i am a screenprinter who has been subbing out our embroidery. i am ready to take a step towards doing our own. i am looking at swf 6 needle single head to start. there main office is 20 mins from my shop (thought this was good for tech support). the people that do my work now have barudan's. they sware the swf east is garbage... will the swf east produce sew out's that are comparible to barudan if i have good digitizing? is this machine worth buying?
We have the SWF 1501c and it runs 12 hours a day, 4-6 days a week for the lat 18 months since we bought it without complaint. I would not get the MA-6, go with the 901c if you are serious but money is an issue, otherwise go with the 1501c.
Keep in mind you be hard pressed to make a good $/hr with a single head on large stitch count jobs. You might want to look into a multi head like the 1504 Dream Machine SWF MESA Distributors, Inc. | SWF / E-UH1508D Embroidery Machine. This sucker cooks! It runs around $30K but the payback should be pretty quick on it.
Some other notes,
Stay away from multi-function machines.
Make sure you visit the vendor with your artwork and have them run it on their machine for you.
You will need to get more accessories than come with the machine, look for hooping assitants like the hoopmaster, quick change hoops like fast frames, and a good supplier of consumables.
I have had SWF equipment for 3 years and would never change , They are great machines. They also have great techs that are concerned with helping you to keep your equipment up and running. .... JB
i appreciate your reply's. the machines looked great to me, but i had someone tell me that i would notice a big difference when i stitch a logo and then stitch the same logo on her barudan. i didn't think there could be that big of a difference or swf wouldn't be such a large company like they are. i meet with mark from swf to look at there equipment in there tampa office!!!
I have used Melco,Tajima, and Baruden over the years. I find SWF to be of equal if not higher quality to them. I think they are of better quality than Melco and equal to the other three. The srvice after the sale with SWF is second to none. .... JB
I have no complaint with my SWF 1501C, and I still feel that I got a good value.
Mesa Distributors (SWF's West Coast Distributor) has the worst excuse for a customer service department that I've ever seen -- both machine and software.
If you do mostly small embroidery jobs (50 pieces or less), you can probably get by with a 6 needle machine. Most logo's I do are 2 or 3 colors...sometimes 4.
One reason to think about a 9 or 15 needle machine is the size of the stitch area. You may well need that larger area.
As for a 2 head machine, I would not make that investment until I really had the jobs flying out the door.
SWF EAST, good quality???? 
