johnson4

If you look here, You'll see CMYK inks for wide format printers. https://dtfsuperstore.com/collections/ink/products/wide-format-dtf-inks-900ml

Wide format = 24"+ printers. They take cheaper Epson heads, like the I3200 and 4720. These use the Wide format inks, which aren't in that bundle. For the 15000, Yes that bundle will work from DTFsuperstore.

I’ve had what seems like 100 different presses. im going to be honest, low and mid tier models will not come Close to high tier presses like stahl, hottronix, etc. the $200-$300 range ones, and I had about 10 of these- work decent enough, but usually have fatal flaws and all needed tinkered with within 6 months of normal/heavy use. All were replaced within the year due to severe platen warpage, or some kind of structural damage from heavy use. Even the $300-$400 auto open presses. the middle ground is in the $500-$800 range like from heatpressnation. They will exclude most functional issues. Wiring, warpage, all that crap is good. Structurally they are good as well, but designed cheaper. I have 4, with over 25,000 presses on them. I had to lock tight everything because all the nuts and bolts kept coming loose. After that, been perfect. I use the auto open feature. now, high tier $1000+ Heat presses are built extensively well and built to last. I see them 15 years old working like day one without any issue. To be honest, 90 percent of it you’ll say “ why the hell is this so thick and built like a tank. Is that really necessary”. so for the best “value” get a name brand press. for the best starter press, the mid tier, you’ll get a few years at least. low tier works good for 6-12 months usually. Build quality varies so some less, some much more. it’s an awesome intro if your on a budget and want to see where your business takes you, it’s a good option. But if you are certain you are going in strong, I’d go with a mid tier. If you have the money, and have established some need for it, high tier for sure.

Those are live 220V when the switch is on.

That’s completely different. One machine I have runs the LY2 (12V coil) for the take up roller and the heating elements. The take up roller relay failed and was grounding to the frame on mine. The heating elements suffered due to carbon build up and poor performance until I changed that one. the other one has two Solid state relays instead of the ly2. The one I have has 220V like this:

Both, and Chinese import places are worse than is based. DTFsuperstore is what I use, compared to importing unless in bulk, it’s much cheaper without the risk and if you have a problem it’s easily remedied, or else risk losing the entire transaction amount and receive nothing in return from China.

If it's literally an AC contactor, that's crazy. I'd question if it was capable of handling that type of continuous cycling. So far I've seen now: LY2 Relays Solid State Relays AC contactor The crazy thing to me, this new SHAKER uses 220V for the takeup motor. Crazy stupid for the little/no protection it has. It's like a cheap screw on plug that has MALE prongs that are LIVE. At least the first one had this as a standard 12V DC plug running 12V.

The same relay is also used in HVAC instances, Is it a knock off saying something like LY2? there isn't anything wrong with this relay, as long as you pick up a genuine OMRON one. I tried like 8 different places including ebay and amazon. Even if the photos were right, they still came as knock offs. Places like mouser.com had the legit ones. A few different models will work, one difference for example is a little LED light that says when its activated, that doesn't matter. But yea, These same relays are used in MANY instances, Ever since I've replaced my clones that came with the machine, these new ones show no signs of wear or issues in the 5,000+ transfers I've made since putting them in. The first set of clones failed already by now. Yea, They all seem to be different. If only one company gave a shit to make a huge legit profit and made a unit that just worked and kept that the same. The 1st one I purchased was the first one sold from DTFsuperstore. It has been an awesome machine, given a couple tiny flaws, mainly with the knock off relays it came with. It has been an absolute beast at knocking out prints paired with a P800. I've just been turning it on and printing 1/2 a roll a day now for at least 3+ months without a single issue with it. Likely longer or just stupid things I tinker with. The changes I made, I just stand here doing other things while it prints- every few hours I recycle the powder. Thats it. It's actually pretty boring so I'll tinker with this 2nd shaker sometimes, which is overall in my opinion a crap build. They don't even use bung holes for the bolts. The 2nd one is held together with sheet metal screws. The 2nd one- I don't regret the purchase, But I did underestimate the poor quality ALL around so it's more than a " quick project". I have it heating perfect now, so curing is working well. Takeup roller guide added, so thats fine. Powder timer was added so thats fine, The issue i'm facing now is one half of my machine is 1/2 longer than the other, So EVERYTHING is crooked, including the slapper and the plate where the film goes so it's constantly running/slapping crooked. Didn't expect that. lol. Good Luck with your Mini!

