Considering Embroidery purchase

majcne · May 6th, 2012, 06:47 PM

I own a screen printing shop. We are busy, and use a local embroidery shop when needed. However, it's hit and miss with quality and speed of service with them. So, I'm considering purchasing embroidery equipment and doing it myself.

Any recommendations on brands, number of heads, training, new vs. used, etc. will be appreciated.

Thanks.

EnMartian · May 7th, 2012, 01:06 PM

Make sure you get a commercial machine. It's tempting to start out with something that's more home sewer oriented because the price is cheaper, but you'll end up outgrowing it pretty fast. Buying an embroidery machine is like buying any other sort of shop equipment, you have to plan for growth.

Robert Young · May 7th, 2012, 04:47 PM

hi, what volume do you think you are doing right now? I mean enough to keep 1 head busy or are you getting orders for 250 caps and up.. meaning you will need a 4 to 6 head at minimum? Also, apart from the machine cost, do you have a "GOOD" machine operator lined up as well as know what thread and supplies you want to use? (additional cost).... because the best machine in the world (tajima..lol) will not be worth much without a competent operator and quality threads and supplies.
So unless you have volume and an operator and the right contacts for thread and supplies you might just want to find ANOTHER supplier for your embroidery needs that DOES have the quality and speed you have every right to demand for your clients. The costs associated with starting may just wipe out your profits for quite a while otherwise.

Now that being said.. IF you do have quite a bit of embroidery work , or plan to have... then I would fully advise to bring it in-house... just attend a local ISS show and walk the floor... take some classes on embroidery... from machine maintenance to digitizing to sales and profit making...

AJST · May 7th, 2012, 05:58 PM

EnMartian and Robert Young are on the money. Don't settle for less than a commercial embroidery machine. There is a learning curve in learning how to operate them so dont take any big orders until you stitch out a few.
The ISS shows are an excelant place to compare brands. Tajima is the best, look for a name brand that has been around for a while.

EmbroideryMark · May 8th, 2012, 02:09 PM

Tajima is the best? I beg to differ

SWF represents one of the leading brands in the industry and will be at the NBM Exposition in Dallas, Texas this week May 10-12. If you are interested in entering in to embroidery, I would highly recommend attending the show to take a look at the commercial embroidery machines that will be on display and gaining some more information.

Shoot me and e-mail at [email address]

and I can see what we can do about setting you up with some passes for the event.

SWF will be booth number 115 and they are also running a conference on some new networking software at 2 p.m. on May 10, 2012 and raffling off some free Ipads just for attendence.

EmbroideryMark · May 8th, 2012, 02:10 PM

P.S. If anyone is interested, I have a lightly used 2011 SWF K-UH1508-45 8 head 15 needle available for sale. Contact me for some more information.

Robert Young · May 9th, 2012, 09:20 AM

EmbroideryMark my machines are all SWF but I can still recognize that others are better. The real factor is probably WHAT someone is using the machine for and for how long they want to use it. If your machine is only going to be used a couple of times a month then practically any machine should be fine I guess.

EnMartian · May 9th, 2012, 12:40 PM

Our parent company, which has been in embroidery since 1974 uses primarily Toyotas and Barudans. We've had a Melco machine in our booth at almost every trade show we've done this year and that machine has run very well. Any of those machines would be good choices, in my opinion.

obemb · May 9th, 2012, 04:08 PM

Get a 6 head. I personally like Tajima but there are other good ones, the old Chevy or Ford debate. If you can't keep a 6 head busy then you don't need to branch out into embroidery, economically keep farming it out. Look for another embroidery firm that you like.