johnson4

With the p400’s I ran them as a pair, one had much more use than the other. That one, as I’ve said had about 5,000 12x12 prints on it before it died, and it didn’t really die, it just has issues I will discuss below. It’s my fault. I used my cleaning solution and cleaned the wiper to like new condition everyday before doing a head clean, and the cap top. Shake the ink, that’s it. same thing I do in every printer I own. I do not flush it with cleaning solution everyday, it takes like 3-4 cleanings to get the ink out, you never get it all out without soaking/cleaning over a period of time. so I was experiencing clogging on one p400 and not the other, after about 5000 12x12 prints( successful prints, not test/ mess up prints). I did everything I could to figure it out and just left it alone because I couldn’t. I revisited it the other day after it sat for a few months and within minutes I found my problem. The CSIC board had come loose( where the chip reader is and the part that the carts clip in to). So, all the carts were not being sealed onto the printhead well, allowing air to go in. Fixed that, and even though it sat uncapped for several months I still have flow coming out of all channels. I need to also replace the black mat( the borderless printing ink pad) because it has white ink on it, causing issues with the PW sensor I think. BUT I did find why it died, and that was the CSIC board not holding the carts down and sealed to the printhead. the other p400 also sat the same amount of time. I switched to two p800’s when that happened. I loaded OEM inks in that p400 and have been printing canvas photos with it without an issue at all. Of course I have to use an output tray with it, because I removed the rollers. so I don’t think it’s the printer, at least from my perspective. Some exterior reason is causing the issues. If you have ink build up on your head, your wiper can’t cleanly and smoothly wipe the surface of the head, and it’s possibly dragging tiny bits of dried ink over the head surface. One head strike can cause permanent damage, or do nothing at all. my main principles I follow: 1. make sure the wiper is 100% clean every morning before a head clean. I mean, it should be black front/back and under the ridge where it wipes. I use my cleaning solution that melts away dried ink to make it easier. 2. make sure there isn’t any buildup on the head. I usually don’t, unless I’ve had a head strike. 3. add 1/4 to 1/2 cleaning solution to the cap top. It flushes and cleans the lines a bit to keep them from clogging, and makes the printhead wet, so a nice smooth “ sealed” wipe can occur. 4. make sure the nipple area is clean, there are 4 tiny holes per “ nipple”. The rest needs cleaned manually. 5. If I am cleaning it with solution, I do it well. Normally I leave the ink loaded. But if I want to let it sit or for whatever reason, I clean the shit out of everything, the nipples, wiper, cap top, then I run a cleaning set of carts 1/2 to 90% empty with cleans, clean the stuff one more time and then let it sit. random note: The p400 waste ink lines need to be in a U shape. If it just runs down, it creates a suction and pulls from the head, pulling air into it and or draining the cap and carts. So I made a U shape in the hose so it was higher than the capping station before dropping into the waste bottle. If not, I always had issues. For the p800’s, basically the same, shake carts daily, clean wiper/cap really well before I start for the day and add solution to the cap top before I do the first head clean of the day. I don’t even clean when I am done for the day. I do all that in the morning before I print again. the p800’s haven’t given me a single issue with the 80ML carts. The larger carts without filters I did have issues with. the p800 DTG that I had experienced failure, in a way. It sat for months and worked fine, uncleaned kept in the floor. Set it up where I can use it and had it working without an issue. Didn’t use it again for 2-3 months. No ink flowing, clogged capping station lines, bad dampers. Replaced those and good to go again, even though it was shooting out gelled ink from the head, then nothing. I think the p800 is the best printer for DTF, because it has a straight shot ink path, and an actual pressurized ink system. good luck, sucks to hear the p400s aren’t working out for you. Hopefully the p800 works better for you, I haven’t had any problems with either unless self inflicted.

Make sure it’s set to rear feed. Make sure your film is detected by printer, needs to be opaque film, not clear.

