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Do you use two longarms?


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Denise, we used two machines for about seven years.  We had the machines facing each other and would run pantographs on the computerized machine and Brenda would do mostly custom on the freehand machine.  Before I retired Brenda would use both at the same time until I got home from work and then I would take over the computerized for the rest of the days work.  She found that she couldn’t do double the work but one and a half was realistic without my help.  Figure out how many custom jobs you want to do a week or month and start an appointment calendar, in our case one custom a week was enough and we could turn the pantographs around in less than two weeks so no appointment was necessary.   Generally we would be one week ahead of schedule all the time just in case a machine went down and we had to wait for parts or one of us was ill for a few days or didn’t feel like working  a day or two.   The extra week also really keeps the stress down as well.   I always keep spares for the more common needed parts and since both machines were APQS I only need one set.  

Kind of long winded but hope if gives you a couple of ideas.

Nigel

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Denise:  I run two machines.  I do commission work, but I really pretty much quilt for our 6 or 7 person quilting group, or for guild members who just want to have their quilts put together without spending a lot of money.  (most of our guild members are poor old ladies)  I have one machine (my Ult 2, Zelda) at my house, while the other machine (a Gammill Classic on a 14' table) is located at our group quilting studio.  I do 80-100 quilts a year, about half on each machine.  I generally do not accept commissions for custom quilting.  Since the idea is to keep the cost down, most of my commissions are free hand over all.  I do do custom quilting for the folks in our sewing group, and a few others for special purposes, but not too many.

Both of my machines have Intellistitch after market stitch regulators on them, so running the machines is pretty much the same machine to machine.  As you may or may not know, my ult 2 has a spring loaded presser foot, not a hopping foot.  The Gammill has a hopping foot.  I don't do pantograms , but if I did, I think I'd do them on the Gammill because of the hopping foot.  Because of the location at home of my Ult 2, gets most of the custom work I do.  I've done a lot of modifications to Zelda, (four roller table, electronic channel locks, power lift. quiltazoid, etc.) so she is convenient to sit at and do detailed work any time I feel like it.  I don't consider one machine better than the other.  They're just a bit different, and I try to use each ones strengths to my advantage.

I don't do this as a living, it's a hobby, and a service to others, so I don't really know how well it would work in such an environment.  I think what Nigel did is probably the best way to go.  Use a computerized machine for pantograms, and if you're going to do custom work, do that on a lesser automated machine.  If you really want to make money quilting, I think running two computerized machines doing only edge to edge would be the way to go.  Of course there would have to be enough work available in your area to keep both machines going most all the time.

Hope this helps you out.  Jim

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I too, have thought about having 2 machines for my business.  What I have learned after having Intelliquilter for a year, is that I wouldn't want to do custom work without it, so the idea of having a non-computerized machine for custom quilting isn't as appealing as it used to be.  In a perfect world, I'd have 2 longarms with IQ on both of them.  It would be great to track down the Ultimate XX, add IQ and use it for pantos!

Carol

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On 5/15/2018 at 2:17 PM, jimerickson said:

 If you really want to make money quilting, I think running two computerized machines doing only edge to edge would be the way to go.  

The last I heard from Crystal Smythe she was running four APQS machines at a time all with IntelliQuilter and I think she had a fifth machine as a spare.

Nigel

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