cartierusm

Thought I'd start a new thread on this printer. Not much info really on this printer for conversion, maybe in the DTG area, but all the videos I've seen don't really catalog what needs to be done. Also it's weird that almost all the videos out there most people operate this printer with all the covers off, or at least most of them. I figure this is so have easier access to cleaning it? So I bought one used for $200 and the guy had not done any maintenance prior to putting away for a year. I didn't try it out at the guy's place as he was giving me a ton of carts and other stuff, so I figured no matter what I could get it running. Got it home. Cleaned it up from dust and smears. Took the refillable cart system he bought and loaded them with Piezo cleaning fluid, all from inkjetmall.com. Ran the printer and this printer there is a ton of ink in the lines and such. So doing a deep cleaning it printed a test pattern with a clean head. I was surprised. I didn't have enough fluid to fill the carts and the lines so I'm waiting on a shipment from inkjetmall.com for another set of refillable carts to fill with DTF ink and more cleaning fluid for the refillable cleaning carts I already have. I'll do a full system flush and then switch from the Piezo flush to the DTF cleaning fluid. Not so much switch out as when the carts are empty-ish I'll just put in the DTF cleaning fluid. I also bought some remanufactured Epson carts so I can harvest their chips. Unfortunately they don't sell chips separately and there is no chip resetter that I know of. The good part is the refillable carts have a chip on them that you put the original Epson carts' chips on top of and it constantly resets the ink levels without having to do anything. The remanu. carts were like $150.00. So for the conversion it seems pretty straight forward. I couldn't find any real instructions, but I'll check the DTG build thread later. But get a chip resetter for the waste tank, which I did, you need two waste tanks to use the resetter. You have to switch back and forth. Luckily he gave me 3 waste tanks including the one in the machine. You need original Epson carts for their chips. You need refillable carts with their own build in resetter chip. I'm assuming you just need to remove the pizza cutter wheels on the front roller system and that's it. Most people say don't worry about the ink in the lines and dampers unless you're letting it sit for a week or more. Just shake the carts before use as normal. I didn't go for the squirt gun carts, but maybe I will if I run through ink quickly. It has 9 channels so I won't be refilling white often, I hope. Seems like people do a wet cap, I guess I know the meaning of what this is, but in practice I have no idea of what to do. I guess most people don't switch out carts with cleaning like the XP-15000 as there's so much ink or cleaner in the line and also being a more professional printer it stays clean for longer and if you use it most of the time you're good. At least I'm hoping for. I guess that's all for now. When all my supplies come in I'll document how it's working.

LOL Spoke too soon. Still not getting a great test print. So cleaning the head again. This seems to happen every 3-4 prints. I don't feel like it's actually a clogged head, but an ink flow issue.

Ok printing a real paying job today. Got my process mostly down. You were right lots of little things come up. Gotta pop that maintenance tank out after every print to reset ink or it think you run out. the CISS will be a god send, sent? Not sure. Called CADLink with an issue. You leave a message and they call back. Which they did and I gotta say it was pretty great tech support. They have a menu in CADLink to allow you to share screen. So super easy no downloading software and creating a login. They don't answer your questions directly, they guide you through how to actually accomplish and why you're doing it this way, they're educating. I liked their approach. The questions I had were the 1440x720 and why not 1440x1440. I had to check mark a box in one the drop down menus to show ALL options in the Queue > Properties. Then there's all sort of color adjustments and graphs and all sorts. I had to make a new Queue (just so I don't mess up the one I have) and then set it to 1440x1440. I thought the prints looked great before, but now Oh wow they're amazing. I'm getting great laydown on the inks and whites. Also asked some other questions about how many nozzles and drop size. They said it's all dependent and try it and see if there's a difference. It prints slower now cause it's 1440x1440 but it does a great job. Also if I do a test print from the printer to check the head sometimes I get a few pixels missing and sometimes I do a head cleaning and then another nozzle check, mind you these are right after each other nothing in between, and then I get complete missing colors. So if figured those aren't completely clogged as it literally just printed a test print. So I remember reading on here that someone get better ink flow from removing the cartridge colored plug and leaving in the clean plug. So I did that, bam problem solved (knock on wood). Also if I load multiple sheets of film in the back manual tray it starts printing like 2" down the page. So I load single sheets now and that seems to have done the trick so far.

Ok tested out EKPrint. Not much color difference at all. Same pixelization I see in this one color from CADLink. And complete opposite from your results. CADLink prints very fast. EKPrint it took like 15 minutes to print with no quality difference at all. I'll test a little further though. Seems like 1440x720 on CADLink and 1440x1440 on EKPrint doesn't change anything at all.

