Possible Embroidery Machines ? ?

pkepneriv · September 8th, 2012, 11:32 PM

Hi everyone! I came here to learn about embroidery and to get advice on what machine you think would fit me best. We hand make small drawstring bags and sell them to stores. quite a few of the stores have expressed an interest in having their logo embroidered on the bags and on some of the other items we make. I would love get a big 9 to 12 needle machine at first but I know I need to start smaller. I was thinking of a 4 or 6 needle but they are still a bit pricy for now. I have been able to find some good deals on some used single needle machine and I like the features they have available versus the larger machines. Here are the ones I like so far.

Baby Lock Ellisimo Gold - I like the camera feature and the auto correct and the tablet for free hand drawing or tracing a pattern.

Brother Quattro 2 6700 - I like the camera feature and the auto correct and the tablet for free hand drawing or tracing a pattern.

Viking Diamond - I have a brochure on it and it sounds comparable to the two others except this one has a larger embroidery area, nice feature

Janome MB4 - I like the multi needle feature. It would make it embroider faster and you can daisy chain them. I have heard a few bad things about these though. Any thoughts???

Baby Lock EMP6 - I like the multi needle feature. It would make it embroider faster than the Janome and you can daisy chain them.

Janome MC11000 - Just found out about it. Is this a good machine and does it compare to the Baby Lock or other two?

I look forward to hearing back from anyone about any of the machines I listed.

Thanks,
Paul

dubiat · September 11th, 2012, 01:12 AM

when you go to get a machine, think about what it will be used for, and how much work you will be doing with it. You want it to last a long time. So make sure that it can handle the workload.go to a trade show such as ISS. You can get great deals on the larger commercial machines used with a warranty. Or you can try checking out the machines for sale here. I actually bought my machine through eBay. It's a 12 needle Toyota and I paid $3500.00 for it including shipping. I took several classes at the trades shows and pumped every embroidery person I met for info. This machine has served me well for 4 years now with only one minor problem. That was a sensor that got damaged. It cost $0.19 to replace.

dubiat · September 11th, 2012, 01:15 AM

also, think about the logos you will be doing. If they are multi-color, how much downtime do you want to spend changing threads on a single needle machine as opposed to loading the design into the machine and letting it change needles automatically.

drdoct · September 11th, 2012, 03:41 PM

For an embroidery machine only I would go with the multi needle brother or babylock. These have a huge following and there is a lot of information around to help you. The only reason to go with a Viking or Babylock Ellissimo or other high end machine is if you plan on using it as a sewing machine too. If that's the case then it could serve you well. If you purchase a home sewing/embroidery combo you would be better to embroider the logo first and then sew the bag. Bags are very hard to do on a home unit. If you get the multi needle then it would be much easier in every way to do embroidery. These machines also hold their value very well.

pkepneriv · September 11th, 2012, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drdoct

For an embroidery machine only I would go with the multi needle brother or babylock. These have a huge following and there is a lot of information around to help you. The only reason to go with a Viking or Babylock Ellissimo or other high end machine is if you plan on using it as a sewing machine too. If that's the case then it could serve you well. If you purchase a home sewing/embroidery combo you would be better to embroider the logo first and then sew the bag. Bags are very hard to do on a home unit. If you get the multi needle then it would be much easier in every way to do embroidery. These machines also hold their value very well.

Thanks for the input. I agree about having a multi needle machine. What are your thoughts on the Janome MB4 or the Babylock BND9. The Janome I am able to find for less but the Babylock's seem to stay higher priced. Is that because of build quality?

Thanks,
Paul

drdoct · September 12th, 2012, 11:17 AM

I have never stitched on a Janome but they look so tiny. I'd stick to the babylock. There are much more people around to fix those and they're pretty much interchangeable with Brother. They hold their value. Brother seems to hold it even more.

dubiat · September 12th, 2012, 09:08 PM

just as a side note of info. Brother and Babylock are the same company.

pkepneriv · September 12th, 2012, 10:21 PM

What would be a Brother version of the Baby Lock BMP6?

dubiat · September 13th, 2012, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkepneriv

What would be a Brother version of the Baby Lock BMP6?

The closest is probably the Brother Entrepreneur® PR600
The PR650 is like the BMP8
the PR650e is like the BMP9

There are minor differences.

OhSewFun · March 25th, 2013, 05:31 PM

I did not know that! Thanks for the info.