Glad it worked out for you, and I hope it continues that way

Good luck with Cadlink. It’s likely a simple issue, I ran into 10-15 “simple issues” before getting going. All their customer service did was talk about the programs features and what a great price it was, not about helping me. After 90 days unless you cough you more cash for customer service, they cut that off too. I use EKprint because it’s simple and works, i print faster, easier, and I’ve always gotten support from the guy even years later. Sure it’s locked per model, but that’s what trials are for. i have Cadlink, acro, EKprint and I trialed kothari. I at this point chose EKprint, and have used it for the last 5 years. For reasons like this. sorry I can’t help, good luck!

The printhead looking clean has nothing to do with nozzles being clogged. It’s likely a damaged head or mainboard.

Lol, my first one was nice. I wish he would have stayed with that supplier. It’s only one issue was the mechanical relays were knock off crap. Everything else worked well as is, the changes I made was to make it easier but not needed, like the hopper and whatnot. I’ve been running this one daily for 8+ months, I haven’t had a single issue since I replaced the relays. the 2nd one actually needed modifications to work at all, kinda like yours. It’s a good start, but just needs work to run. you could always look into the 24” shaker, but it’s like 4K. I’m sure those don’t have any of these issues. These units we have were built for a total manufacturer cost of less than $400- likely around $200-$300. Any “quality control” likely removes at least half that profit so it’s likely skipped. Last I checked these cost about $425-$500 each, plus all the stuff listed below, then they just push out whatever comes down the line. Add shipping, import taxes, sales tax, overhead, blah blah blah- makes it come out to around $1,000 as-is because every step of the way some entity has their hand out in some form of taxes or fees. Then whoever sells it needs to make a profit and factor in customer service, overhead, damaged good costs etc. so in reality we are using $200-$400 mini shakers. The bigger problem is they’ll send generic photos of them since they look the same but won’t function the same so it’s next to impossible to get a reliable machine aside from “ luck of the draw”. if I had paid $1000-$1500 for my 2nd machine I’d be PISSED, but he sold the one I bought as “DIY” because of the issues with that batch so it was about $600 delivered and he sold them at a loss and stopped carrying them.

Those droplets by the way is the glycerin in the ink. It’s important to extract it so that doesn’t accumulate, it makes a mess and can ruin prints

That is different than mine, both of them.

The plate will help once that holes are taken care of. It will make the heat consistent ( once it's able to get up to temp) by warming the underside as well as the top side. It also helps fix the "edge" curing problem quite a bit. This is just what I had to do to mine, i'm sure other ways would work as well. This is just what I did to get it to work correctly on my " version" of the new unit. The old unit had some issues, but Its nothing like this at all. It just worked anyway, with minor changes for my convenience that wasn't exactly required to work. The new Relays haven't showed a bit of a sign of wear with equal usage on the last " knock off" set it came with. This new unit, Explains exactly why he stopped carrying them. I would easily buy another " first revision" in a heartbeat.

