johnson4

Haha, yeah I know what you mean. I received the carts well before I ordered the printer. I hate waiting.

They have one way valves and a filter in the oem cart so it can’t be from the main port. If it ever reports empty to the printer it’s trash. You could very likely cut a small hole in the cartridge and bag, seal it to a filler hose and cap. It would likely work. Originally it’s vacuum sealed without air in the bag. aftermarket carts are about $100 a set delivered, I’d personally suggest that route to avoid problems.

I also believe all the printheads are actually Epson. It’s the manifold, adapters, or rebuilt aspect that makes them poor quality. I think this non-Epson crap came from people who saw the aftermarket parts in the Epson head in rebuild and being uneducated on the matter. The Epson head technologies are patented, no one else in the world can make a piezo printhead without Epson’s permission. They sue over $5 ink cartridges, what do you think they would do over their printhead tech? no one can debunk this so it still circulates. think about it. If I can take bags of free trash printheads, clean and “ refurb them” and sell them at $100 a pop with a 80 percent failure rate, if I sold 10,000 of them this year that’s a million dollars profit. Now factor in the return rate, ( how many people eat the cost and don’t get a refund for various reason) they likely make over half a million a year. take this cheap printhead from a $70 home printer, and that is going to exacerbate the situation. So then this whole “ eco system” of printheads and models running these heads are run through the dirt, given a bad name. When other people see the profit in this and do the same, it becomes impossible to get a quality printhead. that’s where it is right now in my opinion with this model.

me either, but that’s a large printer. I’ve tried to buy a 3rd audley A3 shaker for months now. But buying the printheads was simple, quick and easy. I also have a guy I’ve purchased parts from for years, like ink chips, cartridges, resetters. All that crap. Very honest, well priced and high quality. Personally they are a small reseller ( not audley) who understands quality matters for repeat customers. My film guy who uses train to get me film overseas in 20 days ( from ordered till delivered) is this same way, also a small business. He offered to go out of his way to help me import a large shaker very cheap with this train method even though that isn’t his business or normally sells those. He was serious and set me up with multiple options and even walked me through the importer process he uses- for free and offered to inspect the machines for me from over there before buying. I’ve purchased 400+ rolls of film from him in the last two years and never had a bad experience, he always takes care of it. Film is $65 a roll delivered and the best I’ve used from any supplier with a 20 day delivery timeframe. Even buying in the US with standard shipping I’m waiting 5-7 days. I feel ya, I parked my xp600 machine. The original heads it came with were perfect, worked forever. What killed them was a head strike due to the printer plate and it destroyed them and knock the carriage out of alignment. After fixing it and going through 4 “cheap” heads( that didn’t work) then the two heads from audley to finally get it working, it did it again for no reason within the hour. I got a few thousands prints from it as a whole but I’m done messing with it, i didn’t have the time anymore. I sell roughly $5,000-$10,000 gross in transfers a month small scale for other small businesses and focus on that instead. It’s not that it’s not good, I just don’t have time to deal with the Chinese printers and trying to source affordable quality parts. I instead went with an Epson that prints faster than the dual xp600 machine, even faster than the dual i3200 machines. Printheads are $1,000 direct from Epson and haven’t had to replace one yet, in over 6 months. Quality matters and I think OEM on the xp600 would make a huge difference. I just can’t pay the price for the lower quality printheads that were originally designed for a dye based $70 home printer at over $550 each. Especially if the machine keeps eating them. If it were me, I would try ( at least once) the OEM Epson original heads sold new from Epson to a printer manufacturer, not the printer pulls or cheap refurbs. If it wasn’t any or much different and keep having issues I’d ditch the printer. The idea is to focus on selling transfers, not fixing the printers. Epson will very likely soon release their own DTF printer, if there ink isn’t expensive or ends up with a chip bypass then I’m sure it will put a lot of these machines out of the door, so I’m avoiding investing much in the printer aspect. I’m also 85 percent done designing my own 24” shaker that I could sell at a profit at $1,000( to give an idea of its price point to build). Modular with simple final assembly with pre assembled aspects, standard 120V outlet, no $1,200 shipping, no giant huge wasted space limitations or high/special power requirements. my point of the above- I was so frustrated with the costs, poor parts availability, and of course finding a unit to work fully properly as advertised and be delivered at a price point that I’m not constantly fully reinvesting ALL the profits making it all pointless was impossible, that I found my own way and put in less effort to do it myself. Coming from a guy who researches and “wheels and deals”, and have done so since a small child. This time, it just always had a negative, an aspect that wasn’t as advertised, or overall a part would fail and literally couldn’t be replaced making it all pointless. I instead learned how to design parts, make 3D models, and sourced a cheap reliable company to bend, laser cut and powder coat my parts. So far it has been incredibly invigorating and successful, I can easy test each individual design instead of fixing the flaws of another machine. I am constantly contacted to help problem solve. Design flaw with various machines and brands. im not falling for the same old game this industry has played for the last 15-20 years. That game is to make suppliers rich, while we think making the product is the bread and butter. It’s only beneficial for large businesses who gross 500K+, and still it’s a very large expensive. When an issue occurs it “isn’t the product, it’s the experience of the user”. That’s always been the excuse. I’m not a foot soldier who blindly follows command or listens to one point of view, I always stand back and look and fend for myself. the profit, it comes from, at least for me, not spending the high prices on machines and getting reliability so I can focus on the business, not the machines. If I paid full price for everything so far, I’d be almost broke after I factor in my federal/state tax rate. Not to mention the constant tinkering. Of course the learning curse and wasted dough finding the right machines and suppliers. That’s selling transfers at a mid tier price rate, far from the cheapest. So overall, instead of being in your position I caved and went my own route, using Epson printers. I haven’t had to repair, problem solve, or literally do anything except print and customer service for the last 6 months. for 3 13” printers I get 63 linear foot an hour from them, cmyk+W. White or black only I get 126 linear foot. That’s with one of the shakers being my proto type for the aforementioned. That’s $220-$440 an hour of transfers from them combined. All in it’s about 10k with redundancy in the event of failure. That’s roughly 60 hours of run time to pay for everything and break even, given no failures occurred which haven’t. New users starting out, even this is a lot any I didn’t start here. One unit is about $3,300 so it allows you to grow based on your needs. Not everyone will succeed even with the best printer, resell value on them is garbage so it saves losses too. it does consume more space this way and a bit more electric. But after paying 35% plus in taxes plus all other things considered, it gives me my profit margin and reliability I am looking for. that’s me though, because your specific situation seems to never end, at least when I was there. for me it was day after day feeling like that and wasting money day after day trying to just work. Eventually I saw the bill and failure rate and cut that out before it bled me dry. hopefully your decision comes easier, good luck!

