Just my two cents on 6 needles vs. 12 needles on industrial / commercial machines. Go with the 12-needle machine!! I traded my 6-needle Tajima for a 12-needle 1 month ago. I can’t tell you how much of difference it makes in terms of productivity and convenience. If you can’t afford a 12-needle machine and you want to get a machine now, why not save more money and wait a little longer? I can tell you right now it’s worth the wait!
Now, I must admit my 6-needle Tajima was great, but the 12-needle is just even better. Although most of the work I receive are 6 colors and less, what I do is leave the most common colors on the machine and I also set aside one needle with a smaller needle (size 65/9) for very fine details and small lettering.
Also, I now feel confident going into doing lots of jacket backs. I use to feel lazy accepting orders of this kind because the designs are usually very large and colorful (more than 6 colors). This meant many rethreading which I find very boring and slows down production considerably. So I guess now I feel I just found another market that I can cater to. Anyways, that’s just my two cents on the matter.