What about a Brother PR600II

i have two of them. it will take you a little while but you can do it. i just got done doing 150 baseball hats that had about 12k stitches per hat. some other machines are quicker but cost more too. i would sub out the digitizing to a pro so it looks great. i can give you the guy i have used for years if you need one. i would suggest that you get a few sets of extra hoops so that you can hoop a second shirt so that the change over goes much quicker. send me a PM and i can get you the site too if needed. if you can have something sewn on the machine while your there just to make sure all is ok. these are great machines and that is a pretty good price. what else does it come with ? make sure it is with a couple hat hoops and driver too. these are pretty expensive to buy alone. if you have any questions let me know.

Mike I bet half way through that hat order you were hating life. I can't make it through 1 hat, much less 150.

I think those Brother machines are great. Join the yahoo newsgroup for them (the one with thousands in it) too. The biggest thing now is to take your time. Since you know your logo and size you'll be able to get some precut cutaway stabilizer (check out sewingmachine.com). I suggest getting magnaglide bobbins by the box because a box goes a long way and they're the best as far as consistency goes from what I've experienced. Again, sewingmachine.com. If you call them and tell them what you have (they're a Brother retailer/repair shop) they can steer you in the right direction and are VERY knowledgeable.

I wouldn't look at a hooping system right now but definitely some round hoops in a few different sizes. Round hoops will enable you to turn the hoop a little to compensate for hand hooping. Also something that could help you out a bunch with placement is the embroiderer's buddy (adult and child). After a while you won't use it, but at first it really helps out.

When you start off remember to always ALWAYS! trace your design in the hoop. I can't stress that enough. There isn't a safeguard (don't think there is anyway) for hitting the hoop and when you hit a hoop bad things happen. You'll also need some sewing machine oil that can do drops for your hook especially. I use LB5 because it sprays in one drop through a straw. Then thread. Go slow and try to be patient while reading everything you can and watching every video you can.

Good luck!

drdoct said:

There isn't a safeguard (don't think there is anyway) for hitting the hoop and when you hit a hoop bad things happen.

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Minor point of correction... As long as you use the Brother hoops that come with the machine and the sensor detects the correct size of the hoop, the machine simply will not let you do something outside of the hoop. If you use something like fast frames or non-Brother hoops, all bets are off

I have 2 of the Brother PR600II's, one has north of 45 million stitches, the other somewhere around 30 million last time I checked. Very durable machines... Honestly, if the PR1000 had come out a year earlier, I'd have bought it instead of my SWF since I ideally need about 8 colors for a lot of my car designs. Hard part now would be we got used to the much larger frame size on the SWF and I'd have to resize a lot of things smaller to go down to the PR1000 max frame size. If you can live with 6 needles and the max frame size of 7.5 x 11.75, the PR6xx series are just great little machines.

Stich, I know the feeling, we jumped in and bought a small company that had previously outsourced all it's digitizing and stitching, then bought a PR600 from a local dealer. Talk about jumping in with both feet

Yep, mine is pretty much the same parts as Tajimas. Even uses their 360 hoops. I bet with that brother you could use Tajima 360 hoops too. I'm petrified of hitting hoops but still it happens from time to time. I can go pretty much all the way to the hoop on the bottom, but the top I can't go like 1" because of the presser foot will hit. The littlest hit and then the needle will slam into the foot... Luckily the needles are the only things I've broken so far. Worried about more though. I think these pr machines are the perfect transition or first machines. Later I think anyone in business should have a real commercial machine because they are so much faster and stronger.

I confess though, I hate square hoops. They're so hard to get straight. Round ones you can move a little right or left and square them right up. My big mighty hoop is easy even though it's a rectangle because I can hold the top and the bottom will line up with the magnets.