johnson4

Not in my experience. Acro has always taken 3+ minutes to process and send the print job for a 12X12 image, on a old 12 year old dual core 1gb pc, or this new gaming laptop. No speed difference at all. same with EKprint, which processes and sends the print for the same file under 20 seconds, both machines. Cadlink is a different story,.

IF you use ekprint or Acro, you pretty much can use a Pentium 4 machine maxed out with 1GB of ram and it work well, lol. I've used both on 12+ year old Pc's without an issue at all.

I used one of those walmart cheap HP's, ryzen 3, upgraded the ram to 16GB ram, 4GB didn't cut it at all. Works fine, but a bit more " loading times" with cadlink for things. Isn't buggy or laggy. I think the whole thing was $300. I also used an HP Omen gaming laptop, 4.2Ghz i7 and upgraded it to 32GB of ram, 16GB didn't seem to cut it with this computer. Things load instantly, where with the $300 PC it takes 5-10 seconds. One was $300, One was $800. Whichever you choose, using a SSD helps more than anything, that I have noticed. It's not the CPU or memory that maxes out on either machine, it's the SSD read/write that seems to be the bottleneck. But they both work well, I'll likely upgrade the SSD in the cheap PC, something faster than the " bare minimum" to test this theory eventually.

IF you look on the DTF facebook groups, there are people there who do this and have tested different countertop ovens. They must be vented, and it's hard to get an even cure with them. my DIY oven consisted of a Hood, with an adapter to connect an exhaust fan and a heat press ( the top heated plate) turned upside down and mounted. It cured and worked as a mini shaker/sheet curing oven for 6-8 months or so ( I don't honestly remember, it printed thousands of transfers for me for over 6 months for sure) without issue. IF you don't vent it, the fumes are toxic. The temperature needs to be even without excessive hot spots. This is about all I can advise on.

This is an area I don’t have any experience in. The shaker I made heated from the bottom and it worked fine, and the mini shaker I bought heats from the top only and it works fine, if that helps.

The 805 and 8550 both have those major drawbacks. The 15000 is the last thing, which does have the issue of leaky carts sometmes.

The p600 vs the p800, definitely not the only difference. likely the same for the new versions, aside from the tiny carts. I personally would have went with the p5000 if I had the spare cash. I think I’m alright at figuring things out, but at $1700, not something I can do for fun.

It's not. But, the P700 isn't going to be good eaither if it's anything like the p600. I'd go for the P900. ( All opinion, I have no idea)

If you change the resolution, you have to change the ink density. ink density directly reflects on your colors.

The hand with DTF is really good, IF you have the process down. Usually, from my experience, you get the best hand with a shaker. Doing it by hand, it's hard to smack the film equally the same at the same pressure across the whole print. BUT with experience it's possible. Yea, I have never had a bad experience with refurbs, well one time but they replaced it immediately. I think you should invest in a better printer then, like the P400, or P800. The xp-15000 isn't ideal if you can go a better route. For the white ink, you just pick it up, shake it for 10 seconds everyday. no on the cartridges- unless you want to make a giant mess and likely ruin the cartridge, it's integrated. I highly recommend the P400 in your situation.

Is this on a mini shaker? IF so, See if the sensor has a green/red light on it. If it does, clean the face of the sensor. If not, Check your relay for the take up motor.

Cadlink shows it supports sheet and roll mode. I haven't used the 15000 with it first hand though.

Andy had it I believe. I don’t use it because I don’t need to. the only benefit is it’s more opaque, so those printers that have trouble recognizing the film don’t have an issue. I personally roll fed every printer I’ve used, unless testing. So worst case scenario for me was adding a sheet of paper or tape at the beginning of the film. Doing sheets like this sucked, which is where I would use double sided film.

