johnson4

It’s not just the damper. Its the Whole system needs cleaned, including carts. every 2/3 months for problem free use. Every 4-6 months if you want to risk killing the head.

I don’t think I’ve seen film measured in that way. I haven’t ever measured just the film itself, so I have no idea how thick it is. i also don’t know the benefit or downfall of the thickness of film or ever noticed a difference. if you have a shaker with powder sitting in the U of the film pulling it down, I don’t see why it would have any issues with thin or thick film. Generally the pulling motion and weight of the powder mixed with the vacuum holds the stuff flat regardless. but I must reiterate, I have no idea personally.

Sounds look too much CMYK ink. The drop size is the Picolitre size of the ink drop. Light is usually for photo's, or small. Medium/large is the standard I use and most use. Try lowering your CMYK values and pickup one of those cheap profilers for a couple hundred bucks. You can also send out and pay $100 for a custom profile from some of the guys as well.

Apples to oranges. They build them using other companies parts and use Epson printheads generally. they generally use an i3200 printhead or an xp600. Both heads came from a cheap sub $200 home inkjet printer initially. Of course now many are direct from manufacturers, at a tune of $1,200 each and $600 each respectively. head replacement in the knight would be over $1200 each time- which is said to need done every 6-2 months. it’s a whole nother world with its own issues and learning curves with things your Epson will never experience. You’ll have to buy one to really understand. If you do, the support system is worth it from a supplier rather than direct. like I said OEMs will be coming out with their own DTF printers relatively soon.

They are all about the same speed. The p800 being the fastest though minuscule. The p600 has a weak and prone to failure ink system. The p400 is great for low volume use while the P800 is ideal for roll printing and larger volume printing with a strong ink system.

I think I went a little off topic here. My main point is I hope that the price stays competitive. Because some of us run a fine line. While we dealt with poor quality imports in the beginning, It's now rather consistent.

I personally haven't noticed this from DTFsuperstore inks. I am however switching to kodak inks in off-season if they work well, they are made in the US and closer to me. I order my film from china, out of the last 300 rolls I haven't seen any issues or discrepancies. There were a ton of issues in the beginning, enough to really put a bind on me, but since then it's been very good. I lost maybe 15 rolls which they replaced which was cool. Dupont DTF inks sounds exciting, that is mainly what I used for DTG. If they take forever getting it to market and Kodak works well I likely won't use it though unfortunately. Something I would like to see is a good quality TPU at a decent price in the US. I haven't seen that yet. Since I started back when Andy decided to start DTFSuperstore It has been a hell of alot of changes and learning curves. Since then though people are starving and starting to sell stuff below profitable regions, likely without knowing it. For us with federal and state taxes, overhead, all that jazz mixed with people working their way down ( in mass) to selling the stuff for $1-$2 a foot, It's getting to that point of not worth it even with the cheap prices of materials. I am not certain paying more for premium materials is in the scope of most peoples eyes, so hopefully it is all " well priced". I have done the math over and over again using a 24" 4 head machine as an example with an estimated yearly repair cost of $5000 (assuming once a year you'll need to replace the printheads) and a base maintenance cost of around $500 yearly. Add in the initial startup cost, purchased from a USA dealer or overseas directly. Mix that in with bulk supply costs of less than $60 per roll of 24" film, bulk ink and powder prices all from china ( The lowest prices around) it still makes it very difficult to turn a solid profit at those prices, especially for Epson based machines. People like quality, but people like speed and low cost more, especially on the end user bulk finished transfer customers. I hold my business to a minimum of 35 percent profit after all costs including electric, tax, all of the aforementioned and any other costs I incur. The only thing this excludes is the 50+ hour work week of labor for us. That means 35 percent of what we make is our paycheck for the time it takes to produce and deliver the finished product. If you increase ink costs and film costs by a modest margin, well, That will eat up my profit unless I charge more. While possible if it holds quality to a much higher standard, I doubt it will be that much of a difference. What I produce now with these supplies that have been rather consistent, I do not have any issue with receiving compliments of them being better than any other supplier they have used on an almost daily basis. To date with the Chinese supplies I use I haven't had any issues almost all year, if those issues cost more than using a higher quality product, I would switch including my time. I see that to be very hard to compete with unless some type of conflict were to occur, then if people had no choice of course the USA stuff would sell like hot cakes. If they came in with a introductory price or some other " difference" that made them appealing, maybe. I'm not saying it's not great and wouldn't be a great alternative, I am just saying that I believe the Chinese market has now evened out and weeded out the good/bad stuff. Competing with those prices for product that works, well it's going to be hard. Mix that in with starving businesses who went in debt $5,000-$50,000 to start this type of work, They'll do anything to get their foot in the door. Multiply that by the amount of people doing so- It puts a strain on the rest of the industry that holds themselves to higher standards and using higher quality materials. Beyond that, you will also have OEM's pickup on the trend and start selling their own equipment and machines locked to their supplies, further reducing the need for aftermarket products. These devices need to be brought in at a reasonable price to compare to the alredy relatively low Chinese prices in order to compete, or at least make it worthwhile. Who knows, we'll see.