No problem. They are located in Arizona. The people who own opendtg also own DTFsuperstore, he started the DTF portion at the end of 2020. very reputable in my book, honest guy with good service. as for software, I’ve used acro (9.X) Cadlink and EKprint. Ekprint is what I mainly use for one color designs, it prints and processes very fast. Basic and easy to use. I open 6 windows per printer. 2 white only, 2 black only, 2 cmykw ( presets I made). So technically it’s 6 instances of the program. As one job is loaded and printed, ( which varies in the design, but always under 10 seconds) I switch the the other window and start working there instead of standing around. I print bulk one offs, so this is ideal for me. Ekprint is locked to that very specific printer model and PC. Cadlink is my 2nd choice, because it does offer a lot of features, but more importantly it prints great colors- but a bit slower than EKprint. The large amount of options can make it overwhelming at first, alot of things to “ fine tune” sometimes. I still don’t know my way around it perfectly, but I do think it’s a bit more options than is needed for a RIP. You can’t open it twice, but you can PAY to add additional ports for more printers to run at once. License Can be swapped to a new PC easily. Acro is my last choice, for the SOLE reason of how slow it processes each print. It has decent all around features and works well, I just never used it much because it can take over a 2 minutes sometimes to process a print job before sending it. You can’t open it more than once, so I’m standing and waiting. 9 can be found for “ free” lots of places. I haven’t tried 10 or the newer versions because I’m told they don’t process any faster. That’s my dealbreaker with acro. so if that isn’t an issue, acro is good, versatile and prints decent colors. Easy to add a color profile if needed. For one color designs, it wouldn’t have an issue. If you print a bunch of the same designs over and over, it’s not so bad. Me personally, I print 100 different designs daily. RIPS features really are determined by your needs, so EKprint might not be ideal for you. It is the most expensive of the 3.

I Used the DTFsuperstore inks and supplies on my P400. I ran it for 6 months. I can't say how many prints, it didn't keep count. BUT It was $55,000 Gross ( not profit) worth of transfers before it broke, Which wasn't the printhead, it still worked. Error code 73H, whatever that is. for the P400, I roll printed with it, with 17ML carts ( the bigger ones) I could get 35 CMYK+W per set, OR 35 WHITE ONLY AND 35 BLACK ONLY per set. I just had a few prefilled sets and swapped them out, much easier and error proof than a CISS. Something to keep in mind, The P400 I ran, When ran 10 hours a day, I needed to add a fan. the heatsink is exposed on the back, so I noticed out the plastic and added a fan to cool it off, otherwise it kept throwing fits after a few hours of constant printing. I would normally print around 100-200 12x12 prints a day, and it printed them about 35 an hour single color, 18 or so CMYK+W. I had to use USB connection, because again, after a few hours the WIFI module would overheat and disconnect. so The Fan AND USB fixed my issues with it roll printing. For single color, It's a no brainer and a great choice. you can knock out 100 prints ( with a mini shaker) in less than 2.5 hours, Manually powder and curing them, I have no idea on a " time" but I'd assume around 4 hours. It's a simple conversion, great printer, I know I pushed it too hard, VERY often and it did fine. Nothing I really wished I would have known, it all came out as I had expected. It's a 15 minutes conversion plus making a roll media adapter for it to fit the film.

I don’t think that material would be good for any type of printing. It’s a smooth flat surface with low melting temperatures. the reason it works on polyester and cotton is because is interwoven and not completely smooth, the adhesive has something to attach to. Just like DTF works on wood, but on a non porous surface or extremely fine sanded/ sealed wood it wouldn’t stick. Since those are meant to be wind proof and water proof, they are non porous and likely coated with something. for that type of material, I don’t think even screenprinting would work. I would consider the use of an embroidery machine or something that can bond to that type of surface. To me, it’s like expecting DTF to work on glass. DTF does work well on poly clothing and blends, it’s not the same as something like this. I doubt sublimation would work due to the temperatures it takes, but maybe on lighter colors. Maybe why I’ve never really seen a jacket like this have any printing on it. I’m not well experienced in printing on those materials, but I’d bet it’s very limited if at all.

I assumed printing at 1440x1440 would naturally be twice as fast, given the 360 nozzles instead of 180, yielding half the head pass for the same vertical movement. I don’t see how that would make it work better at lower resolutions though. 1440 dots per square inch is 1440 dots per square inch, irrigardless if the printer had 80 or 360 nozzles per channel. All that means to me is the more nozzles per channel, the less head passes it needs per inch and vise versa. for example: 360 nozzles per channel =4 head passes per inch. 180 nozzles per channel = 8 head passes per inch, for the same resolution. This is how I come up with the “twice as fast” statement. Lowering the resolution and comparing both printers, they would still be equal, one being twice as fast, irregardless of the resolution as long as both were set to print at the same resolution. while this could be done with any of the RIP softwares, I just don’t like the quality or the look of lower resolution prints, I won’t sell or use them. I’ve even tried over saturating to compensate for the less DPI, but it’s still not what I want. of course, that is unless I’m mistaken.

