Embroidery machines have a very high second hand value and just like anything, you can purchase a decent one or a bad one (I will leave that to others to comment on). however having once owned an embroidery machine, unless someone was to give me a machine for next to nothing I would never consider purchasing again.
There are loads of companies out there who do this and do it well. Embroidery is a very steep learning curve and one I would not take lightly.
It would be far better for you to set up a trade deal with an embroidery company and simply put a mark up on the goods.
We have top of the range machines and I wouldnt advise you to take on such a task unless you really know what you're doing. They are relatively simple to stitch a basic word or something but there is a LOT more to it than just that with differing thread types, bobbins, backing stabilizer, topping, materials, stitch types, tensions etc. etc.
I'd agree that there is a lot that needs to be learnt in order to do a good job - understanding backing/stabilisers, tension and making sure you find a quality digitizer would be the areas I'd focus on (I wouldn't touch digitizing in house unless you've got a lot of time to learn this properly as digitizing plays such an important part in the quality of the final embroidery). If I was starting again I would definitely go for a multi-head machine. A single head machine is great for one - offs but it does make it difficult to compete on price for any sort of volume orders. Investing in an extra set of hoops can reduce the time to change from one garment to another but still not an efficient way to embroider large orders.
I wholly agree about finding a good digitizer, we only use UK based ones and there are huge differences between good and bad. A good one gets the deisng right first time and it sews out perfectly. A bad one we tried recently needed 6 revisions before it was usable!
However - I disagree about the multi-head setup. They are utter dogs by comparison to the top spec single head machines we use. We can set up one job on all machines, or on a few or have different jobs running on each. Multi heads rarely have auto-tension, the ones at P&P show recently used manual adjusted spring loaded tensioners, a terrible design in engineering terms and if you get a thread break on 1 head they all stop, with our multi station single head setup if one stops the others keep going, you can stagger the start so you can hoop and set the next job before the next one needs attention and is very very efficient in working processes.
Fair point... 3x single heads that could be networked would be better than 1x triple head... but there's a noticeable difference in initial cost "per head" . Suppose as with everything, if the extra cost pays for itself in reducing downtime and waste then it's a good investment.
I agree with smo , I only have single heads. If the thread breaks on one then the others are still running. As I work on my own most of the time its a much easier system to run. I also do my own digitising. I only send the job out if its complicated. I do not find digitising hard but I spent a long time learning it from a good teacher.
If you buy a machine make sure you have support or the machine will be useless.
In answer to the thread question:[h=2]What are the merits of investing in an embroidery machine[/h] the answer is you can offer an embroidery service !
The market place is crowded with large commercial embroidereres, but there are options for small fast opperations. farm out digitizing, employ someone with embroidery experience, returns not as quick as transfere but could be longer, - greater loyalty for embroidery customers. I have single head, and wish I had bought a 3 or 4 head unit, - only about double the cost but more volume but do agree with comments above about flexibility. A 16 head machine might only be about 4x the cost of a single head AND the (wilcome) software to control it is v expensive, and the same sw will control as many machine heads as you have.....
You have asked a whole heap of questions about starting a biz, but what skill or knowledge do you have ? - why do YOU want to get into this area?
1 Hour T-shirt printing shop in Newcastle upon Tyne. http://www.logobear.co.uk/
Logobear t-shirt print and embroidery. 74 Clayton Street. Newcastle. NE1 5PG. UK
