What embroidery machine should I buy?

[colmac01]

Good morning

I am thinking of branching out in to the world of embroidery. Can anyone suggest the best entry level embroidery machine that I can start with. Thanks in advance.......

[ASO Embroidery]

Hi Colmac,
Where to start?. it all depends on a number of things obviously the biggest being how much do you want to spend. Unless you have a load of customers lined up waiting don't expect to make a fortune anytime soon. If you want to go ahead with it I can recommend the brother PR series machine single head but six needles that's what we started with and I couldn't fault it there is a few other makes on the market but I can only speak for that as its what we had. I think the latest model is the PR 1000 but will stand corrected.
The software with it comes with built In fonts and a load of other stuff that lets you do basic editing. You may well get a decent second hand machine (older model) but you could save yourself a whole load of money I don't think you will get a lot of change off £6000.00 on a new machine but could probably pickup a decent second hand for maybe half that.

I haven't mentioned the sewing machine type which have a n embroidery hoop attachment and a single thread these are fine if you want to just do a bit of basic embroidery but for a business you will never make any money from them as youll be there all day waiting on it stitching out.

on a final note not trying to put you off but its normally a large investment and as I said if you don't have a waiting customer list you could be waiting a while to get your money back you also have to think the digitising side as if customers want stuff done unless you buy your own software you will have to farm the digitizing out and that can also cost final word have a good look around and ask all the questions before you part with your cash. Good luck with whatever you decide to do hope this has helped and I haven't put you off to much.

Regards,
Sammy

[logobear]

I can only agree with Sammy, - either go big or go home .... perhaps ....
it will depend on who your market is, - unless you have 8 or 16+ heads, you are not doing schools or big jobs, - and besides, big machines mean LOADS of garments, so you need space and systems to handle high volumes of work.
On the other hand, there are many small businesses, cafe, clubs etc that only want half a dozen items once or twice a year which you could handle on a single head machine.
You will almost certainly outsource digitizing, we pay £5 a motif and get it back a day later. few jobs use more than 6 colours, but rethreading every time is a pain, so maybe 15 needles is better?
Find one that you can get good training on or employ an experienced embroiderer, it is a steep learing curve