# Ever heard of Highland Embroidery Machine



## catandrem

Has anyone ever used a Highland Embroidery machine HM-1501C?
It seems like a good deal however I currently using a Happy Voyager and looking for a bigger print area than 12 x 12

Vsddi


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## binki

mesa switched from swf to highland. i saw them at the nbm show but the machine looked cheap.


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## sassystitches

I believe they are Chinese machines... I bought a used SWF and attempted to call MESA in Ft. Worth several times. Never any answer and I left a message a couple of times with no callback.


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## binki

SunStar has pretty much taken over the west. They are the OEM of the machines. We met with them a couple of days ago and they seem very committed to sucess in the USA. We have them coming to the shop on Thur. to tune up our machine and we will see then how they do.


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## softwearemb

binki said:


> SunStar has pretty much taken over the west. They are the OEM of the machines. We met with them a couple of days ago and they seem very committed to sucess in the USA. We have them coming to the shop on Thur. to tune up our machine and we will see then how they do.


I noticed this post re highland embroidery machines. I am looking at one tomorrow. Do you have them? How do you like them?


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## binki

We have SWF 1501 and 1504. They are pretty good. Not top of the line but not bad for the price either.


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## softwearemb

Thanks. I am looking at purchasing another embroidery machine and will be checking out the Highland tomorrow. They also have used SWF's and I will take a look at those also. I currently have a pretty old Tajima that I love and plan to keep it, also.


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## Rmanster

I was wondering if anyone ever checked out the highland machine and purchased it.


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## Dcmarketing

I bought one. I am not impressed. I've had it less than a year and have had to call support at least a dozen times. I've not been able to sew more than a handful of things on it in that amount of time. And even when I can, it destroys more than it produces. This machine is killing my business because I can't do anything with it. If I could trade it for even a used SWF machine, I'd do it in a heartbeat! I had an SWF before and it worked great for me. I'd stay away from Highland at this point. And Mesa hasn't been much help in resolving my problems either!


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## queenonez

I am going to send you an email in regards to this Highland machine.. I almost bought one! Was going to see if you could give me more info on SWF


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## realteam

I know this post is old but was wondering if anyone has bought one of these and if they are happy with it. I went to Fort Worth to see the demo and the thread broke every couple minutes. They said it was a difficult design and that's why, but I've seen other machines that didn't have this problem.


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## twinkey121

I have been using a Highland I bought from mesa for about 8 months now and it runs great..as long as the digitizing is correct. for the money you can't beat it.. As far as mesa when I did need some support they always responded quickly.


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## tshrtman2000

hi i currently have 2 toyota single heads and a 4 head swf. considering a couple brand new highland machines. any feed would be appreciated.
jazz


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## twinkey121

I'm at about 15 months now with no trouble at all.. I don't use there thread I use madera and I just start and walk away till it's done.. Been a great machine


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## tshrtman2000

thanks dennis
that really helps. have heard bad reviews so just wanted to get some feed back


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## mwilliams0763

I have 2 of the Happy machines and that is what I will stick with. I've have the HCD-1 since 2010 & the Hcd-2 since 2011 and have never had any issues at all. I would be very careful, it is one of those things that you get what you pay for so it may not be a good deal in the end. It may cost you more than saving you up front. Stick with the Happy.


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## mkeMike

We have a Highland - the first generation that was release after Mesa quit selling SWFs. We've had it for several years. The machine is a good machine - but you need to keep it oiled - especially the thread break detectors. ALSO - their Vista thread is junk, we've had it shred on us, coil, and it breaks an excessive amount. We switched to Isacord and have very few problems.

Would I buy another one of these? Yes. The newest models have several features we don't have on ours, and knowing how to care for the machine makes all the difference in the world. If we haven't sewn on it for a while (we also have a heat press, vinyl cutter and provide other services), then I'll pull some thread through all of the needles and oil up anything sluggish. Fixes the problems before we start.

We did have some issues with stitching knit caps. Switched to titanium ball needles which fixed the problem.


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## mkeMike

One more thing about Mesa's service...

We've called and/or emailed them several times (about 6) while we've had the machine. For the most part they are responsive. We had delays while they were at trade shows. They've always been able to help us, and solve our issues.

The last issue we had was from the mess that the knit cap made. We thought we threw the timing off. No we didn't, and the support tech stayed on the phone with us for about 90 minutes walking us through everything including machine timing and critical alignment of the machine. We found the issue - the backing from the cap got stuck in the bobbin area and made a mess. That was my fault on hooping it. We are NOT going to do many knit caps anymore - they are a pain and not worth it. Those caps killed about 20 hours of production time for us.

