johnson4

You find something that works and stick to it. Change anything and you have to fine tune your whole setup again. You need to make your own ICC profile, they aren’t interchangeable most of the time. i use DTFsuperstore supplies, works great and consistent.

Mine had a hood around it with a fan sucking the fumes away and always maintained the heat better that way. If I remember correctly I ran it at around 290F. The printer was printing roughly 30 12x10 prints an hour, so roughly 2-2:30 minutes curing on a 15x15 heat press with direct contact. The tension from the take up wheel on one side and the powder on the other held the film flat against the heat plate nicely. as for curing under cured prints again, I have no idea, sorry.

I just roll printed with it with EKprint, I don’t do gang prints longer than 38 inches or so. I just made the platen size the largest size I wanted to print per page. i didn’t use the Epson driver at all. i left the auto open tray out all the time, it didn’t cause an issue. I made some 3D printed brackets and attached the roll to the back of the machine, that’s how I do all of them. After that I just send a bunch of print jobs and wait. Something I had intended to do was make it auto reset the ink levels every 10-15 minutes of active printing while it was printing and using a damper system on it. I made a prototype damper adapter, ordered the material to make better seals on the printhead. The seals on it currently are hollow, which I don’t like. other than that and running it to a waste bottle the thing did really well for $200. Print speeds were the same as the surecolor p400. It’s just those tiny cartridges that was the issue. The in-line dampers worked well, still the same issue of the poor fitting aftermarket carts but that may have changed by now.

That sounds like the printhead trying to move and it grinding the belt. Release the capping station manually with the power off, then turn it on.

At the moment the attachment isn't working.

Sometimes this happens when it doesn't detect the film. When you print from any other program are you still using film?

Yea, I see what you mean. I’d assume it was the PID/relay or the wiring for the bulb got knicked.

Yea, I mean it's possible but usually takes 5+ minutes and being very close to the transfer. It's not ideal and this is just something that happens when you do. As for the shaker not curing well, it takes alot of testing to find the right temperature and settings. I have 3 mini shaker and the temperature and settings on each one vary wildly. Overall, knowing it's a symptom of under curing should help you moving forward with what you need to do to test and try to cure them better. overall it takes me a solid few days of testing, maybe 10-20 hours to get each one dialed in correctly. Then they just work with minor adjustments here and there. I am not discounting what the internet says, but in general following the " crowd" is usually just a wave of bad information. You can make it work, you can do anything once and that information then spreads. When it comes to working well, or consistently- they won't answer you or will assume usually. I am not saying you can't get a good cure with a heat press, I am saying it takes alot of time and this method is prone to this type of issue until you really test it and get your setup where it needs to be. It will literally be different for everyone. Generally speaking, those cheap black shakers don't have a fuse if that is what you have. It could be a multitude of things. Do you have photo's?

You can’t use a heat press and get a proper cure. the reason shakers work isn’t because they stay at a constant temperature. They use carbon heating elements that get up over 300-700 F every few seconds. The “temperature” cycles this so it cures the ink and melts the powder without being too hot because of the cut off temperature. The set temperature just controls how much they cycle and at what cut off temperature to prevent burning. a heat press is a constant non-radiant heat source. The bottom plate likely isn’t heated. So- powder may melt, ink isn’t curing properly because the ink temperature is likely very low on the silicone mat- for sure not the same temperature you are getting above unless you preheat the bottom plate really well. Now, if you removed the heat press heat plate, turned it upside down and put the film directly on it so the backside of the film is touching- it will cure fine. I made my own mini shaker with an upside down heat press, cured from the bottom. It was set to about 280-300F and cured them perfectly as fast as the printer would run. be aware, the fumes are toxic and you likely aren’t collecting and venting them from your press. I’ve seen people end up in the hospital over it with respiratory issues. The stuff that evaporated from the ink, well it’s poisonous if consumed. The powder fumes aren’t healthy Eaither . shakers can be repaired fairly easily. I can help if you tell me what’s going on.

is that Celsius? Something doesn't sound right. I run mine at 100C and it works perfectly. The machine in F runs at 226 and works perfectly- regardless of the humidity. If its really cold in here, I bump up the temp a couple degrees. Are you using a converter for your shaker, and have you taken actual temps in the center of the plate after it has heated up?

Humidity is fine around 40 percent. What’s the actual temperature in the center of the curing plate? It’s the only thing I have ever seen cause that. Uneven/improper cure. The ink has glycol in it, which is what the residue is. If it was heated and extracted correctly it wouldn’t be on the film. you can store transfers for months in humid area- they don’t reabsorb water. They just suck out the glycol from improperly cured inks. It just needs testing on your end.

It’s too hot, not cured long enough time. Ink needs time to evaporate and cure before powder layer melts and seals it all in. Too hot too fast, this doesn’t happen. Only place it can go is to the surface of the film or the edges of its bad enough. You can cure straight from the printer- if you are dialed in to do so with proper temps and times. i have never seen humidity affect curing, here it ranges from 40 to 80 percent all the time.

For reference- a p600 head will not work in a p800. It can boot, it can print, but it will not work. Sometimes they just show an error immediately , sometimes they just give you terrible print issues and tons of errors unrelated until you change the head back.

Nope.

I emailed them asking for the part number and gave them my printer serial number. They don’t reply on the weekends. I get a response immediately usually. I’m not sure.

That’s the only version I’ve tried.

So just do the alignments like normal?

Magenta is also the color that gives me crap in the P400, R2400, Xp1500, or any other gravity fed printer i have used. Seriously. This specific color. Anytime I have a clog or issue, it's always magenta. nothing else unless it's my fault.

720X720 on the p800 takes 20 seconds. 1440x720 about a minute. 1440x1440 2.5 minutes for a 12x12 single color design. I’m personally curious how one would adjust the printer to avoid banding, but I always stick to 1440x1440.

Yea. I mean it’s highly profitable, it’s well worth it. I don’t care what people say, if you know what you are doing a basic supported Epson printer can bring you in several thousand a month. A couple of them could break 10k a month in transfers. It’s all about what your willing to learn and how fast.

I’d like to try what you are saying. I know 720x anything is insane in speed. how are you adjusting the alignment? if it’s the same head, possible to put et head in XP printer? Maybe even just the manifold?

the 15000 is 180 nozzles per channel, it printed the same speed as the P400/p600/p800 for me. Maybe 1 print slower an hour. If it's within 1-2 prints an hour I just call it the same. I wonder why there isn't any information on the head, not even from china? I know I didn't like the ET printers because I've went through 4 of them just as regular printers. Not that model, but various models. The build quality seemed very poor on them overall. So as a first impression, I didn't even consider it.

do you know how fast does that et8550 print a 12X12 CMYK+W print?

do you know how fast does that et8550 print a 12X12 CMYK+W print?