Product Review     

Product: HoopMaster
Manufacturer: MidWest Products, Inc.
Manufacturer’s Web Site: HoopMaster.com
Retail Price: $545.00 (Standard Kit*)
Review Date: December 22, 2005

One of the many tools available to embroidery business owners is the HoopMaster. The HoopMaster serves many useful purposes in an embroidery shop, but its claim to fame is clearly hooping shirts. If you’ve ever fought with the placement and alignment of logos on shirts, the HoopMaster can virtually eliminate your frustration. There is no need to measure or mark your shirts for proper placement when utilizing the HoopMaster system.

Please note that this review is not intended to be a comprehensive tutorial, but an overview of some of the many uses for the HoopMaster. Consult the instruction manual included with your unit for more complete details on how to assemble and use the HoopMaster system.

The HoopMaster unit used for this review includes the fixtures designed for the Brother PR600 and Babylock EMP6. Similar fixtures are available for most commercial embroidery machines on the market. The base unit or "Station" is the same for all machines. We’ll cover the base unit, the free arm unit, and the fixtures used for various size hoops. As you read through this review, click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view of the photo.

To begin, the photo below shows the main base unit that accepts the various fixtures available for your machine. Mounted on the base unit in this photo is the fixture for the 4 x 4 hoop. The myriad of holes you see, some of which are covered by the fixture, enable the user to customize its use for just about any application by varying the position of the fixture being used. There are guide numbers printed on the base unit to help you duplicate exact placement time and time again. The fixture itself has a hole through which you can clearly see the guide numbers.

Determining the proper placement of the fixture does require some trial and error in the beginning. The fixtures are mounted by aligning the pins on the bottom of the fixture with the appropriate holes in the base unit. The fixture is shown mounted for embroidering a design on the left chest of a shirt. Hooping is the same for both the left side and right side of the shirt. If you want to embroider on the right side of the shirt, mount the fixture on the left side of the base unit. Once you have determined the proper placement for various size shirts, duplicating that placement is a simple matter. It would be a good idea to keep notes on guide number placement for various shirts in both adult and children’s sizes. HoopMaster does offer a placement guide that may help get you started. You can make your own adjustments as necessary.

Once you have the fixture correctly mounted on the base unit, the next step is to prepare the fixture by inserting the outer hoop ring and adding stabilizer. Be sure your outer ring is set to hoop the garment with the proper tension prior to beginning this step. The photo below shows the fixture with the outer ring in place.

To add your stabilizer, lift up the hinged magnetic clips on both the top and bottom of the fixture. Lay a properly sized piece of stabilizer over the outer ring and close the clips. The magnets hold your stabilizer firmly in place allowing you to freely move the shirt up and down and side to side without moving the stabilizer.

When everything is in place you are ready to hoop your shirt. Be sure the fixture is in the proper position, the outer hoop ring inserted, and the stabilizer firmly held in place by the magnetic clips.

The photo above shows a t-shirt in the proper position. Utilize the guidelines on the base unit inside the neck of the shirt as well as the shirt’s shoulder seams to align the shirt exactly where you want it. Once that’s done you are ready to complete the hooping process.

The inner hoop is placed on the fixture above the shirt. Two clips mounted on the acrylic spring arms hold it in place. If you are certain everything is properly aligned you’re ready for the last step in the hooping process. Place one hand on each side of the inner hoop and press down firmly pushing the inner hoop into the outer hoop. That’s all there is to it. Your shirt is hooped and ready to take to your machine for sewing.

Another thing that can save you a lot of time is having an extra set of hoops. You can prepare the next shirt while the first one is being embroidered. By repeating the same steps each time, every shirt you do will be exactly the same.

There are fixtures designed for the other hoop sizes as well. Many do not have the spring arms like the fixture for the 4 x 4 hoop, but they can be a great help in holding your outer ring and stabilizer in place while you hoop any garment or fabric. They are particularly helpful when doing large jacket back designs and other similar projects.

The photo below shows the fixture for the 5 x 7 hoop mounted on the base unit. The outer ring is held in place the same way as the 4 x 4 fixture and there are magnetic clips to hold your stabilizer. There are no magnetic clips at the bottom of these fixtures. You can also use the templates included with your hoops to help you align your garment or fabric.

The last thing we’ll mention is the HoopMaster Free-Arm unit. The Free-Arm unit allows you to hoop various odd shaped items that you could not hoop using the main base unit. The base unit may be too large to accommodate smaller items such as a tote bag or purse.

The Free-Arm unit is designed for use with the 4 x 4 (100mm x 100mm) hoop fixture. You can not mount the other fixtures on the Free-Arm unit. It is not wide enough to accept the mounting pins like the main base unit.

The fixture is mounted on the free-arm unit in the opposite direction from the way it is mounted on the main base unit. This allows you to easily slip on the item you wish to embroider. The rest of the process remains basically the same. Your outer hoop ring is placed inside the fixture and the stabilizer is held in place by the magnetic clips. In this application you’ll probably want to use your templates to aid in alignment. Alignment marks on the item being hooped would also be helpful.

The HoopMaster is a tool we wouldn’t be without in our embroidery shop. We highly recommend you consider it if you do large quantities of shirts. It will save you a great deal of time and most likely won't take long to pay for itself. Once comfortable with the unit you should be very pleased with the results.

There really isn’t anything about the unit we are unhappy with. It is well made, sturdy, and performs well. Our HoopMaster consistantly gives us the results we expected. Like any other tool, it is not the answer to all your hooping needs. There will be times when you can not use your regular hoops. There will also be times when you choose to use a different hoop system. In these cases your HoopMaster will not help.

The HoopMaster is a rather large investment, but you can save some money initially by purchasing only the fixtures you expect to use the most. Additional fixtures can be added later if necessary. Be sure to specify your machine when ordering.

HoopMaster has many more photos and demos on their web site that will show you in more detail how the system works. HoopMaster also manufacturers other tools and accessories designed to work with this unit that are not covered in this review. Visit the HoopMaster web site for further information.

* Kit includes 1 Station, 1 Fixture, 1 Free Style Mounting Base, 1 Free Style Arm, 1 T-Square, 1 Pocket Guide

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