What reconditioned means here
This 500E came across our bench before it went up for sale. We cleaned it, checked the timing and tension, ran the thread path, and stitched it out to confirm it embroiders cleanly. It ships with our 90 day warranty. We work on these machines in the shop, so you are buying from the people who service it, not from a box in a warehouse.
What the 500E is
The Memory Craft 500E is an embroidery only machine. It does not sew a seam or a buttonhole. You hoop your fabric, load a design, and it embroiders. If you already have a sewing machine and you are tired of tearing down your setup every time you want to embroider, this is the machine that lets you keep both going at once.
It stitches a field up to 7.9 by 11 inches, which is a large hoop for a machine this size. A lot of embroidery machines in this class top out at 5 by 7. The 500E comes with four hoops down to 5.5 by 5.5, so you are covered for small monograms and full size designs without buying anything extra.
- Embroidery field: up to 7.9 by 11 inches
- 160 built in designs and 6 monogram fonts, with 2 and 3 letter monogramming
- Speed: 400 to 860 stitches per minute, adjustable
- Full color LCD touchscreen with on screen editing: resize, rotate, flip, drag and drop, arc, combine, copy and paste, grouping, corner layout, zoom
- Automatic thread cutter and programmable jump thread trimming, so you are not snipping between every color
- Automatic thread tension and a built in needle threader
- Auto return after a thread break so it picks up where it left off
- Top loading full rotary hook with a drop in bobbin
- USB design transfer in Janome .JEF format
- Four hoops included: RE28b 7.9 by 11, SQ20b 7.9 by 7.9, RE20b 5.5 by 7.9, SQ14b 5.5 by 5.5
- Extra wide table included
- Footprint: 23 inches wide, 17.7 deep, 12.9 tall, 25.2 pounds
- Dual voltage 80v to 240v
Why it holds up
Because the 500E only embroiders, there are no feed dogs and no stitch length mechanism to wear out, which are common trouble spots on machines that both sew and embroider. The parts that matter on this one are the hook, the needle bar, and the carriage belts, and those are all things we check when we recondition it.
Most tension complaints we see on embroidery machines are not a broken machine. They are lint packed into the bobbin case and hook race, or a thread path that skipped a guide. The 500E uses a top loading drop in bobbin, so the hook area is easy to get to and easy to keep clean. Brush it out, seat the bobbin right, and it stitches even. We show every customer where to clean before they leave.
Who should buy it and who should skip it
Buy it if you want a dedicated embroidery machine to run alongside your sewing machine, or if you want to get into embroidery without paying for a new unit. The large hoop, the automatic cutter, and the USB import make it easy to live with.
Skip it if you want one machine that both sews and embroiders. The 500E will not sew a seam. For that you want a combo machine, and we can point you to one.
Discontinued, still supported
Janome discontinued the 500E, so you will not find it new anymore. It is a common machine from a well built family, it shares parts and accessories with the 400E, and we service them here. Buying a discontinued model from a shop that repairs them is the safe way to do it.
Warranty
Sold with our 90 day warranty. Call us with questions about the machine, the hoops, or whether embroidery only fits what you are trying to make.