Both I think LOL. I spent $1500 last night for 1 liter of CMYK and 4 liters of White, Another set of refillable carts. Remanuf 3880 carts so I can harvest their chips, more cleaning fluid, etc... Haven't used the 15000 in a few days. Had cleaner carts in now I'm doing my start up. Heads are pretty clean. A few dots missing from black. I've got orders already from friends. I took the maintenance tank cover off and just drilled and tapped the maintenance box itself and put a snapple bottle to catch with a hose. Works great so far. Also ordered that CISS system with dampers. It'll be a relief refilling the carts 2-3 times a day sucks. I'm about to test out EKPrint. I'll report back on my results. Weird EKPrint doesn't accept vector files like AI.

Got it all cleaned up did some maintenance and cleaned the print head with a paper towel and cleaning fluid per inkjetmall.com and cleaned the wiper and cleaning head pad thingy. Installed the refillable carts with cleaning fluid and ran some head cleanings and test prints. The cleaning fluid only had enough to fill the carts with like 20ml. So during the test prints it was still printing with the ink in the system. Good news not a single clog. I'm going to order some more refillable carts to put ink in, some 3880 chips/remanufactured carts for the chips, more cleaning fluid and chip resetter for the waste tank. The other printers he gave me I can sell for like $500.

I didn't check it's function, but bought it anyway. The guy gave me a bunch of unopened carts and new refillable carts and the piezo (sp?) cleaning fluid and 3 other dye sub printers. So I figured it's worth the risk. I'll post if it works out. It'll be fun to play with none the less.

Good morning. What do you think about the 3880? There's one locally here for $200 with refillable carts.

Ouch that sounds awful. I think I'll try this new CISS with dampers and then worry about something else if that doesn't do it for me.

Ah makes sense.

I guess my system is a little PITA. I have a shipping container as my workspace for the actual heat transfer and curing, but I have to do my printing in my house as it would be way too hot in the shipping container for the printer. SO I have to carry the wet prints outside, wind blowing of course, and then powder outside the work space and then do the rest inside.

Ok good to know. I just bought whatever, but if I had a choice I would think fine powder would be better.

Yeah, but 2k is a bit steep for me. I guess I'll be satisfied with my xp-15000 once I get the CISS installed and figure out why the head is clogging so much. Hopefully it was just the heat today. BTW you were right, if you pull the maintenance tank out it resets the ink. Also it resets when you turn off the printer. Inkchip got back with me, but wanted my order number, a pic of the ink levels and if I was able to successfully activate the chipless firmware. One thing I read or saw on youtube was if you're in the middle of a print and it's about to run out of ink, not sure how you tell, you can pull the maintenance tank out and in real quick and it'll continue.

Thanks. Good to know. Earlier today I was going to order more cleaning fluid, dumped mine on the floor when I set it on my make shift output tray LOL and some more powder. So just powder 2.2 pounds and cleaning fluid and they wanted $30 for shipping. I was like hell no. I bought a crap load of stuff to start so didn't notice the shipping originally. So now I just bought some powder from amazon, looks like a name brand, and some cleaning fluid. Same price, but free shipping.

Yeah almost nothing out there for P800 or P400. What do you think about the R3000 or the new P900?

Who do you recommend? Right now I'm using KingdomDTF ink, film and powder and all of it seems pretty good to me so far. When I hot peel small letters that's where it pulls up. If I let it cool off even 10-15 seconds then there's no problem.

LOL mis communication. You're good. I really appreciate all the help. Roll is def on my radar but I'm just doing this as a hobby right now. I might pursue it and then def do roll and mini shaker/oven. Althought the P800 as say has roll already available.

I get it. Not looking to do roll stuff right now. Trying to figure out a powdering and shake system for sheets.

Cool. That's a lot of printing.

I was having clogs today so I was doing a lot of head cleaning and it filled up a lot. I did some head cleanings with solution so hopefully that helps tomorrow when I fire it up.

Nice. You're like me. Lots of mods and experimentation. I've got a message into inkchip people as even their website lists xp15000 as not monitoring ink levels. Otherwise roll printing would be a PITA. I'm working on how to make an external maintenance tank without drilling a hole in the side of the printer. I bought an Staples Extended Warranty.

Gotcha, I understand now. Thanks. I have the starter Carts that came with the machine, should I just drain, rinse with water, dry, drill a hole and use those?

Ok thanks. I found it. Also found a new CISS system for XP-15000 that has dampers.

What do you think about the CISS system for the XP-15000? I guess it's pretty self explanatory that it would work well other than how do you mix the white inks everyday?

So I seem to be getting quite a few clogs today. I think it's a combo of a few things, 1. It's pretty dam hot here today and I don't have A/C and two. I might be over filling the carts and with the colored plug in it's creating a slight vacuum? Anyway, other than that and having to refill the ink carts every 3-4 prints, at least the white carts, I'm making some great looking shirts. For those of you just getting into it, other than what I've said above, I find cold peel works way better than hot peel even though the film is dual hot/cold peel. With hot peel it starts to pull up small lettering. Johnson4, now that I've found I like this method of shirt making what printer for conversion would you recommend that maybe doesn't clog as easy, holds more ink and possible ink circulation system? Or is it really you just need white? I won't be using this all the time and have no problem putting in cleaning carts when not in use.