johnson4

Just following up, using the OMRON genuine relays, the mini shaker has been working very well. After a few weeks of printing the relays show no signs of wear at all.

I mentioned in the earlier post EKprint allows you to roll print with all of their supported printers, including the 15000. Acro doesn’t have that option, at least, version 9.xx doesn’t.

I want to mention you can’t “roll” print with acro unless you buy/find some compatible roll print software.

There is a sensor but you can’t block it. It senses the paper width. Make sure that’s off in acro, if it still does it you’ll need a sticker/white strip at the beginning of each sheet the entire length of the film. an alternative is to buy rolls and make a roll adapter, I used EKprint so you can make it roll print, and simply cut off each print when it’s done and load it once. You could also just cut long “sheets” from a roll and do the same without the diy roll adapter.

No worries. For me, I do not notice any vapors when heat pressing the cured film. The main cause is the ink drying, and the adhesive melting. When heat pressing, all of that is already “ done” and I do not experience any smell, smoke etc coming from the heat press. While you could take extra precautions, just venting the main unit should be fine. you can use those things to cure, but just vent it properly is making it what I’m saying. Something to keep only fresh air where you are breathing. You could modify a countertop oven with a fan if you wanted. The heat press idea does work if you did it in a well ventilated area, but under curing is a huge problem and as well most heat presses don’t have even heating/air flow. For example, in my DIY cart, it’s a hole with a 4” dryer tube attached with an inline fan. I have an upside down 15x15 heat press, the film physically runs across the heat press platen(not hovering) at about 220 degrees. the cart lid acts as a hood and no fumes get out, and the physical contact with the backside of the film cures the ink from the bottom upwards. I also run the (dtfsuperstore) store bought mini shaker, same thing. Both run to a Splitter and run outside through a 4” dryer vent. since I have both vents ran out one hole, they both must run to prevent back flow if I’m only using one, but I chose to do that instead of having two dryer vents. Like this, I haven’t had an issue. If I forget to turn the fan on, within 10 minutes of curing my garage is filled with a horrible smell and it’s hard to breathe. 20-30 minutes and I get lightheaded without any ventilation at all. if you accidentally overheat the film or other things, then your dealing with burning plastic fumes. I also want to point out, I ran the mini shaker for about 6-10 liters of ink, and within my exhaust hose I found over a liter of “oily” substance, so watch out for that. I made an intention “U” bend or trap in my pipe to catch and drain this. overall, if your only doing 1-2, who cares. If your planning to use it as a business or often, even daily, you need some sort of exhaust system for sure. It’s not like water based screen-printing ink or Plastisol. an actual mini shaker can be imported from China for about $900 plus taxes and customs if they catch it. Otherwise, one i the states is about $1700 plus shipping. if you simply want to buy a cure oven like the mini shaker( but just for sheets) with a vent port, they run about $500 with DHL shipping from China and shouldn’t incure any import taxes. just being honest, if you plan on doing sheets, rolls is easier and less of a PITA to load, and you only load it once, just cut the film when you are done and leave it in the printer for next time.

the best option is to stay alive and healthy. Using an inline fan and good to suck fumes is important. A heat press can work, very poorly and very time consuming- making each print easily take over 10 minutes. Cooking ovens would then never be able to be used for food, the oil, fumes and powder coming off the transfers are a carcinogen. mini ovens work, but limited in size and you still need to vent it. if you disregard your health and time, any of the options above would work. Answer in your questions.

No,but it’s recommended to make sure there isn’t any clogs, and all the ink gets flushed out. It’s always good to have a set of cleaning carts.

Oh, I’m not sure then. I don’t print white under any black.

Make sure you have enough black ink going down. I have to print a pretty thick layer of black if there isn’t an underbase to get the powder to stick correctly.

That’s pretty close to what I used. I’m using ek print right now- trying to figure out what’s going on with all the lines in my prints from any dx5 head aside from having perfect nozzle checks.

Thanks for the clarification, that’s exactly what EKprint does on it’s supported printers as well, well not exactly but close. It just doesn’t extend the paper any further and starts printing on the next file making it continuous, so it never ejects or extends between “ paper loads”. pretty cool to do that on the hardware side, nice job.

Good to know, I know it printed fantastic colors, better than any other rip I had used/seen once you adjust it well.

I never had any of them print good with Cadlink without tinkering around. some people claim great results, I never got them out of the box. I have no idea what I changed, I just went back to EKprint since the queue system kept bugging out on me with Cadlink. There are more settings that just those within the program, including the resolution, brightness and the color curves they use. I don’t remember where. I enabled “ advanced” and looked through the program.

No problem. My bad- I thought it was in there somehwere on the forum downloads. I’m on my phone so I can’t see what it is.

https://www.opendtg.com/files/file/21-surecolor-p600-exploded-diag/

What’s the difference between this and using form feed with EKprint? I.E.- load rolls and print in sheet mode continuously.

Yea- just cmyk. To see it clearer than paper hold it up to a light, then only White too. paper won’t work because it’s absorbs the ink and wicks, and as well would be severely over saturated- turning the ink down would create another variable. And potentially make the issues go away or be hidden further.