I will add, if it were between EKprint, acro, and Cadlink- being the same price- EKprint is the most expensive and worst deal. Cadlink is far superior to both. acro is $395 and has known bugs with the 15000, but has a dongle license and fully transferable/resellable. Works on a ton of models and can easily swap it around- it’s a dongle. Cadlink is $395, has a ton of preset print ready supported printers with tons of extras. Also dongle or product key activation. Get the dongle and you can always sell/swap around in the future. ekprint is $350- works for only that one PC, and ONLY that specific printer model. Only one activation. The 3 activation version is $500-$750, with a $100 transfer fee if you tried to sell it with the remaining two activations. These extra 2 activations are for reinstalling purposes only. Go with the one activation for $350 and your PC crash- you’ll have to pay another $350 to activate it again. ekprint is old and outdated and I won’t recommend it to anyone anymore, even though I used it for 6 years and still use it. it’s expensive, outdated, lacks color profiling features, lacks tons of options that make DTF easy, on top of that it’s limited to one printer model, and one computer- period. So you’ll have to buy the program again if you decide to go with a different printer, and it cannot be resold, unless you sell the whole PC. I also own Acro and Cadlink. I would recommend both, but being the same price, Cadlink is far superior in features, while Acro is far superior in simplicity and constant updates. Cadlink is known to produce grainy prints, while Acro is easily profiled and does great out of the box. pick your poison basically.

to me, not paying for and using the bare minimum required for the process is cheaping out is what I meant. I’m not saying being frugal is bad, I recommend it. But there are just some things you don’t cheap out on. If you do, it will cause the entire aspect to just be a failure. imagine a 6 step process, and each process has 3 price points. price point one- DIY this will inherently require a ton of time and learning, and always has a downfall. Not knowing everything about the specific function this aspect should do, will result in a learning experience, or mistake, which costs time and money. price point two- entry level quality a lower quality( but priced appropriately) but acceptable pre made/built device made to do the intended function. Likely will run into some tinkering to get it right, but the fundamentals are there. price point three- semi-professional quality A decently made and put together object to out of the box so the required function. choosing price point one on all 6 steps will inherently lead to failure, a lot of time and likely more money wasted than if you went to price point 2. my point is, purchasing Acro isn’t that much. $400 for software that will work with quite a few printers and comes in a dongle to resell or switch around on computers is a good investment. Using illegal software is obviously illegal, requires a headache to install on newer OS’s, and ALWAYS has bugs, which you’ll find out eventually. trying to bypass EKprints demo mode will yield a big waste of time. He made the program in 2005, and likely isn’t dumb enough to allow someone to easily remove the watermark. Because you can’t. It’s in the main .cab file, behind the main programs password/encryption. protecting his software is likely more important than selling it. No, you can’t put it on another layer. No the demo cannot be activated it is permanently a demo. Unless you are a software hacker, in which case, I don’t think you would be here. an xp-15000 is $350 ( price point 1) Acro software is $400 ( price point 3) OR illegal buggy hacked acro- $40 from China or “ free” on the net ( price point 1) 3 sets of refillable ink cartridges is $25 ( price point 3) an oven for curing that you modify- $100 ( price point 1) a fan and ducting to vent outside- $50 ( price point 1) output tray- $50( price point 3) OR output tray-$5( price point 1) waste tank resetter- $25 ( price point 3) $1000 plus supplies given you have a heat press if you want to press them. A blend of DIY and pre built, so you can focus on being successful and dealing with the problems you’ll face from all the not price point 3 options. people that have with a full price point 4 setup( commercial) have plenty of issues and can take months to get worked out and going, so image if your basically doing everything from the ground up. the value to you is worth nothing but cheap clothing/gifts, but you could sell them and make tens of thousands from this $1,000 setup. For $350 you could easily buy 100 12x12 transfers, just for the cost of the $350 printer alone. So if you really intend on just making them for friends and family, and saving money, you would need to buy and gift over 300 shirts to break even without the cost of supplies. to me, that would take years. The 15000 printer won’t last but a few months. if you just want to go cheap, stick with sublimation, printable iron on transfers or some other cheap out of the box method. Because what I mentioned above is about as cheap as you are going to get and still be at all successful with it. Been there, done that. good luck!