different RIP can mean different cure regimen. Lower your temp, increase your time. That or use a preheater to slightly remove moisture before powdering. It’s a sign of overloading the transfer with ink. You could very easily be putting down more CMYK without noticing it which limits how much white you can put down for your overall total ink makeup, which is one example that could happen in this scenario. Aside from user interface, this is literally the only other aspect that makes switching RIPS hard. not really, custom page sizes and some other things like that- but nothing that would be be official in that aspect. Thanks, I did my best with it. For years I’ve seen comparison after comparison, wondering and just not able to “know” with data. I finally was able to just buy them all and do a test so I can make the best decision for us.

It's tough switching RIPS, and this is a good example. nothing in EK crosses over to acro. I used I think 38 percent CMYK in acro, but 80 in EK. The same for the white, it was less than half in Acro. It's all a learning experience and figuring out why that issue is occurring and not coming to conclusions based on assumptions. It's part of the reason why I had so many hours in testing for color reproduction and profiling the RIPS. It took me forever to figure out how to get a profile in EK. Cadlinks is built in. Acro was the easiest when made externally. Beyond that- I had to learn how to proficiently use them which takes quite a bit of time- for me anyway. You won't find a perfect RIP. You are either going to sacrifice quality, speed, color accuracy, or convenience. None of them offer all of the above. After you have spent 4-6 weeks with Acro, and have EK under your belt, you should then try another RIP and spend the same time with it. Cadlink for example, but you are limited to 15 days free trial. It becomes apparent after you figure out how simple they are to use, but the downfalls of each one. I have reached out to all of them. Literally. Pick your poison, because most of them just are what they are with the exception of added supported devices and small changes for those devices- if you are lucky. All of them can and do work great- it just depends on how much effort you put in and which "downfall" and " perk" you want. I dislike Acro, but the next guy has made a million bucks with it this year. It's all preferences. When it boils down to it, it's trial and error and part of the DIY learning curve. I'm going on 2 years and 3 months doing this for my only income. I still learn something new daily which may or may not change something I have previously said.

They have supported 6 channel printers for awhile, the Epson 1430 is one example.

I don’t believe there have been any updates to EK. my reference to running without a profile yielding more solid/bold colors have been with Cadlink. I’ve been out of the acro/ek scene for a few months now. My main point was it isn’t worth wasting your time profiling, even with spending a ton of money and time you likely won’t get the results you are after. I know I didn’t. I think I know what you are looking for, but to this day I haven’t found a RIP do that. They all have their own downfalls that others excel in.

Pretty cool, glad you were able to achieve such a high color accuracy. I used self made graphics with set color values before and after printing for my comparison based on their color readings most of the time to check accuracy. Spot checking I guess. Anytime I profiled, while slightly more accurate( hardly noticeable if at all different), visually they were disappointing. Acro did do a much better job than the others. the overall transfers coming out didn’t match what customers expected or have the rich colors I wanted. It’s one of the most heard feedback I get is how vivid the prints are. I spent a lot of time fiddling with and ultimately with sending customers both, not one preferred the profiled prints- except ones with real life photos. So I just use the profiles for those. Back to the conversation, I think most people are expecting RGB colors and vibrancy out of a CMYK device when they ask for profiles. I’ve talked to so many printers and suppliers who get a ton of complaints on that. Hats off to you for figuring it out though, it’s not easy, free, or cheap. Definitely doesn’t come from a profile you find on the internet and/or cross compatible with different machines.

ICC profiles are printer/setup specific. you would need to buy the tools needed to create your own with your film, ink, and printer. It would need done for every different setup. in general if your colors are off, It’s not the ICC. ICC will only “ fine tune” shades and colors. If blue is coming out purple, or dark blue, you need to adjust your ink percentages. been there done that. Spent over $2,000 and I still ended up running without a profile. While it’s a bit less color accurate, it makes colors more bold/vivid/solid unless it’s a photograph. The easiest example I can give is red. It always comes one a tinge orange with a profile. Without, it comes out an accurate red. That’s with 2 low end spectrophotometers and one high end giving the same result across Cadlink, acro, and EKprint with over 200 hours of testing.