new $200-$220 from China. That’s the price form audley direct anyway. That’s for the “ new pulls”. I think the “genuine” new heads from Epson ( not printer pulls) are about $550. anywhere else and it’s refurb crap that didn’t work.

Reaching out to cadlink would likely yield the fastest answer. If it's not supported they might work with you to support it. You need the Wide format edition of cadlink for any of the Chinese printers.

What is the output setting on cadlink, rear feed?

Reach out to Cadlink, they offer very quick support and can get you squared away quickly. I know the printer gives false paper jam errors sometimes, so there’s that. When test printing in windows are you using dtf film, or with Cadlink are you using paper?

It’s universal for all film, the only difference is the hot/cold peel aspect. Meaning how long you have to wait before peeling after pressing. This is just the optimal release temperature of the film itself, to let go of the print. heavy pressure, 300-320F 15-20 seconds for cotton. the temperature comes from melting the adhesive if you have properly cured your transfer. Some melt at lower temperatures some at higher. If the ink or powder wasn’t cured correctly, you’ll get a large variable of issues that appear during pressing that may look like pressing issues. overall, I have used at least 10 different brands of film and 4-5 brands of powder. I use 300F 15 seconds, peel in 3-4 seconds. Never had an issue in any of them. For polyester I use 265F. now if your pressure sucks when applying the transfer, your heat press is off in temperatures , or your heat press is inconsistent, you’ll also get issues. I used 2 cheap Chinese auto open presses from eBay for a few years which worked fine until they literally broke apart, now I use heat press nation heat presses going on two years. Both worked fine. For DTF I modified them with an air cylinder so they close at 60 PSI and I get a perfect embedded transfer every time. I can peel cold peel film hot with that. Over a busy period earlier this year I hurt my back pretty bad. You have two “ large” muscles in your back and I am left handed so I pressed ( with very heavy pressure) thousands of shirts ( hundreds a day) with four heat presses. I’d guess about 5,000 presses in 30 days. I was out for over 4 months, unable to do much of anything. It caused a “ disc” to slip and bulge as well as this large muscle was heavily inflamed. To this day I am still not able to do things I was able to do before. I am only 30. but, I also weigh 220lbs and had to practically lift myself off the floor to close the presses. For me, this is a must to make sure that transfer is permanent and embedded throughly, also so I can peel faster. Using heavy pressure makes them softer, embeds the print and literally makes it feel like screen printing. so I spent a few hundred and modified my clam presses to be semi automatic and now I just push a button to close them, they open themselves when timer goes off. Andy recommended California air air compressor so I went with that, it’s super quite. anyway, it’s all about the pressure, if your transfer is cured properly and the melting temperature of your powder. Nothing else. It’s not brand specific or printer specific. I will say that when you are printing, your ink settings will vary greatly from brand to brand and type to type. Other than that though, that aspect is practically all the same.