How would kothari print faster running the same 1440x1440 resolution? I’ll look into it, but It is very expensive software.

The p900 is new, so your not going to get a lot of support on it. Also, EKprint has a beta version for it, and acro 11 is said to support it- whenever that comes out. I would expect bugs and issues, you would be one of the first to convert and use it. as for the p800, it’s well tested, well documented and works very well, as well it’s Chipless. I wanted to go the p900 Route, but I’m going to go the p5000 Route if I’m doing cartridge resets. It has higher spec’d printhead so it’s 360 nozzles X10, like the 24” dual printhead printers speed, except it will print higher quality because the printhead is much higher quality than those in the 24” printers. For me, I don’t need 24” width, so 17” width printer for $1,800 VS $12,000 for a Chinese printer is a no brainer for me, with the amount of issues I’ve seen with these 24” printers vs the reliability of an Epson desktop. Cadlink now supports it, so I’m not stuck with acro rip 10.X to use it. ( which acro doesn’t officially support it anyway). so, for the price, I’d go with the p800 if you can, or for a few hundred more to with a printer that’s going to print twice as fast ( the p5000).

Only the European version is said to accept reset chips for the ink and waste tank. im actually likely going to go with the p5000, it’s hardly anymore and will print as fast as the 24” commercial printers.

As for being used, no it doesn’t matter you can flush the ink. It doesn’t matter with sublimation either. I’ve seen people routinely use the p400 for oem ink, switch it to sublimation ink, and even switch it DTF inks, back and forth in a whim, just run cleaning carts before swapping. the downside to used, it’s service life will be shorter, since it’s used. If it has 100 prints or 10,000, the printheads and capping station assemblies are only good for so long/ so much. But if it’s priced right, I’d go for it.

As for the printer you want, the P400 is the new R2000, which has also been discontinued, but recently. You can generally find the heads for the p400 for $600 or so. Epson will sell you one new head per printer serial number. I think it depends on your printing needs. The p400/R2000 are good for print and sit situations. Cartridges in the head so no ink lines to worry about. You can swap in cleaning carts and 2 head cleans later, a clean wiper and cap top- it can sit for quite awhile and be just fine. Like months. the downside, you’ll need multiple sets of carts because they’ll run out every 25-30 prints. I just had several sets in rotation and refilled them all at once. as for the p600, I think it’s the worst one. It’s a great printer, but the ink manifold is garbage on it. Once it’s loaded with ink, you have to print daily or almost daily unless you want to waste ALOT of ink and time. the reason the p600 is Iike this, it’s ink manifold holds ALOT of ink. Epsons version of “pressurized” ink system for this printer sucks for aftermarket inks. It has tiny holes and rubber valves in the manifold that get white ink settlement built up and quits working right. So, basically if you let the ink separate inside the printer, which only takes 24-48 hours, you’ll be doing head clean after head clean to get rid of that watery white ink. After awhile, this cost adds up, and so does the white ink “sludge” left behind. Once it builds up enough it just stops working efficiently and you’ll start getting clogs and watery prints more Often. That manifold isn’t easy to change and is $200+. $275 from Epson directly. basically, the p600 should be run nearly every day once ink is loaded, unlike the p400. the p800 in the other hand, actually utilizes a pressurized cartridge system and the ink manifold is a straight path. So the p800 can sit for days, and never suffer from the ink settling issue. Worst case scenario, you do 1-2 cleans and it’s good to go- as long as you kept up with keeping the wiper and cap top clean. to give you an example, I’ve went through about 10 p600’s over the years. All suffered when sitting even overnight at times because of the manifold. The p800, 45 days unused with White ink, as long as the wiper/cap is clean and well maintained, 1-2 cleans and it is good to go with no ill effects. so, in reality it depends on what you are going to do. If you print more than 20-25 daily, I’d go with the p600. If you print less than 25 every other day, I’d go with the p400. if you want the best of both worlds, get a p800, in my opinion.

