# Making the leap into Embroidery



## DSTAngieB (Aug 8, 2013)

Hi Guys!

We have recently been blessed with an infusion of cash investment into our home business. As a part of our business plan, we have always wanted to branch into offering embroidery as a service but thought it'd be another 2 years until we could afford a REAL machine.

So I'm looking for advice on which way we should go for under $10,000. 

We would like to do shirts, jackets, baby things, and monogrammed home decor items (towels, napkins, etc), and cosmetic bags. And my hubby would like to also do caps and maybe even small leather goods. We are licensed for a number of Greek sororities and so that is probably our biggest pressing need right now.

*Any advice on what we should start with?* What is important to me is having a "workhorse" kind of machine with a solid reputation, good support, and something that we won't quickly outgrow. We took this approach when we bought our cutter and heat press and have been very happy so I want to feel the same about our embroidery machine purchase.


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

Sounds like you have 2 conflicting requirements here...

If you want the 'best', that would be something like a Tajima or Barudan multi-head machine and Wilcom software. Right there, you are looking at $20K - 30K....

You can find a used multi-head machine and buy the software seperately but that's always a crap-shoot buying a used machine. Regardless of which software you buy, it takes a long time to learn how to convert images/logo/whatever into embroidery files (commonly called digitizing).

You can opt for something like a Brother/Babylock 6 or 10 needle machine and software which you can pick up for around $10K and that will get you started. Down the road, you can always buy a bigger machine, more machines, etc... That's how we started.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Add 20 percent of your purchase price for supplies


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## DSTAngieB (Aug 8, 2013)

tfalk said:


> Sounds like you have 2 conflicting requirements here...
> 
> If you want the 'best', that would be something like a Tajima or Barudan multi-head machine and Wilcom software. Right there, you are looking at $20K - 30K....


Point noted about the conflicting requirements! LOL
I guess I should probably qualify that with "the best our MONEY can buy right now"! One day, when we grow up (hehehe) I hope to be able to need a commercial-level, multi-head machine and that CRAAAAZY expensive Wilcom software, but we are certainly not there right now!

Based on feedback in this forum, we're no longer looking at a 4 needle machine because everyone seems to say you outgrow that quickly. So now we're looking at either a 10 or 12 needle machine. I saw a "gently used" SWF machine on Craigslist but I've read folks in this forum complain about its reliability, so I'm leery.

Maybe some dealer will have a great Black Friday sale next week! (crossing fingers)


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## wilks42 (Nov 20, 2014)

Find a lightly used melco amaya XT with pro plus design shop. Around $8k for good one. Pay melco for training in Denver and webinars for digitizing. I started this way in February of this year and just added my 4th head. It will take some learning. Get what you put into it. Few swear words. Read the maintenance manual and do your own. Melco manuals are excellent.


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## marzatplay (May 25, 2014)

wilks42 said:


> Find a lightly used melco amaya XT with pro plus design shop. Around $8k for good one. Pay melco for training in Denver and webinars for digitizing. I started this way in February of this year and just added my 4th head. It will take some learning. Get what you put into it. Few swear words. Read the maintenance manual and do your own. Melco manuals are excellent.


I agree with this. The Melco machines will grow with you. You start with 1 head and add heads as you need them. I have 3 now myself. 

Also invest in a hoop master (another $1,500). It will save your butt hooping in the right positions for shirts and jackets.


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## Fltees (Aug 17, 2013)

For years, we wanted to add embroidery to our home business and the cost always stopped us. We always attend the various trade shows to keep up with things. At one of the ISS shows, we purchased a Ricoma. We were impressed with the quality and the show special was totally affordable (under $10k). We were also happy that they were located within 2 hours of us. Within a week, we had our machine and drove to the manufacturer to pick it up and spent a full day of training there. The machine runs pretty much every day, all day without any problems.


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## marzatplay (May 25, 2014)

Fltees said:


> For years, we wanted to add embroidery to our home business and the cost always stopped us. We always attend the various trade shows to keep up with things. At one of the ISS shows, we purchased a Ricoma. We were impressed with the quality and the show special was totally affordable (under $10k). We were also happy that they were located within 2 hours of us. Within a week, we had our machine and drove to the manufacturer to pick it up and spent a full day of training there. The machine runs pretty much every day, all day without any problems.


Ricoma is Chinese knock off. I'm glad it's going well for you, but it's a matter of time. I personally don't recommend them.


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## Fltees (Aug 17, 2013)

Yes, Ricoma is chinese made. But, support is local and the affordability was key in our decision. Since we weren't sure how well embroidery would do in our business, it is a large enough outlay of cash to keep up motivated to make it work, but not such a huge amount that would make us regret the decision if it didn't take off. Fortunately for us, it has taken off and if things continue to go in the direction they are and if we start to have problems, we can upgrade to something else. We also spoke with several shops that have the same machine (not recommendations, but shops we found on our own) that use the Ricoma and are happy with it.