it can be, it will last a few months if taken care of correctly. The 15000 is a fast printer, but has its quirks. Sublimation ink is the same as standard dye ink to the printer, DTF, however needs quite a bit of daily attention using white ink. not only the cartridges, the bottles, the capping station, wiper, all these things need cleaned and maintained. Anything with white ink- needs shaken daily. If you plan to use it very seldom- you’ll likely be better off using a new set of cartridges each time. The foam in them doesn’t allow for the white ink to mix, so printing with it every other day is important. this is just a cheap work around that gives cheap results. It doesn’t work well, or efficient. It also doesn’t allow you to vent the toxic fumes correctly. While a heat press would work, it would take almost 5 Minutes per transfer, and likely wouldn’t cure the ink entirely. small to large scale, places like DTFSUPERSTORE would be your best bet for consistency and quality. I doubt it would work. If your not going to use it often enough to justify the costs, just buy the DTF transfers from someone. They run about $3.50 a Sq ft or less. It’s not easy, it’s not at all like sublimation. The printer requires consistent maintenance, good inks, film and powder. If you import, plan on spending a few months and 500+ testing brands that will likely change in quality from overseas. in the end, you’ll spend quite a bit DIY. One mistake, and the printer is gone. I haven’t met anyone yet who hasn’t destroyed a printer, even multiple, in the beginning. Some people just never get it right. been there done that. Cheaping out on everything- is just asking for failure. for $2,000-$3,000 you could have a decent setup. for $1,000, you could have a decent hand processed setup. Good luck!

The p400 needs a separate program to reset the waste tank. It’s $10, and you can reset it as many times as you want. the p400 also uses an internal waste tank, so you would need to modify it, it’s under the right side cover and run it to a waste tank bottle. you can send me a PM.

not a problem at all. None of the P400's come with a roll feed attachment that will work. the ( rather unimpressive) roll media adapter on it is for 2" core, tiny rolls of paper, like 33 feet or something. The P800 is the only one that will accept the rolls of film natively, and those are so hard to come by it's insane. Me personally, on all of my conversions( p400's and p800's) I just 3D printed 2 brackets, drilled and tapped ( of course after looking and making sure I wouldn't damage anything) holes in the printer. Attached with bolts, added nuts to the bolts on the top side inside the printer for extra measure. Used an 8MM rod and 2 more 3D printed adapters to adapt the 8MM rod to the 3" core. Rolls like butter, easy to change- ugly as hell. I've done this to 4 printers now and works better than anything else I could buy/find. Some people buy/make external adapters, but I always liked the roll being attached to the printer. The one that came with that red chinese printer- threw the roll holder in the trash immediately, it was such a PITA, and never worked right, aside from alignment issues. I did the same to that one with a modified bracket. Real Ingenuity comes from necessity, So if it's the path you want to go down, bite the bullet and you'll figure it out I'm sure. Its not really something planning can do without it being in your face. As for my printer, I don't remember where all I've posted it. It's a sealed box Epson P400 ( Epson refurbished) printer. I've held pretty firm on the price of $1,000 Plus shipping. If you can find a brand new one for a smidgen more, I'd go that route, given it still has a warranty.

Yea, I agree with you, But it hasn't been an issue for me personally. I shake mine like hell, have been for the last 6 years with DTG, and for 14-15 months with DTF. Happy Printing!