I am looking to see if anyone has any long term usage of a single suppliers products. Say ink and powder. For example, If I wanted a backup plan when my current supplier is out of ink and powder, where would you recommend and how long/how much have you used/ordered from that supplier? Just looking to not run out of suppliers and keep an open door on finding good quality consumables. Here in a week I'll be in a serious pickle so I need to get something ordered soon. Thanks.

That wasn't how it worked for me. Are you cleaning the wiper and capping station very well? It should all be black. The bottom of the printhead should only need cleaned once or twice a month. If you have had any head strikes at all that can cause permanent damage. Sometimes it does nothing, sometimes it takes a few head cleans, sometimes those nozzles never come back. It's also one of the only reasons I've ran across to make the bottom of the head need to be cleaned more often than once or twice a month, usually all the build up is on one side from the wiper but if you keep the wiper cleaned ( once before printing and once after) then it should be good. Could be a dry environment where you are or the ink you are using. The p400 is gravity fed so it's more finicky on the inks you use. As for the gear, it's on the side somewhere. I turn the printer off and rotate it to lift the head. I leave film in there so I don't get the bottom side wet with cleaner and just clean it. anything like a paper towel will introduce fibers and not clean it very well. You need something sturdy and lint free.

Removing the printhead is a pain, you usually break the CSIC or damage the ribbon cable. The csic also holds the ink cartridges in place so the slightest damage will allow air to suck in instead of ink. All you need to do is cut a small hole in the side of the printer and use a sponge tip swab to clean the bottom. That or as Sponge tip swab from the front and raise the printhead. I’d never recommend daily or weekly removal of a printhead, especially on an Epson. The P series have a gear to rotate and raise/lower the head if needed. as for the carts I left my DTF ink installed. It doesn’t clog the head very easily if the printer is kept clean at the capping station. Generally up to two weeks of inactivity only required 1-2 head cleans to get going with ink installed. You also push air in there every time and spill ink around the port, it’s important to clean those every other day or daily to prevent caking and sealing issues. for storage I would do cleaning carts, but it’s a waste of time otherwise. Spending an hour cleaning and flushing out the ink with cleaner to turn around and do the reverse the next day or two is pointless. You need 3-5 consecutive head cleans to actually remove the ink. I ran 3 of the p400’s in the beginning. Made a caddy and just swapped prefilled carts every 30 prints. Worked great for 6-12 months. Eventually the head weakened on the cmyk channels after 5,000+ prints and stopped being able to lay down large blocks of solid color correctly. Oem inks still worked perfectly. I looked for a less vicious ink but didn’t turn up anything. i still have one new in the box, there is no way to sell them without getting ripped off unless it’s a face to face cash transaction so I just don’t sell it. Overall they are good printers. The head is $1,000 new so be careful. good luck!

it literally makes me want to drive out to California and dish it out face to face to see what is needed to get results from EKprint. It’s just a small business vs large business and available resources type of thing. I dislike and always will dislike large businesses like cadlinks parent company. For EKprint I’d imagine selling the same software for 17 years it’s time for an update, or to shut the doors and let it be what it is. I hope it’s not the latter. sorry, this topic is like an open wound to me.