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## Liberty (Jul 18, 2006)

It will be difficult to start out with a quality commercial machine with only $10K. It could be done with a used setup and some patient shopping but for a first machine, sometimes used is not a good option since you'll need a bit more training. By the time you purchase a decent lettering and editing program and all of the startup supplies, your machine purchase is realistically closer to $8K.

Just as important as the financial decision, don't underestimate the labor costs. To keep a machine running you'll be looking at an operator plus a lot more sales and admin load. You can surely run the machine yourself but then that takes you away from the functions you are currently performing in the business.

If searching for used machines, don't forget to look at the equipment leasing companies. They always have off-lease or repossessed machines. All of my machines except one came from repo's. The lease company has them serviced and there is a limited warranty in most cases. Just a thought...


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## scott8801 (Oct 27, 2011)

Angie, where are you located. I have a baby lock 10 needle that I'm seriously thinking about selling. I just recently bought it from a person that was getting out of the business. She bought it brand new in Oct. of 2012. It is like brand new. It only has 125 hours on it. I have a ton of hoops and also have the hat hoop setup for it as well. She paid around 17,000 for it and all the accessories. I just don't have time to mess with it right now. To busy with screen printing. I'd be willing to sell it for $9500. I will not ship though. It would have to be picked up. I'm in east central FL. Let me know if you might be interested, I can email you pictures. Thanks


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## DSTAngieB (Aug 8, 2013)

Scott!! We're in Maryland near the Pennsylvania border. Aww RATS!

The Babylock 10 needle is definitely still in the running for the type of machine we're looking for.


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## scott8801 (Oct 27, 2011)

You could make a nice little drive down to Daytona. A little warmer here right now. LOL


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## DSTAngieB (Aug 8, 2013)

With snow on our horizon for Thanksgiving, don't tempt me! LOL

We're leaning toward the Brother PR-1000e right now and found a pretty good deal on a brand new one. We're small and home based right now but when we grow up (LOL) and expand into a commercial space, we'll be looking more at something like a multi-head Tajima.


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## jray (Jul 22, 2010)

Don't buy brothers small machines. I've had brother machines for 20 years+. The bigger single heads are great 416s even older 415 weren't bad. 
Don't buy the baby lock models 
I just picked up a tajima neo for 5k.
Tajima has great quality and resell. Everyone I know says the baby lock suck for hats


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

jray said:


> Everyone I know says the baby lock suck for hats


Then you don't know the right people... We've been running Brother or Babylock 6 and 10 needle machines for 7+ years. I'd rather run hats on my Brother 6 needle than on my SWF 15 needle.


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## edward1210 (Nov 7, 2009)

Hello, I'm planning to buy an embroidery machine, I see you have the ricoma, do you still have it? 
How is been?
Did you any major issues with this machine? 
Do yiu recommend it?

Sent from my SM-N900T using T-Shirt Forums


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## edward1210 (Nov 7, 2009)

Fltees said:


> For years, we wanted to add embroidery to our home business and the cost always stopped us. We always attend the various trade shows to keep up with things. At one of the ISS shows, we purchased a Ricoma. We were impressed with the quality and the show special was totally affordable (under $10k). We were also happy that they were located within 2 hours of us. Within a week, we had our machine and drove to the manufacturer to pick it up and spent a full day of training there. The machine runs pretty much every day, all day without any problems.


Do you recommend ricoma? 
Have you had a lot of problems with it?

Sent from my SM-N900T using T-Shirt Forums


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## Fltees (Aug 17, 2013)

Still loving the Ricoma. Haven't had any issues at all with it and it still runs at least 8 hours every day!


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## edward1210 (Nov 7, 2009)

Thanks, I think I will go for
thank, they are locate like 1 hour away from me


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## edward1210 (Nov 7, 2009)

Oh, how long ago you bought your ricoma machine?


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## S Paul Williams (Oct 15, 2011)

Ted, re your post of November 2014 to this thread: Sorry to be late in asking this, but, with your 6 needle machine, doing hats, how do you get the embroidery low enough, or close enough, to the hat's edge. I've tried several hats on the supplied frames with my Brother PR650, and they are all too high for my liking. Some of them, the embroidery is so high the final product looks ridiculous, with the image almost pointing to the sun, so to speak. The adjustments that seem possible are still leaving to much of a gap between brim and image. thanks, Paul


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

Nothing you can do about it Paul, it's a limitation of the machine. You can try to pull the cap lower in the frame but that's about it. At the same time, I can't get very close to the brim on my SWF 15 needle or it breaks needles constantly....


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

The problem with getting close to the brim is it hits the back of the head and flexes the hat and causes deflection. The new Tajima's have an up to the bill sewing field. That is the only way to do it other than taking the hat apart.


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