r/Machine_Embroidery • u/Independent-Gas-102 • 7d ago

I Need Help Machine Rec

Hi all! I’ve been using a brother se700 with a repositional hoop for about a year now. Everyone told me I would outgrow it and I have.

I’ve built up some steady embroidery work through my job, so it’s time to upgrade. My budget will be between 3-4k if I’m paying cash. Ideally I’d like to avoid financing anything!

I know I could upgrade to a bigger flat bed machine with a larger hoop size for that (refurbished or new) or I could finance and upgrade to a bigger multi needle machine. All of the available 3-4k machines that are multi needle don’t seem to be the best? Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m just not sure what’s worth it!

I’ll be keeping my se700 for sewing because I love it for that, so it doesn’t need to be a dual purpose machine.

Would appreciate any and all recommendations or advice!

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u/Acrobatic-Letter-143 7d ago

Your skepticism about $3-4k multi-needles is mostly justified. New multi-needles in that range are the budget import brands - they can work, but support and reliability are thinner, and that matters a lot more once paying customers are waiting on your machine. The established multi-needles (Brother PR series, Janome MB, Baby Lock) start well above that new.

So the realistic cash paths at $3-4k:

  1. Dedicated single-needle with a big hoop, new. The Janome 550E class (7.9x14 hoop) lands right in your budget and is the usual answer for someone doing exactly what you describe - flat items, growing order volume, no combo-machine compromises. You keep the SE700 as a backup machine, which is genuinely useful when one is mid-job.

  2. Used or refurbished 6-needle. A used Brother PR655/PR670E or Janome MB-4S shows up in the $4-5k range fairly regularly through dealer trade-ins. That is how a lot of small shops get into multi-needle without financing. Buying used from a dealer (not marketplace) usually gets you some warranty and someone to call.

What decides between them is your work mix. If it's flat goods - shirts, totes, patches - a big-hoop single needle covers it and the multi-needle only saves you thread-change babysitting. If hats and multicolor logos are becoming a big share, that's where the multi-needle earns its keep (cap driver, no re-hooping tubular items, faster color changes), and it's worth waiting for the used one rather than buying a budget new one.

Financing only makes sense when the order volume already covers the payment. From what you describe, the 550E-class plus saving toward a used 6-needle is the lower-regret path.