Yes it does. The heads are very expensive though. I would consider it disposable.

There isn’t really any “name brand” anymore. I just buy 4-5 brands on Amazon and return the ones that suck. I just do a head clean and keep up on maintenance, I don’t have an issue with clogging. If you “manually” have to do it, it’s likely toast.

If you don’t have good nozzle checks that can be part if not all of the issue. As for the film randomly spitting out, are you using WiFi or usb? I print a lot, so WiFi, even with a gaming router just wasn’t enough to prevent this from happening. After awhile the WiFi module overheats. as for the USB, I’ve had this only happen when the usb cable was too long, or crap quality. so 1. Stop using wifi 2. use a usb connection and make sure it’s 15 ft or less with a good quality cable. I don’t know about your prints, but mine are around 60-100mb per print. It’s a desktop printer printing around 35-40 those an hour, for me at least. That’s 3-4GB of data through a cheap desktop WiFi module. Any hiccup in the connection, if even for a split second will spit the film out. same with USB. A good quality cable, with quality end connections. I went through 4 brands before I found one that was of quality and worked well. One little nudge and the pc end would disconnect, or, low quality wiring/shielding would cause print errors after 10-15 prints- if that. This isn’t limited to the p800, the same cables did the same on my p400.

I don’t know personally I would reach out to acro, they need to support their customers. Ever since 10.1 and the addition of the 15000, people have had nothing but random issues with it. Ekprint has worked well with the 15000 and is what I use, mainly for roll Printing. Even 10.3 gave people quite a bit of issue with it, I’m not sure about 10.5. I doubt many people, If any, will be able to help here. good luck.

Make an output tray. Remember, head strikes can kill a printhead pretty quickly.

Try a different film. Thin films don’t work well in any converted printers.

On the P600, you remove the damper assy. It'll leak out, so move the carriage all the way to the left with the printhead in it. Get a bowl or something to catch the ink. Loosen the screws holding the hose to the damper ASSY. It WILL LEAK/DRIP for a moment. Paper towels are your friend. Once that stops, Use a syringe and hose to fit on the nipple at the ink bay. Flush each line. It took me 100ML per CMYK and 400 ML per white. I just used water after the first few times because that's alot. Once all the ink was flushed, I would then flush the water out with cleaner. Reassemble, and do 1-2 ink charges 10-15 minutes apart. Sometimes I'd do another 1-2 regular head cleans. That's it. actually Flushes the lines without pushing that crap through the dampers or head. Using carts only, it's nearly impossible to clean the lines entirely. I would expect a capping station replacement in the near future when you are done if you actually just use the carts only. Thats alot of stress all at once. Using a syringe, alternating the pressure will cause more deposits to be picked up. You'll see what I'm talking about if you do it. Once its clear coming out, press hard/soft a few times over and over and you'll see streams of white pick up and come out. Then I just let it sit or load my inks like normal. If you let it sit, make sure you use something designed for that, or with VG in it so it doesn't evaporate and keeps it all lubed up. That's what I came up with and have done anyway. It works well for me. good luck!

Nozzle checks? Maybe missing cyan.

When I say sq ft an hour, That means for a 12x12 print. I know the film is 13" but I leave .5 inches on both sides. Times aren't exact, but generally what I get. Most of my designs are smaller, so I generally get more prints per hour. Rip software has a HUGE affect on your print speeds. Acro and cadlink took over 8 minutes a sq ft on the p800. Cadlink on 1440x1440 took 16 minutes, which is nuts and the slowest of the three. Cadlink was much faster on my P400 setup, so who knows, just my experience. Ekprint gets the job done in around 3 minutes for CMYKW prints but doesn't have " perfect" built in color management. Pick your poison on the RIP programs basically.

I get 20 sq ft an hour out of it with CMYK+W and 40 sq ft an hour out of it just black or white. I have two setups side by side so I can do 40/80 sq ft an hour as needed with the mini shakers. Not bad for a total investment roughly $2,000. I already had the RIP software, heat presses, all that crap. One of the mini shakers needs work, I just haven't had the time to do it yet. I bought it discounted " as-is". It does work, Just not to my " expectations" yet. both shakers have extensive " add ons" or " modifications" though. But It's nice to just let it do it's thing for 2-3 hours at a time before refilling the powder. The P400/600/xp15000 will yield about the same. 17-18 sq ft an hour cmykw and 35ish Black or white. The 1430/l1800 ( any of the low end 90 nozzles per channel X 6 channel models) will cut that in half easily, or roughly 5-8 sq ft an hour cmykw and 10-15 black or white. Good luck!

