# What machine to buy for a small text 1 color logo



## winterfresh (Aug 31, 2011)

Hello,
I want to have a logo in text on most of my clothing in 1 color and was wondering if anyone knows whats a good machine to buy for a good price...

For example - "How are you" in white 2x4 
thats all i need to do on my shirts 100 peices+

also if i get a machine i can transfer the text/font right? or does it matter on the machine

Looking for some helpful answers
Thank you.


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## kirbymurphy (Aug 25, 2009)

maybe gang several onto a plastisol transfer and heat press them in divudually?
Several shops make the transfers for sale


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

plastisol and embroidery are so different. My customers for embroidery would not accept plastisol and vice versa. as to an affordable machine...'affordable' is in the eye of the buyer. You might check with places like JoAnns craft shop for entry level embroidery. But consider carefully what you are going to embroider as some machine require special platens and hoops...and some machines at entry level simply cannot do some items...like legs of jeans without opening up the legs and then resewing same could apply to shoulders on sleeves. So decide what you are going to embroider and discuss with sales. In my town there are several sewing machine places that have several levels of machines...from $500 or so up to $12k


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## buehrle (Jan 14, 2008)

do you only need 100 ? if so why buy a machine ? have a embroiderer do it for you.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Agree with Mike, if you're only going to do 100, have someone do it for you. Shouldn't cost more than $250 or so. If you're going to do more later, and are sure you only need 1 color text, you can get a home embroidery machine for around $1000. Look at Brother.


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## winterfresh (Aug 31, 2011)

im going to be doin around 100 shirts now, but when i keep selling shirts, i will spam alotttt more. so i guess i am going to buy a home machine, but i just dont know what 1 to get there is alot out there, thx for info btw


btw you think screenprinting will be a better soulution? or stick with emb?


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## zoom_monster (Sep 20, 2006)

winterfresh said:


> im going to be doin around 100 shirts now, but when i keep selling shirts, i will spam alotttt more. so i guess i am going to buy a home machine, but i just dont know what 1 to get there is alot out there, thx for info btw
> 
> 
> btw you think screenprinting will be a better soulution? or stick with emb?


Still, Buying a machine you do not know how to run, and not knowing if what you want done will even work.....is a little pre-mature. Plus if you buy it retail, from a pro, you'll better know what your cost stucture will be. Buying a 12K machine will not make you an expert


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## JAF (Oct 12, 2008)

I think you should go to a professional for the embroidery. I had a home machine years ago and the quality does not match a commecial embroidery machine. Also, every time you need a different color thread you have to buy it. A good size shop will have many colors to choose from.


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## Just Teesing (Dec 12, 2011)

I will have to agree on farming work out! If you are going to sell, then focus on selling and leave production to someone else. There are plenty of great shops that could do this job for you and offer wholesale pricing if you provide the tees. Best of luck to you


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## winterfresh (Aug 31, 2011)

JAF said:


> I think you should go to a professional for the embroidery. I had a home machine years ago and the quality does not match a commecial embroidery machine. Also, every time you need a different color thread you have to buy it. A good size shop will have many colors to choose from.


 
Oh ok, yeah but it wont really be worth it they charge around $3 per shirt + i will have to ship the shirts i want/have back and fourth, all i am going to use is white/black thread btw
thanks for trying to help :]


btw what do you guys think about screen printing just the text/logo...do you guys think i should do that instead? 
or even dtg?


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## winterfresh (Aug 31, 2011)

zoom_monster said:


> Still, Buying a machine you do not know how to run, and not knowing if what you want done will even work.....is a little pre-mature. Plus if you buy it retail, from a pro, you'll better know what your cost stucture will be. Buying a 12K machine will not make you an expert


 
Yeah thats true, i dont know how to run them but do you know a machine where i can just take MY font and type in my logo(text) and put on shirt-done? i dont rly need designs / odds and ends etc thats all i want to do in white/black size 2x4

Thanks looking to hear from you.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

> im going to be doin around 100 shirts now, but when i keep selling shirts, i will spam alotttt more.


If it were me, I would wait until you are actually selling enough volume to justify the expense. Wait until you get to the point where you are consistently spending a large enough amount that it is clearly cost effective to invest in equipment to do it in house. Then you will also be better prepared and informed in which way to best move forward.


