Juki 1341 questions

[R8R]

2 hours ago, Uwe said:

Looks like they put some thought into this.

 

 

Yeah... they are thinking the new machine with this option will set a customer back about $7k delivered. And that is for the BASE model, not the fancy "-7" version.

I do love my LU-2810 but WOW, add a cylinder to it and it blows up the price by 250%.

[Uwe]

The price difference likely is due to the realities of manufacturing economics. Development and tooling cost for a low volume niche product tends to increase the per-unit cost drastically. The reason it only costs $7K and not $17K is because they can re-use engineering and tooling from the high volume flatbed heads.

I for one am grateful that there are companies who innovate at all. The sales to the LW demographic do not sustain the OEM companies. Those sales get lost in rounding errors in their annual report. But we get to enjoy all that innovation after the patents expire and clone makers take over.

[R8R]

5 hours ago, Uwe said:

The price difference likely is due to the realities of manufacturing economics. Development and tooling cost for a low volume niche product tends to increase the per-unit cost drastically. The reason it only costs $7K and not $17K is because they can re-use engineering and tooling from the high volume flatbed heads.

I for one am grateful that there are companies who innovate at all. The sales to the LW demographic do not sustain the OEM companies. Those sales get lost in rounding errors in their annual report. But we get to enjoy all that innovation after the patents expire and clone makers take over.

I agree!

https://youtu.be/qryBuUxURvQ

Sewing is just now getting some true digital automation function that other industries have had for years. Even screen printing went through this about a decade ago. We had automation but digital automation took it to the next level. Being able to digitally set parameters and save them for repeat jobs is HUGE if your machine is there to make you money, and this kind of thing trickles down into lower priced machines later on.

 

[chrisash]

1 hour ago, R8R said:

I agree!

https://youtu.be/qryBuUxURvQ

Sewing is just now getting some true digital automation function that other industries have had for years. Even screen printing went through this about a decade ago. We had automation but digital automation took it to the next level. Being able to digitally set parameters and save them for repeat jobs is HUGE if your machine is there to make you money, and this kind of thing trickles down into lower priced machines later on.

Yes saves the big factories lots of money but gives the equipment a pre determined life as the electrics die years before the machine and cannot be repaired, so we all either continue to use iron or keep buying new.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Wizcrafts
Edited to separate Chris' reply from the quoted content.

[R8R]

2 hours ago, chrisash said:

Yes saves the big factories lots of money but gives the equipment a pre determined life as the electrics die years before the machine and cannot be repaired, so we all either continue to use iron or keep buying new.

Yep. I went full analog - ordered a Techsew 2600 yesterday.

[gottaknow]

On 9/20/2018 at 12:29 PM, R8R said:

I agree!

https://youtu.be/qryBuUxURvQ

Sewing is just now getting some true digital automation function that other industries have had for years. Even screen printing went through this about a decade ago. We had automation but digital automation took it to the next level. Being able to digitally set parameters and save them for repeat jobs is HUGE if your machine is there to make you money, and this kind of thing trickles down into lower priced machines later on.

 

Actually we’ve had digital automation for more than a decade in sewing factories. Brother has led the way. We make gloves which lend themselves to automation with lots of little components. It’s expensive up front, but the ROI is usually less than a year, often much faster. Most hobby sewers can’t drop 24k on a single machine though. 

Regards, Eric 

[chrisash]

Having owned and run a embroidery company for many years until last year, the computerised sewing machines can have 24 heads each with 15 different coloured needles and the 6 head machines can  have 3 heads doing one design whilst the other 3 do a separate design all at 1200 Stitch per min, just pure magic to listen to. if a thread breaks just that head stops to be sorted out then goes back 3-5 stitches and restarts

[R8R]

1 hour ago, chrisash said:

Having owned and run a embroidery company for many years until last year, the computerised sewing machines can have 24 heads each with 15 different coloured needles and the 6 head machines can  have 3 heads doing one design whilst the other 3 do a separate design all at 1200 Stitch per min, just pure magic to listen to. if a thread breaks just that head stops to be sorted out then goes back 3-5 stitches and restarts

I worked at a shop that was 50/50 embroidery/screenprinting. That place was a cacophony.

[R8R]

2 hours ago, gottaknow said:

Actually we’ve had digital automation for more than a decade in sewing factories. Brother has led the way. We make gloves which lend themselves to automation with lots of little components. It’s expensive up front, but the ROI is usually less than a year, often much faster. Most hobby sewers can’t drop 24k on a single machine though. 

Regards, Eric 

I think I meant it's finally getting ubiquitous, with touch panels right on the machines, NFC features, etc. You know, "smart" stuff.

Example the old guard in screen printing is M&R. Amazing machines, rock solid company. A few digitally controlled presses some years ago, but mostly for very high end shops. Other equipment manufacturers came in with automated features and touch panels, programmable temperature controls, job recall, production data downloads, etc. The whole industry stepped it up and now that kind of digital control is standard in many new machines.

But like sewing you can still buy a basic metal machine that will get the job done for years.

[R8R]

Ok I'm stumped.

The Techsew 2600 machine did not work out, it's on it's way back to them.

I'm looking machine that can do synchronous binding with a bit more "umph" than an average small cylinder machine that make up most dedicated synchronous binder designs. (335, etc)

Juki DSC-246 is a very good candidate but a new one is over $5k (if I can find it) and used ones are seemingly non-existent. There is a auto "-7" version on ebay but I don't really want or need trimmers and auto back-tacking etc. Also the -7 sacrifices some foot lift and a little capacity, and it would need a whole synchro kit added anyway.

Juki has discontinued the add-on binder kit for the LS-1341.

The binder kit for the LS-1342 might still be available but I can't find one of those machines, except for Penn Sew who have the auto -7 version, which does not accept the kit. (wtf Juki? sigh)

I can get the new LS-2342, and they make a binder kit for it, but it would be over $7k delivered and take months.

What I'm looking for is a cylinder arm machine that has a foot lift and max capacity somewhere similar to a Juki 1341, or 341, (16mm lift, 3/8" assemblies) that can "maybe" do synchronous binding, as I'll have some tight corners to do with both leather and heavy woven nylon bias tape. I am actually trying to use 1050 ballistic nylon cut on the bias as one binding option, and chrome tanned leather as another, (also marine fabrics as a third option)

I've wrestled with this off and on for quite awhile on my flat bed machine and nothing is satisfactory. I've also been out of town most of the year so now I'm home for a bit I was hoping to hit the ground running and make some final prototypes of these bags I'm working on, but the sewing world is being difficult.

 

Thoughts? Should I just go for a used Juki 341 and cobble a fixed binder plate to it with some scrap metal?