Another one of the "high tier" brands in my opinion. Do you have the auto open feature? it's a nice add-on.

That's crazy. From what I understood only a couple places made these, the rest were just resellers. It seems like every shipment of them has some drastic change, lol. It makes sense though, slits wouldn't clog nearly as easy as circles. I recommend a timer if you can't get it to put out the right amount of powder without the motor stopping, clogging, too much too little etc. the timer was the last change that made all those problems go away.

Did you install the inks in the right order and did you do the required nozzle checks to verify each color is printing correctly, as well as no clogged nozzles? Nozzle check is ground zero for identifying issues.

I used the P600 for about 5 years for DTG purposes. I ran 4 of them most of that time. The problems I encountered are with the ink manifold. It's absolutely crap for white ink. Springs, microscopic holes, rubber valves, all kinds of crap. The reason, They call the p600 " pressurized" ink system. When in reality its not, it's rather like a diaphragm. It gets gunked up with white ink in as little as 24 hours of sitting. White ink settles- period. If you have normal paths for the ink, this hardly matters unless it's severe which takes months/years of use. they use Ti02 for the white pigment, which is heavier than the carrier. As time passes, small amounts of this Ti02 will slowly drop due to gravity out of the suspension. The longer it sits, the more it does it. It coagulates. Lighter ink will flow around it, kind of like cholesterol in the human body. Eventually, a "chunk" can break off and hit the dampers or head. If you know anything about engines, imagine a Weedeater Carb, or 2 cycle engine carburetor. Even those old briggs push mowers. They use diaphragm pumps to feed the carb instead of a bowl ( needle/float). Thicker fluids, smaller holes, always gunking up- always finding them on the side of the road when a $2 part will fix it. Now on to the p600. The manifold doesn't function well with this thicker ink, then add the ink settling. I would print 20-40 shirts a day per printer, every single day. just sitting for 24 hours would require me at least an hour a day to get my inks good again. I found out, If I flush the manifold and ink lines at least once every 3 months, this didn't happen. Basically, It worked fine if you manually flushed it every 2-3 months. If you didn't, You had one hell of a time keeping it going without wasting a ton of ink- let alone the " soft clogs" caused by this phenomenon requiring a head clean every 5-8 prints. The p800 I used right beside these ( it was a harder conversion for DTG and I did it all myself, unlike the kits for the p600's) didn't experience this- ever. It could sit for 2 days and print fine. It could sit for 6 months. As long as I shook the carts and did a heavy ink charge to get the separated ink out of the lines ( which is simple and literally requires one heavy cleaning). Still working. It's been over a year and the p800 has been rather dormant with white ink installed, the same white ink the P600's failed to work with after sitting for 2 days, except the p800 has gone over 30 days without a single print- works perfect. Actually, as we speak, I have a P800 that has been sitting unattended for 4 weeks with DTF inks in it, without a single issue. The reason- the thing doesn't have a crappy manifold. It literally has a "straight path" ink system and is actually pressurized at the cartridges, instead of within the manifold. If you take both manifolds apart ( one p600, one p800) you will understand. If you take one each apart after letting them sit for 2-3 days with white ink in them, you'll understand more. So If the P700 is anything like the P600, No thanks. The p800's have just worked- Not one single failure- letting them sit for months unused- expecting it to never work- without an issue. I actually had about 8 new P800's here when DTF took off, because I was getting rid of my P600's and changing them to p800's. Fortunately for me, I never did. I sold 7 of them and hanging on to the others until I find a trustworthy buyer, because they just work. One p800 I'm using now, Not one single issue. At all. It's roll printed thousands of 12x12 prints, not a single part changed without a single issue. The main reason I want a P900- I'm bored with how well the P800 works. I want something I can show others how it works, as well as secure newer technology. One day the P800 will die. Sometimes I want a challenge and like to switch things up. I know this sounds stupid, but I love working on things- so in essence we run a business just so I CAN work on printers. Lol.