Sheepshed

Tia - what do you intend to USE this new machine for ? I am guessing the Tiptronic has a variety of zigzag type patterns, and the Juki is straight stitch... so what you would like to DO with the machine would be a deciding factor I guess....

Scissor Queen

I just never was crazy about it so I sold it to put the money towards the Janome.

It's a nice enough machine but it's straight stitch only.

taiboo

Well i already have two machines, but I am leaning towards the Juki so I could eventually put it on a frame for machine quilting.....I am seeing that it is considered a long arm and that would be a major plus to have.

Scissor Queen

It's not a long arm. It's a mid arm at best. You're just not going to have much quilting space at the end of a quilt of any size once you put it on a frame. The frame rails and the rolled up quilt take up a huge amount of the space in the harp area once you get past the middle of a quilt.

nursie76

With the Juki on a frame, you could do up to a queen quilt, but you would start out with 6 1/2 inches quilting space and by the end maybe 1 1/2 to 2 inches, so a large pattern wouldn't be possible. I bought mine used to learn and see if I would like that type of quilting. So far I have done only practice quilts tops, but I am liking it. Mine has been outfitted with a cruise control (stitch regulator) and a laser light so I can put a pantograph on the frames little shelf to follow the design. Course you have to get the smaller designs (about 4" ) I believe the Juki is considered a "short arm" quilter and have also seen it referred to as a mid-arm.

Here is some info on it from Juki:

http://www.juki.com/JusHome/sections/TL-98Q.html

taiboo

Thank you for this, but i am not following what your saying (I'm not great at machine lingo LOL. What does the top half of what you said mean???

nursie76

Sorry, I will try again....hmmm....ok

I wanted to see if I could even begin to do long arm quilting type quilting. That means on a frame, the machine mounted on a carriage or moving platform and then guided by handles. Looks like this: http://www.newjoyquilting.com/gold_standard.html
It is different because you are not sitting in front of the machine, but standing or sitting at the needle end. Then you load the quilt back, top and batting on rollers (see pic) then you have the area between the rollers to quilt in. You work on that area and advance the quilt. The take up roller is in the throat area of the machine so as the quilt wraps around it, it gets fatter and the area in the throat gets filled. The bigger the roll in the throat, the less room you have to move the needle forward on the un-quilted part of the quilt. So by the time you get to the end of the quilt, there is not as much room to maneuver.
There are paper quilting outline patterns on long strips of paper...pantographs (a long linear quilting design). If you look at the pic on the link there is a shelf over the frame. You place the long paper pattern on it, and that gold arm you see in the pic holds a laser light so you can guide the machine while keeping the red laser light on the lines on the pattern. I haven't tried that yet.

The frames can be kinda expensive, but there are many different types out there.

I hope this makes a little more sense. If I can answer any more questions, feel free to PM me.

MadQuilter

Not sure that I would compare those two because the Pfaff is a regular sewing machine with a respectable set of stitches. Not sure if it has the built-in walking foot but it does have a regular throat opening. The Juki has a large throat but it only does straight stitch - very fast. So do you need to/want to sew zigzag or blanket stitch? Then there's your answer.

taiboo

I have two machines that do that already, so i guess my answer is becoming clear LOL

sewcrazygirl

where did you find a juki for 300?? Get it!! Its fantastic!