Hello. welcome to the journey. i want to start off with, don’t buy that red Chinese printer. It was nothing but trouble and me just being lazy. It was an R2400, which was refused to be disclosed until I received it. If it were a p400, I’d be using it right now. That’s actually the plan, convert it to a p400 when I have the time. One of those “ live and learn” lessons for me. you are correct, the 15000 just isn’t going to be ideal, the carts leak and leak into the printhead connections over time. the p400 sounds like the best thing for you. I do think $1,500 is a high price, I’ve had this Epson refurbished one listed for $1,000 for months, so I think you could probably find a better deal, but if it works for you, I agree it’s a great printer and probably the best for your circumstances. the p800 is great too, but since it isn’t going to be used daily, it’s not ideal for your circumstances. the older model printers I stay away from, while they work, parts are hard to find, usually have some finicky problems and overall don’t offer Chipless ink solutions. Which is a big thing for me. from your post though, I don’t think I could really add anything because you are spot on, other than an, “I agree” and my experiences. im actually testing a similar machine to the knight 12, with two xp600 heads. a direct comparison to a p800/p400, its 3-5 sq ft an hour faster, with the prints coming out a bit grainier when looking up close, which could be me, I’m still working on it. it would require a good temperature and humidity, while the Epson doesn’t seem to mind if it’s ran in low humidity. The xp600 heads seem to very much dislike anything under 50 percent humidity. But, the p400 and the similar printer to the knight 12 with dual xp600 heads works well. One would be easier to use as needed, one would need used daily, or almost daily. I do recommend buying a printer/shaker combo, and venting it outside. It makes quick work of things. With my p400 I printed 12 sq ft an hour cmyk+w, and 30 sq ft an hour black or white only.

Andy doesn’t sell transfers, but you could just ask around for samples from providers near you. while at cost to you might spend $.60 per transfer for supplies, you need to account for the printer cost, maintenance waste ink and film, as well as a few other things, including the price for the printer, time and electricity and shipping, and of course the $3,000 printhead replacement people haven to do every 6 months or so. me personally, I feel like $3-$3.50 is a good price for low volume 12x12 transfers. This is my price range. For 13”X300FT I feel like I’d expect to pay $600 for the roll printed end to end plus shipping, or $2 a sq ft plus actual shipping costs. This is where I would be at anyway selling in bulk, unless several rolls were ordered at a time, but that cost wouldn’t drop significantly, maybe $0.25-$0.50 a sq ft. This comes out to about 25 hours of printing per 300 ft roll, on the fastest Epson conversion. Or about 20 hours on a dual head 13” Chinese printer, or 10 hours on a 24” dual head printer( on 24” film, making it 11.5” max width X2 side by side plus cutting) , maybe 5 hours on the 4 head printers. total cost to the printer would vary, but be around $130 for the film, $50-$60 in ink, and $30-$40 in powder, plus the time, which is $220-$240 total supplies cost per 13” roll printed. Add in 35 percent for taxes and fees, and all the other above costs I mentioned. That’s $370 per roll, take out 35 percent for state and federal taxes, or $130 which you are left with $240 or so if buyer pays for shipping plus the time based on your printer. $230 profit per 5-25 hours of printing, plus paying off your initial investment of anywhere from $2,000-$35,000 for the printer and shaker and interest if any, it’s about as low as you are going to get, even printing it yourself. Getting to $2 per sq ft in bulk, plus having good ICC profiles( which is another $3,000 machine) and good turnaround times, reliability ( extra parts lying around) etc- it gets rough and a challenge to offer these low prices and also be a reliable, quality printer. so anything less than $3.50 a sq ft low volume, or less than $2-$2.50 a sq ft high volume, it’s going to end up actually costing more. anything over $5 a sq ft is just a plain out rip off, regardless of the machines they run, in my opinion.

No idea, I’d have to have the printer in front of me. you also should try printing with aftermarket cleaner carts, not the oem carts, to remove that variable. Maybe printer recognizes aftermarket vs OEM installed. are you removing the air plug from the aftermarket cartridges? Can’t have both in and it print. Only the one plug remains when printing.

Inkchip software sucks. Go over and download the software from Chipless solutions.com and use the same activation key/software. this same thing happened to at least 10 people I know, including me. It’s the firmware from inkchip.