That is if you can return it, if it was ordered overseas- good luck with that. if you can find out what mainboard it uses that would be the first step I’d think. Crossing any numbers on the board or taking photos of the board and asking overseas sellers if they sell it will also help. Asking directly they’ll usually ignore you. i spent 12 months and three separate claims over one transaction before I was refunded- on an item not received due to improper labeling. for not as described- I’ve never seen anything come from that positively towards me. Personally I’d stick to a reseller in your country, much easier to deal with and hold accountable - anything I bought on my own overseas has turned out crap on my dime except small parts and such. hopefully you get it figured out.

They have powderless DTF. The adhesive is printed on the design like the ink. Cmyk then white then adhesive. It’s just heated afterwards to cure without TPU powder.

The IP is usually found in the software they include with the printer. Just connect the cable and open the software, it automatically finds it. Then relay that IP to your RIP, or print directly from the software they included with the printer. That is how I did it anyway. That looks close to the knight 12, could look up instructions on that machine. It's much more reliable, faster, and can be ran over longer distances than USB so I prefer the printers to be networked to be honest.

https://dtfsuperstore.com/collections/ink-cartridges/products/80ml-refillable-cartridge-set-for-epson-p600-empty https://dtfsuperstore.com/collections/ink-cartridges/products/epson-p600-refillable-ink-cartridge-set

Not a problem at all, Glad it helped some.

it does make a difference, my suggestions imply they are properly cured with a shaker. The 300-320F pressing temperature is just my preference. It doesn’t alter the colors and allows me to peel immediately. I also use blends and don’t want to scorch the garment. it’s all preference and testing based, so wherever works for you works for you. the powder/ink doesn’t start to cure until around 350F, shakers set to 200-220F can easily reach 800F every few seconds to maintain that “ 220F” setting. I have made my own shaker with a curing portion heated from the bottom and from a consistent heat instead of the bulbs typically used. The printer runs at 510 inches an hour or 8.5” a minute. With a 28” curing portion the transfers are in there a little over 3 minutes at that speed. Similar to your heat press settings. I run it at 360F and it cures perfectly. 340-350 and I get about an 80 percent cure. the film is also in direct contact with the 360F heat for the 2 out of 3 minutes it is in there, instead of radiant or “hovering”. id say somewhere around February I’ll have the kits up for sale in various forms for easy DIY shakers that will ship UPS ground. 13”/17”/24” full cure width shakers that run on a standard 120V 15A outlet. anyway, If it works it works ;). Good luck!

You can disable auto nozzle checks, it’ll still do it after power cleans. Mine didn’t do this for months, the one with the Epson software installed started doing it more frequently as well as the cartridge error. I have never gotten an error code like that, even with bad auto checks. You will ALWAYS get bad auto checks with DTF ink. it just recommends to me replacing the white pad which I ignore. It’s expected, since it no longer has OEM inks. you just open/close the cartridge bay when it does that cartridge error. Don’t mess with the carts and don’t install the Epson software. as with any Epson you go through the motions until you figure it out. I can’t say I would have purchased a used machine for various reasons unless it was a super great deal. I ran three of them, one has died now, as I expected would happen. Each model I go through I have to learn it’s requirements, which usually ends up with a learning lesson at the expense of a machine around the 4-6 month mark. I will say this model Is resilient and through my mistakes with it, it was recovered 3 times easily over my own mistakes where any other model I have used has outright failed. Those TFP heads are bad-ass, as they should be. It’s the same head they use in there 20K+ DTG machines. with what I learned from The first failure, I was able to run the 2nd machine beyond that point and repair it before it destroyed it like the first machine. You can’t know what’s wrong or needs done differently until you see the point of failure, at least for me. a bit of advice, stick to ALL OEM on everything you replace on this machine. Period. Obviously except the cartridges. the alternative for me was a $10,000 machine from China with $2,000 heads so these are well Worth the cost to me.

It’s a beta, I don’t see any Chipless firmware for it and the cartridges are small. I haven’t. The P5000 is well worth the upgrade over it, being over twice as fast and a ton more reliable- basically made for DTF.

A properly tuned shaker will NOT do that and should not do that. it should be able to sit for 15-60 minutes without moving. One of mine runs at 69C, another at 112C, it just depends on your setup.

Nice, that’s a lot of film. Are you using the aftermarket carts with inline damper on this one?

Makes sense, figured I’d ask if there was a reason for not sealing it physically. I agree, it’s time consuming and this looks like an easy solution.