Cadlink has progressed, but still lacks in that area. It’s more “Advanced” making small things like simply selecting content based into a long chore on a per image basis. It’s kind of silly, Cadlink handles transparency rather poorly and picks up literally everything. In my opinion EKprint prints more solid colors and handles the underbase better than any RIP I’ve used. I LOVE EKprint. Unfortunately, EKprint is dated and they refuse to do anything about it. Cadlink added a printer I asked about within a few days. Ekprint, been going on 4 months now with it practically given up. The emails now are just “ I’m not ignoring you”. when it comes to color accuracy I have found ways around it with EK, but it’s still not perfect even running a profile. Ek has a built in “dated” color conversion profile table and really sucks at things like green and purple. if they updated the color system to allow users to alter it and find ways to support larger/Chinese printers then I believe they would be golden. I have personally offered them thousands to add support for one machine model, plus a promise of 4 licenses. I also said name your price for software/support that isn’t sold to others if that wasn’t enticing enough. Basically a custom built software for me in house only. On their website they claim they will make custom software for your needs. I found this not to be the case. you don’t really have much option with that machine. Cadlink is the easiest, quickest, most supported program. I don’t know about photo print, I know I reached out to everyone with a RIP I could get ahold of and never got a response or got a no. I don’t remember right off hand ( my memory is absolutely terrible- astonishing actually) but it was doing 16-21 12”x12” prints an hour depending on how you printed with it in Cadlink. overall I like supporting EKprint and dislike cadlinks business model and recent sell outs. But at the end of the day all I can run is Cadlink and deal with it or my production will suffer drastically from the use of anything else. It’s one of those 50/50 situations that if you blended the softwares, it would be perfect.

There is no such thing. DTF film is preference based. The outcome of each type is the difference in the final transfer application and outcome. Each manufacturer has different quality standards. Every film listed can work great or terrible based on how it is produced from the manufacturer. you can evaluate this by testing all film types from your supplier. That’s the typical process to do so. They will likely vary batch to batch as well so expect that to happen. If you find a good supplier though this will be minimal. every film you have mentioned I have used good and bad versions of, it all depends in the manufacturer and your experience. Sometimes you just get a bad apple.

Maintop is honestly a waste of time in my opinion and experience. I don’t believe it was ever intended for this type of use. Cadlink is the way to go. They’ll make you buy the $895 version though since it’s a Chinese printer if you go that route. You can print directly from Cadlink to the printer with atools, or by simply saving and opening the file in atools. The best thing about Cadlink is repeatability. As for the settings I’ll have to look. I have 4 machines running with Dedicated pc’s. One of them was used with the audley before I discontinued its use and it still has the settings I used. I’d have to find which one and see what it says. I don’t remember if it will let me without the printer connected. it’s pretty busy in the shop so I can’t promise when I can, or if you’ll find the answer elsewhere before I get to it. I don’t like messing with a unit while it’s in operation so I’d have to do it in my free time, which I haven’t had in ages haha.

I use Atools. I’m not sure what you mean when you say pro program, the one mine came with just says Atools. There is a password protected area with adjustments. It’s been awhile since I’ve used it so I don’t remember what’s in there.

Have you looked in the menu the requires a password?

No problem. As for the alignments and Cadlink, I just printed an image with thin lines from Cadlink and adjusted the program. when I made a perfect alignment straight from the printer then sent prints from Cadlink it would be off. Aligning it from Cadlink took a little longer and some effort but I didn’t have an issue after that. I used maintop like once, so I’d your using that I don’t know, probably the same steps.

All I could say is to reach out to who you purchased it from. I have never experienced that so I have no idea.

You’re welcome. Just go slow with the tap is all I can say. I don’t remember exactly but it’s been 6+ months with the repair so it should work. I know I left a few tap sizes to go if it happened again so I had options. Finding a replacement brush was a dead end for me.

Just use a tap set to retap the hole larger, go one size larger and get a matching larger set screw. Both sides need it to be tight or it will slip off the motor shaft. If you don’t know they sell M3- thru M-8 tap sets and m3-m8 bolt sets at various lengths. I think it was like $25 for both. mine had a steel insert in the center. The issue was the brush was too tight in there causing too much friction once powder was in there. I used an old pair of hair clippers and shorted the bristles a bit at a time until it operated smoothly. Hasn’t broken again yet. just my DIY solution. Good luck!

Glad you got it together. I will say the matching shaker for this printer is very well built and one of the best one's I have seen/used under 24". Good luck!

I’m not saying you should use oem inks, I did the first time. I also didn’t on my other two and didn’t have this issue. oem inks flush out easily, I ran two ink charges with the adjustment program and all was well if you did do that. if I were you I’d try another supplier of chips. Maybe ask around see if maybe it’s An update disabling the chips. my issue was alternating chips would work, then they wouldn’t work when I added more cartridges. They never all showed X at the same time though. If they all always show they don’t work and it has never once asked to use “ non genuine” carts I would try new chips from a different supplier first and compare firmware versions with a known functional unit with aftermarket carts.

Oem cart has a sensor inside that prevents you from just resetting and using them when the ink runs out. I pulled the sensor and put it on oem chip, and used that on refillable chip. Not very economical but can work.