Best way to tell- print a CMYK test page- at the settings you normally use on film. It will show you which channels can or can’t handle “full” demand in the form of lines. Works good for white too, since it’s four “shades” consuming varying ink amounts in white mode.

Also, Something I recommend having, unassociated with your post- at least 2 spare sets of carts, at least 1 or 2 extra capping stations. Because when you need them, you won't be able to find them without paying 3-4X the normal price. New epson OEM capping stations are $50 from an online service center, at least while they still make them. They fit various printers, I have a few extra since my R2400 uses the same one. But, When they go, they need changed and no time for waiting around without seriously risking your printhead. Just a random bit of info.

Right, I replaced the head on my P400 " just to see" because of the same issue, with carts. It had about 4,000-5,000 prints on it. So now I'm trying to clean out and test the old printhead, which appears to be working fine after soaking and cleaning it with new carts. The reason I thought My p400 did this, This particular one has been sitting for about 2 months, unused, not cleaned or wet capped. I know I printed with it for months without an issue, constant, thousands of prints. Yea, the ( I call them nipples) on the head " spikey thing" needs to always be clean, as well as the cartridge bottom. the system must be sealed, or it will leak/ and or suck air into the cartridge. Shouldn't be much buildup, unless you have some leaking going on when removing the carts or something. Something I'm thinking of, is the cartridge air chamber may be getting ink in them when they are filled, and since when they sit for extended periods, may dry out and restrict the flow- since that is where the air comes in and is exposed. Either way, I would say it's an ink flow issue in possible various forms. First thing I should have done was try new cartridges, but I didn't, these are the original set I have been using this entire time. The issues only started after it had sat for two months. For now, I have sat the P400 aside to further investigate and test and have been using the P800, which comes with it's own downfalls as well. it doesn't help that I have at least 15 printers hanging around, lol.

Well, coincidentally I am facing the same thing and diagnosing things. what printer are you using, inks, carts/dampers? A few things cause this I have found : 1. poor ink flow- the head creates a small suction to print, when doing a nozzle check it’s much different than printing, so a very small amount of available ink works just fine, but when printing, if ink isn’t available quicker than it’s using it- this happens. In essence, it’s ink starvation. 2. a weak or dying printhead. Printheads die in various ways, usually clogged nozzles well before they have other issues. the micropeizo nozzles can become weak, overheated, overall just deteriorate for various reasons. All in all- it’s not able to withstand the continuous use, because it’s weak. That “suction” becomes weaker as the nozzles weaken, causing poor ink flow, or, “suction”. It affects full channels, but not necessarily the entire printhead. 3. the printhead/cartridge/damper could have air within it. “ air lock” is a form of ink starvation, since it can block the flow of ink. That’s why most printers, when doing a head clean “ suck” from the capping station, then release the nozzles so it has a “pull” to move any air lock along. Think micro bubbles. 4. Multiple things can aid in the above, including poor maintenance, poor capping station sealing or suction. I am still in the process of learning about this myself, but overall it’s going to be some sort of ink flow issue for one reason or another. also- don’t miss it potentially being the white. The white may look fine- until you hold it up to a light. When color sits on white, the color can appear to have the lines in it due to the varying opacity in the white. best is to print white only and cmyk only- hold it up to a light and see through it. If you see lines- that ones the issue.

Well, Since it's black i'm going to assume it's probably not enough ink. Without a white underbase, you need a considerable amount of CMYK for the powder to stick to, in return to stick to the shirt. Fortunately, Black usually is a composite of CMY, Depending on your rip. Normally, the white underbase acts as an " adhesive' layer as well as a white underbase, a nice uniform layer of ink for the powder to stick to. With BLACK, It's kind of the same way, except it needs more ink. Over time, My white/cmyk prints are SOFTER than DTG, due to fine tuning the ink percentages-lowest I can go without what you are describing above. However, BLACK only tends to be thicker, since it's required to have a decent layer of ink. If not, you get washouts. This is why the Black prints from DTG are far superior to DTF and hardly comparable. The powder needs to sit on and slightly "embed" into the wet ink before curing. If there isn't enough ink, It will usually transfer fine, sometimes it's a little spotty, But when washed, it'll come right off in those spots of poor adhesion. In the end though, Testing is your friend. More ink, less ink, more time, less, higher, lower temperatures, etc. Have you tried any of those things yet? If not, Try increasing your ink percentage 5-10 percent, depending on the program you are using. As for heat, I seriously doubt it. I have straight up taken a wet print, powdered it, and pressed it on a shirt and it worked out totally fine- minus the ability to realign it and adding a few seconds to also dry the ink out. Washes just like the rest of them, neither have started to deteriorate, maybe long terms, like hundreds of washes it might- but for the time being they appear to be the same in quality.

Here are the top used models: surecolor p800, typical cost of $800-$1500( and it’s old revisions like the 3880) surecolor p600 typical cost of $700-$1800 (and it’s old revisions like R3000) surecolor p400 ( and it’s old revisions, like the R2000,R2400) these run anywhere from $600-$1200 Xp-15000 are generally available for $350 some really slow options are: artisan 1430 L1800 and a few others- if and when you find them for sale. doesn’t mean others will not work, but the above list mentions the requirements. The conversion is insanely simple- so if you’ve got 1-7, then you’ve got an opportunity.