How used is "too used"
 

I am looking to purchase a used Avante longarm with prostitcher and frame.

It is a 2010 with 6million stitches.

How do I know if this is "too used" or not?

Do you think it will still have a good amount of life left, or no?

I have no idea if that's high mileage for it's age or not, but what is usually most important is how well it was maintained. Most longarms can run forever with proper maintenance. Did the owner oil the machine regularly as instructed? Did she clean and oil the bobbin race with each bobbin change? Don't ask these questions of her directly. Instead act like you know nothing and ask "What will I have to do to properly maintain this machine?" and see what she says. Find out if how often she quilted. Did she quilt only for herself, or for others as a business? Did she quilt all day, every day? If there were other previous owners, what were their habits? You could also call Avante and pose your question to them. They may know how many stitches a part-time or full-time quilter puts on yearly.

I know nothing about an Avante, but bought my Gammill Classic Plus when it was 6 years old and had been heavily used by a professional quilter. She (and her DH) did excellent maintenance on it. I've had a couple of things that required a call to tech support for what eventually we figured out was the electronic board that was causing problems--but I was able to replace and cost less than $50. I would do like JustABitCrazy suggested and contact an Avante dealer and see what they have to say.

Very well stated. Maintenance and using the correct products for the brand of machine are key. I'm a Gammil owner and probably wouldn't be able to use the Avante bobbins etc and viceaversa.

6 million stitches is not very much....check out how it runs now...drive it...5 year old machine is not very old...these machine last a long time...if properly maintained

The one thing to remember is when you buy from a private party, there are no guarantees, no classes or the service of a technician.

I signed up for classes on a long arm Gammill at a lqs. $50 for 2 hours and then you can rent it for $25.00 an hour after. No one else in town does it so don't have much choice. For me, it'll work and I'll be able to decide if it's something I want to consider purchasing. Don't get to start for a couple weeks yet but at least it got me motivated to work on some piecing. Thing is for $25.00 I quilt it myself. No matter the size. will help me decide if I want to invest in one.

Handiquilter (the manufacturer of the Avante) also recommends annual servicing by an HQ certified technician. This is usually done by their local dealer/rep so you will also want to ensure that has been done and find out if there is a certified HQ tech in your area to continue doing the annual servicing or if you have to ship it back to Utah for that.

At one time I was analyzing this type of arrangement and, as I'm a slow quilter, felt it would still cost quite a bit to quilt one quilt. Then I thought it might be a good way of basting a quilt to get it ready to quilt on a home machine or by hand. So much easier than the traditional method of preparing a quilt. You can get several tops ready, then take tops, backings and batting to the rental unit and baste several in an hour. You baste the top, sides and bottom and stitch a 4" grid all over the quilt by guiding the longarm to stitch bigger stitches(an 1" apart or so).

Have fun with your classes.

I PURCHASED a used long arm it was real old but I tried it out and got it now it has been 3 years and I love it so my advice to you is try it out and see if you like it first and not worry about the stitches. You know they do very fast stiches anyway.