Who is a good retailer for Brother machines?

[RatherDashing]

I'd like to make the jump into embroidery for my classroom (we do a lot of production for the school and local community), with it being the last machine (aside from a dtf printer) to have a full range of options. I saw a Brother PR680W at a convention, and am eager to purchase one for the next school year. Does anyone know a good retailer in the Willamette Valley area (Oregon)? It doesn't necessarily need to be near me, but I would think it could be convenient for training on the machine.

I's also like recommendations on machines if you think the Brother isn't as good as others, or a friendly machine around teenagers. I have zero experience with embroidery, but quick to learn new things.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The PR lineup of machines is that of entry level business, high end consumer. So keep that in mind. That brings about advantages and disadvantages.

I will say this, that lineup of machines (versus the totally commercial lineup of not just Brother machines, but all of them) is perhaps the more accessible to lay people that have zero experience otherwise (at least in my experience with teaching others). That comes with it some cons as well if going down the embroidery rabbit hole. PR machines have very specific quirks that will take time to compensate for, not necessarily wrong/bad, but they are different and really only those machines have them. Not to say that the total commercial machines are all that hard, sometimes that industrial aesthetic can have a little bit more learning curve. It all depends. However, going with the more industrial machine and learning off that first, be able to handle just about anything that comes one's way after that (Brother commercial machines are also very, very good, although I do prefer Barudan's, stick with the well known ones in general should do right by you).

If going with the PR machine, I would suggest their software. Things like applique stop codes etc don't really come out using something like Wilcom (which is better compared to Brother software in general, but not when dealing with these machines specifically, once can work around it with something like Wilcom, but it will require more effort and more than likely not getting much support at least officially).

I would suggest the 10 needle and not the 6 needle, but I realize that for budget reasons, this may not happen. Colors and doing changes for designs that have more than what the machine has already, is actually more tedious with Brother machines (going back to specific quirks), so the more than can be handled from the outset, the better you are. Unless you just want to limit the design number to 6, but that would be an artificial limit.

I can't help much with a good retailer within your area.

 

[BigNate]

be a little cautious with Brother - at least from my personal experience. We started embroidery with a total consumer level machine (I think 400 series, it was a few years back....) . Well, the machine worked great, we have a 2-color logo that would take about 15 minutes to stitch on a slow pace (something slow/safe enough to walk away from while working on paper printing - our main business.)

After putting about 2k shirts through the original machine, I purchased 3 more identical ones - again, only for in-house uniforms, and we wanted something that could run mostly unattended like the test device. Even though the 3 new machines had identical model numbers, they started failing pretty bad after only a few shirts. When I opened them up, a lot of the gears that are metal in our first machine have been replaced with plastic - and the plastic ones were loosing teeth!

so be be clear, my problem with Brother is that something with the exact same model number, and purchased from the same store about a year apart were absolutely not the same machines under the cover. Brother caught us really hard with the old bait-and-switch routine. (and yes, these were cheap, entry level sewing machines, about $300 each, I was not really expecting much from the first one other than a proof of concept to justify a higher end device - but I was pleasantly surprised with how well the original machine worked.)

 

[RatherDashing]

I'm not super set on a Brother, so if any of you think something is better, I have a budget of $13,500.

Where do you purchase a Barudan?

 

[BigNate]

for smaller, pro-sumer devices, the Husqvarna machines are very robust. When we have a huge order I send out to someone with a large Tajima. But our District had home ec classes that taught sewing and embroidery, they used the Husqvarna machines with students and they held up very well (if you remember High School this says a lot about the robustness of the machine.)

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Rating Brothers on their consumer line for a commercial production venture isn't a totally fair assessment. Husqvarna is ok, not sure about how they rank today. Tajima is a good one. I do like Barudans more if going full fledge commercial. One function that I like that quite a few machines don't have directly, but may be able to have with their own in house embroidery software is the slow/fast commands. Those really come in handy and prevents from having to baby sit the machine when doing the more delicate embroidery, but don't have to have it apply to the entire design.

 

[Craig Keller]

I'm not super set on a Brother, so if any of you think something is better, I have a budget of $13,500.

Where do you purchase a Barudan?

Call me 254-459-2009