Originally Posted by
hulahoop1
My DH has offered to get me a machine for my frame (that he built) which has 15" between so take-up roller and the first roller. So it's too small for a mid to long arm machine and those are too much for our budget anyway. I have been looking at these three machines because of the 9-inch throat space and am leaning towards the Janome because I have a dealer in town so repair/tune-ups are convenient. I would welcome your recommendations. What do you think?
I have both the 98Q and just about a year ago also got the Brother 1500...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Juki...I don't recall the year I got it, but think I have had it over 10 yrs. I really like my Brother, too. My Juki is downstairs, NOT on a frame, but I have quilted several quilts on it. It has made such a huge difference in my quilting.
The brother is a really nice machine, too, but I like my Juki's needle threader better. Neither one has the a warning about the bobbin running out. I just got used to watching and seldom sew over a foot without noticing.
But even though I would not trade my Juki, for either of the others, if I were you and had a dealer and could afford the Janome, I would probably go for it. Just to have a dealer near.
When I got the Juki, it was a toss up for me between the Juki 98Q and the Brother 1500 at that time. I could get the Juki cheaper. There was, and still is a Yahoo Juki 98 group, but I don't think it is very active now. I read and read and read, and used to read the forum regularly even after I got mine. And in all that reading, only one person ever seemed to have had a problem that was really the machine. All others were operator error. And there was a guy on there and when someone hit a pin and put their machine's timing off, he walked them through how to time it.
I forgot to say I ordered my machine without ever trying one out...just went totally by the feedback on that forum.