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## JAF (Oct 12, 2008)

If you are OK with the screen print look then maybe you should look into transfers. Of course you would need to buy a heat press but that would be cheaper than an embroidery machine and not difficult to learn. 

for embroidery you don't ship your shirts, use someone close by and you can drop them off yourself. If you are doing 100 pcs then it should cost between $200-$250.


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

Honestly, embroidery would be more cost effective than DTG. For DTG, you would have to have the shirts pre-treated to apply white ink and I doubt you will find anyone who would do them for less than $5/shirt. For embroidery, I could see someone doing them for $2-3/shirt.

You can do these types of single color designs on a small home machine if you are only doing a few at a time. If you really want to do a lot of them, a small 6 needle machine would be the right way to do it and it will also give you room to expand down the road.

Pay me now, or pay me later... wasn't that a commercial?


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## zoom_monster (Sep 20, 2006)

winterfresh said:


> Yeah thats true, i dont know how to run them but do you know a machine where i can just take MY font and type in my logo(text) and put on shirt-done? i dont rly need designs / odds and ends etc thats all i want to do in white/black size 2x4
> 
> Thanks looking to hear from you.


Winterfresh, There is no machine that will do both. You have software that will "digitize" your design and then a machine that (after hooping, loading file, thread sequence etc.) will embroider the design.
My point was that if you plan on selling these, you need the eyes of an expert initially, because what you will be able to do by just purchasing such a set-up will pail compared to you what you'll be able to do once you learn the ins and outs.

If you want to learn the craft of embroidery, then by all means make the investment and the committment. If you are doing this for one idea like it appears in your first post, I would recomend contracting with someone who already is an expert. You will see how many steps there are and decide "if" an how you want to do this in the future.


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## idonaldson (Sep 29, 2008)

My vote is not buying a machine but contracting that out. Home machines don't work. They will for a while but if you going to need it the workload will destroy the machine. Also the home machine has a problem with hooping and size. So you can get maybe a 6 or 9 needle machine. With that said - is it worth droping 6-12K on a machine - unless you will be doing full designs eventually.


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## drdoct (Jul 26, 2011)

I believe, like everyone else that you should sub the job out. When looking for a shop don't look for single head people like me. You want a 100 head shop to do this type of work. It will be much cheaper. What you should do is make your design the way you want it. If you want all letters then it's beyond easy and shouldn't cost hardly anything to digitize. You don't input your letters on the machine, that's what software is for. The shop will run all the heads off that one file. They should be able to be under $3 if you talk to them right. You won't be able to get it under $3 with a single or small number of heads embroiderer. So you're looking at $3x100 for $300 now. Or you could buy a used decent 1 head embroidery machine for $7,000 and spend the next week doing 4 shirts an hour and probably a few hours of break down time, etc... buying thread and bobbins... Believe me, eat the $300 and have a professional shop worry about putting the thread through the shirt. I run a single head and I hate doing big orders and that's making $5 a unit. It's robotic. And the headaches a machine will give you just isn't worth it. Actually, sometimes I question whether it's worth it for what I get out of it anyway.


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## kirbymurphy (Aug 25, 2009)

charles95405 said:


> plastisol and embroidery are so different. My customers for embroidery would not accept plastisol and vice versa


Oops. Didn't notice the thread was in embroidery. Pulled it out of the UNREAD listings


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## idonaldson (Sep 29, 2008)

Doc - I am a single head machine - guy - I occassionally take on this type of work. I even do football jerseys which is similiar work. It helps pay the bills. I am just saying.....


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## drdoct (Jul 26, 2011)

I'll do it for $4 or $5, but even at $5 I find myself wondering why sometimes. But then again, I'm part time and I have to weigh family time with 2nd business time. If it was my main job then yeah, I'd probably take in busy work just to make a little extra especially if it's been slow. We've got a big shop in town that will do hats for $2.75 each which to me I can't even take the time to hoop it for that.


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## [email protected] (Dec 26, 2010)

My wife started out on a home machine. As stated above, there are severe limitations to home machines, and for your price limitations, thats all you will get. Lisa got hers to do gifts for friends, but soon was in business. She wore that machine out in about one year and we bought our first commercial machine (Toyota ESP9000). If you are serious about getting into this, you will need a machine, software (can be as much as the machine), and training on both.


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## idonaldson (Sep 29, 2008)

And let me add on to the last post. After spending good money to see for yourself that the machine is not for commercial use and you are ready to step up - you will not recover your funds from that machine - trust me there is no big market for home embroidery machines. Put both feet in or contract out. I wish I had done that on a few of my machine buys.


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