to kind of sum up what I did: 1. Cut a notch in the slapper plate and extended it. The two metal pieces that hold the silicone. There is a bolt on one side. I cut a notch here so I can move this bar over more. I then used 1/8 thick silicone sheet and cut with scissors to make it as wide as possible and attached on the other side. I just used some cheap thin aluminum plate here. It formed around the rod because it's so thin and works well. 1A( Why). the original problem here on the new shaker, the protruding " round thing" where the motor is attached to the slapper sticks out too far into the slapper box and the overall slapper length is only roughly 12". The original shaker, this " protruding motor mount" was shorter, and the slapper was over 13" in total length. If you don't have at least 1/2 inch of excess on both sides of your film, you get issues with the powder. So whatever mod you need to achieve that. 2. I added the timer and opened every row on the powder box, in your case making some bigger wouldn't be a bad idea. I then used a cheap $12 timer and set the unit to "max". The timer cycle is adjustable to ON time and OFF time. I easily found the sweet spot and go over 4 hours now without even looking at the powder usage let alone refilling it. I did this at the motor on the hopper. Cut the wires, run to timer, out of timer to motor. easily enough room and wire, so its " always on" on the machine, while the timer controls it's actual on time. 2A. ( Why). The overall design of this is stupid on the 2nd one, it's flawed. Instead of fighting with it, I decided to run a timer and full blast. It just turns on/off to a set amount of time instead of trying to find a constant flow. Having the U hold powder instead of " dropping" powder on the printer is a better method, it also adds weight to the film and pull it down so the slapper hits it a bit harder, further making it better for excess powder removal. 3. The heater box is also POORLY designed. They have LARGE holes all throughout the units roof. this allows too much airflow, causing it not to heat correctly or maintain even heat. I didn't drill anything here. Mine has 6 rows of 6 holes. Those individual holes are WAY to large. I took the two screws off and lowered the heating assy. I used HVAC aluminum tape ( Heavy duty) and placed it over ALL the holes on the backside. Make care to see that no paper is left behind on the tape. Through testing, I simply opened up one hole at a time in various locations to get an even suction without it being too much. So like this: •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• •••••• This how the roof originally looked. The missing dots in the illistration are OPEN, the rest are closed. •• •• ( center two) •••• ( outer two, one each side) • ••••• ( one hole near the left side by not the edge one, this is where the temp sensor is and too close will cause mis-readings) •••••• ( the 4th row is completly blocked off, no open holes) • ••• • ( two holes open, one on each side 1 in from the edge hole). 3A ( Why). The reason I did it this way, was to allow air to flow front and back, limit that flow, and keep airflow away from the thermostat. As-is, It's pulling cold air over the coils and the T-stat, causing issues. This entirely solved my problem- I get one photo would suffice, but I dont have a chance to do that at the moment. 4. I added an adapter up top to fit 4" hvac hose. Clearly this was originally designed for a fume extractor to be used with it, hence the issue with too much air flow in a sealed system. the way this unit was designed to work was for the fumes and stuff to come out of the top naturally with no air flow, and a " gap" with a slight suction ABOVE not on the top vent to pull away the fumes without any actual vacuum. 5. I had to add the edge guides on the take up roller. Saves so much time and headache. 6. Added the powder box on the hopper. 7. Added feet to the shaker with spacers to make it taller yet adjustable. I use a Big metal pan under the unit to catch the powder. It's deep and wide so it never really piles up to the point of an issue. It just "towers" down the sides of the "hump" on each side. It never reaches the point of touching the film with 8lbs of powder. I also make the front slightly lower than the back, so all that liquid from the curing of the ink doesn't run back into my powder, rather forward into the floor. I think that's it, but realistically thats basically everything. Lol. Modified powder box, slapper, curing unit and takeup roller. What's left? I'll add photos later on when I'm not busy to clear up any confusion.

DTF uses CMYK ink plus white ink. so the xp15000 is CMYKWW for DTF.

Do you wet cap? Too much ink there will cause the ink in the dampers to mix. I didn’t have those issues in the 15000, I used roll printing and swapped pre filled carts out. Each persons usage scenario though will bring out different problems though.

If it doesn’t print before you convert it, probably a problem with the printer.

So it’s probably 90 nozzles X 6, like the l1800 and 1430. you could easily modify that ink system and run that printer with an external tank, or an automatic mixer, or simply using a syringe and recycling the ink manually which would only take a few minutes every day. The cmyk never settles, at least it hasn’t in months on my end. So doing the white only would save time. I know the eco tanks are built much cheaper, so my concern now would be the quality of the wiper/ capping station. What were the issues you had with the 15000? I designed some resin cartridge adapters and laser cut some silicone for it. I haven’t tested it yet, but it makes the 15000 have the “nipple” for regular dampers with no chance of leaking. In my eyes I’m still stuck on it being a great candidate, at least for a throw away printer. If it was $350 every 6-12 months, it would be one of the easiest and cheapest running machines, especially if you just slap in a damper and it’s golden.

That’s good. Yea, if they ever come out with a damper style manifold for that printer, I think it would be Golden. What’s the speed on that one? The xp 15000 does a 12x12 in roughly 4 minutes cmykW. It’s hard to judge by the video.

Seems alright, keep at it you’ll figure it out. I’ll just assume pull /shake/ refill daily on the white. One advice, i would be careful sucking air back through the printhead like that when you were emptying the damper. personally I have a hard time justifying print time and printer cost, but there really aren’t a ton of options-right now.