"The Juki"

Well, you guessed it.

Several of you told me that I should go ahead and maybe get that industrial machine I had mentioned that I was thinking about.

I did. My husband actually encouraged me to do so - he figured I probably qualify as one who could really use a machine that is supposedly almost indestructible.

I looked on our local auction site and bought it ($466 which included shipping!). It came in from Krakow in two days on a truck like this:

It’s a Juki DDL8700.

The thing has a shipping weight of 80 kilos as it is shipped with a pallet. It came while my husband wasn’t here so I asked the delivery guy if he could help me get it up the steps onto the landing as I didn’t see how I could possibly get it up the steps by myself. He said he couldn’t help me get it into the house. I pled with him to just help me get it up the stairs - I figured I could get it under the roof if I could just get it up the steps. I could sort of “walk it” or put a piece of carpet under it and drag it into the entrance area.

He acquiesced. Because of that I don’t have any before pictures of it as it came off the truck. (No time!) Sorry about that.

Here it is in our entrance area that Tim and Claire redid for us while they were here.

I left it there in position waiting for my husband. It arrived on Thurs. morning and he was coming back in on Friday. afternoon. I was a little bit afraid of this thing - it has an oil pan and a separate motor and an installed foot pedal and is, did you get that? HEAVY.

It came with a year warranty on the motor.

So, instead I went to my sewing room and started cleaning. Well, actually I started cleaning when I ordered it. I spent over 20 hours cleaning out my sewing room. That’s how bad it was. I’m still debating whether I should show it or not. My sis thinks I should. I’m not sure I want to be so embarrassed.

Anyway, I did manage to get it cleaned out before my husband arrived home. He was very tired, but helped me get it up the stairs. I asked him to help me get it set up - in other words, get the oil in the pan and such. I mentioned that I was a bit intimidated, didn’t I?

I did go and try it later in the evening. It has a bit of a different feel to it than any other machine I’ve ever used.

It is interesting to have a machine that will sew faster than I can handle!

After a few weeks of using this, I’m going to write a sort of review - compare/contrast with my other machines.

She can go up to 5000-6000 stitches per minute. (At that speed - who cares whether it is 5000, 5500 or 6000?)

I’ve been using it and using it since I got it. I’ve got some things to tweak - such as need to figure out a comfy chair to use as my other chair for some reason isn’t working - my back has been aching after sewing for a couple of hours.

But that’s where I am. I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on with my new machine as well, of course, as my charity quilt top project! Obviously I’ve gotten to work on finishing up as many of those as I can. In fact, in the above pictures you can see my layout of one of the solids shadow quilt I’m using.

You probably figured this out by now - but a couple of things about me and my machines - 1. I’m not particularly brand loyal and 2. I’m not getting anything from any company to promote or not promote them. So while I do have Janomes - it’s mostly been because it was what I could get in the size of machine I needed in 2010 when I got my first “heavy duty machine” with a big throat. I will plan on using the Janomes for quilting/embroidery and this one for most of the piecing due to the very fast speed of this thing!

And now you know!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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