will use them! haha! Most of my jobs have 6 colors or under, but occasionally I get 7 or 8's ... I just did a bunch of jacket backs on my Tajima for a local Harley club, 15 colors, and nearly 180,000 stitches. Took about 3.5 hours each to sew at 850 spm. Jobs like that don't happen often, but they are out there. I have confidence you will outgrown a 6 needle, but in the mean time, its plenty for you to get running with. I survived with a 6 needle machine for almost 2 years.

dwgnldy · February 18th, 2009, 04:16 PM

I have a small in home embroidery businsess and own 2 Babylock EMP6's. I take one to shows because it's pretty much self contained and easy to move. It's awkward more than heavy. The stand easily comes apart for moving, if I need space for supplies in the back of the car.

I love the machines and they have been virtually maintenance free with the exception of the needle threader. If it gets caught up once, then it never seems to work right after that. I find it's faster for me to just thread the darn thing by hand if the need arises. When it's time for a maintenance check, I'll have them repair the needle threader again.

The instruction book for the EMP6 is a joke. It bounces you from section to section and is vague on several important points of learning how to use the machine. I bought the DVD's put out by Babylock (complained about the expense) but I was up and embroidering in minutes. So they were worth the over inflated cost.

I bought both my machines used and love them. The second machine I bought (a few months ago) had 4 hours on it and is 3 years old. There are a lot of people with these machines that don't have a clue how to use them or what they can do. It's obvious they fell prey to the salesman's act and overbought for what they needed.

If you're thinking of used, I wouldn't recommend eBay because you can't inspect the machine in person. I use Craigslist.org because I can go out and touch, inspect and play with the machine before buying.

I don't use the built in lettering because to me it just doesn't look as good as lettering I create in Generations and it takes longer to sew out. But that's one of those personal preferences each machine user has to make on their own.

I have my machines side by side on a beautiful oak dresser and use the metal stand off site. I did this for several reasons.

First, I didn't like the uninviting look of the metal stand and it made the machine to tall for me (I'm 5'1"). The oak dresser feels friendlier to me.

Second, the dresser is much more stable then the metal stand and it allows me room for supplies. Especially if I'm doing a design that uses more than 6 colors. I can line them up in the order I'm going to use them next to the machine.

Also the extra drawers and cabinet allow me places to keep, sample fabric, hat hoops, small packs of stabilizers, compact flash cards, floppy disks, etc.

Finally, if I'm embroidering something heavy or awkward like a towel or blanket, I can open the top drawer, rest the heavy excess part of the item in it, reducing the weight on the machine arms.

When I worked in an embroidery shop, we'd put a chair in front of the single head machine if we had to use it and drape the material over it, reducing the weight on the arms.

I do love the fact that I can use floppy disks, compact flash cards or direct plug in from my laptop with the EMP6. I don't need a reader box or fancy external stuff because I use Embird and Generations software. I just move the designs I've digitized or ready bought designs to the compact flash card from my laptop, put it in the slot on the EMP6 and like magic...there it is ready to use on the machine. I use compact flash cards 90% of the time because the design loads in the blink of an eye. Floppys are great to start with when you first buy the machine but if you have more than one design or an involved design to load, it loads on at a snails pace.

I've probably rambled on longer than you'd like on this subject so I think I'll put a sock in it now. Hope something of what I said helps you make an informed decision.

Patricia

dwgnldy · February 18th, 2009, 04:27 PM

Forgot two things.

I was reading you have Janome software. You can use that for the EMP5 or PR600. My sister has a Janome home machine and on occasion digitizes for me if I don't have the time. It converts to PES and DST which I use the most for the Babylock.

On the question as to why Brother makes the Babylock. Don't know if this is true but my dealer said it was so they could have the machine in more stores. Apparently they can have Brother in certain stores so to get around that, they came up with the Babylock. Yes the EMP6 and PR600 are identical machines. Most of my hardware (hoops etc) come from Brother Mall website.