Their support people are friendly, calm, very supportive and helpful. I wasn't any of these in my last call with them, so I have to give them a lot of credit in the way they handled my call. Very professional and now I know quite a bit more about the way the machine works than I ever knew before.


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## tshrtman2000

hi mike
thank you so much for the feed back. looking to purchase 3 machines in the next couple of weeks and this helps me quit a bit.
jazz


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## Jbosarge

I looked at the highland and all other machines for quite a while in the end I went with Melco Amaya. 16 needles for less than most 6-10 needles. Does have a learning curve but took advantage of the training offered via webinars and 2days in Denver and I am loving it. The people at Melco extremely nice and want to help you succeed any way they can. You owe it to yourself to at the very least to look at Melco. Just my 2 cents worth.


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## tshrtman2000

can you give me an idea how much was the melco amaya?


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## Jbosarge

They have 3 packages A B & C A is about 8995 B 9995 C 10,995 the difference in price is level of software. A is good package especially if you already have an embroidery software you know and love B has more editing capabilities since I had only tried other software and used stitch era when it was still free I went with B. C is full editing and allows you to link multiple machines. I want to upgrade to C for the full digitizing. I liked the fact that I could upgrade at later time. Money was an issue and I had a strict amount I could work with at the time so being able to upgrade later was important to me. If budget allowed I'd definitely go with C I looked at machines for over two years limping along with a single needle home machine wanting to make sure I got what I wanted with $$ I had to work with. In my case waiting paid off I got a floor model that was 2years old with only 100k stitches on it. I had never seen machine run until I got it home. Dealer pushed bother home multi needle and never showed bravo. But because I did homework I was ok with never seeing it run. I got a B package for less than A package. So I lucked up. There has been a learning curve but I knew machine was solid and it was operator error. Tech support walked me thru til issues resolved. They sent tech out to service because it was floor model and had sat unused. Tech was great! Spent more time than I ever dreamed he would making sure everything and every setting was just right. Went to home office in Denver for training and support there was great too. Some dealers offer on site training also. That prob would have benefited me more simply because some of the basics they had to cover I knew from 4yrs embroidery experience. Also have webinars on software that were a great help. Just my experience and opinion if I can answer any other questions I'll be glad to. Best of luck in your new endeavor!


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## tshrtman2000

thank you so much for taking the time and giving me all the details. this helps a great deal.
jazz


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## comingforhelp

Check this out and you may have some good ideas

ButterFlyEmb - YouTube

Commercial Embroidery Machine | New Embroidery Machine

Sell Embroidery Machine | Liquidate Embroidery Equipment | Wholesale Embroidery Machine


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## tshrtman2000

hi
need some help if posible. i picked up an amaya sauier xt last week. it has been sitting in a warehouse for about 3 years. brought it back to the shop, turned it on and it is giving me flashing green light. none of the buttons work. i was told it is in sleep mood and punched the stop button for 10 seconds and still flashing green light. any suggestion??


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## Branding

I have one and love it, from what I know the first few versions that came out have had some issues a few years ago. The new ones over the past couple years are really good and they are making new improvements all the time. In fact I am looking at a second one and it has a part in it that will break off on just that needle if you hit a hoop, leaving the other 14 usable, so if anyone has any experience if you break the reciprocator on your machine by hitting a hoop (which all other machines are designed to do) you loose the whole head until you can get a repair done. I think that's a huge selling point when you are counting on employees to run your machines and they aren't as careful as you would be.


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## WinningStitch

We bought the HM/D-1501C last year at the SGIA show. Having an in depth background with the Tajima machines, I was a little nervous at first but that is long gone. I love the new machine and I've had no problems at all using it for the year.


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## Darry

I have and use the 1501c now. what is it that you need to know about them? 954-907-5550 Darry


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## babsmike

Darry said:


> I have and use the 1501c now. what is it that you need to know about them? 954-907-5550 Darry



Darry, How long have you had your Highland? I'm currently using a Babylock 6 needle and looking to upgrade to a commercial machine in order to have a larger stitch field both tubular and Hat hoop. Mine is almost 10 years old now and she has served me well but it's time.


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## FlowerJi66

i suggest use WONYO embroidery machine, it is free come with wilcom software.
i know Flower working there


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