johnson4

There used to be, I’m not sure if there is now. the film I’ve tried isn’t very good, it’s not “ sticky” enough to be even considered anything more than a temporary sticker. I’ve got a few brands to try out though, so we’ll see.

I can confirm the adhesive will just peel off and get everywhere if it was ran through a normal printer, at least the film I tried just now. Haha.

It's the adhesive side that sticks to the objects that you are printing on, so it's super sticky. I went the flatbed route due to this, but planned on attempting some DIY conversion for a roll printer. I know they have some chinese printers that do this, but it prints from a roll, peels the paper from the roll before going into the printer, and has the laminator pulling it out of the front at the same time. Likely the only reason it works is it's basically " tensioned" between the front and back roller keeping it flat. In a stock printer, I doubt this would work. But, If your head is the solvent manifold and you go with UV everything else, it should work in that aspect. I just can't say it would work not being a flat bed.

Is it a flatbed printer? They print on the adhesive layer so I can’t say if a stock printer would work. Rollers would likely stick to the film. It’s usually flatbed printers or specially designed “all in one” printers for UV DTF printing.

What Is Your Favorite DTF Epson Conversion? (Poll)

Have you tried the nozzle check option from within Cadlink?

Interesting, likely a driver related occurrence. it isn’t physically possible for the xp-15000 to print faster than the P800, both have the same nozzle count with a very similar head pass speed. if you used Cadlink, then the P800 was slow on that RIP for me. The P800 is notorious for head strikes, gotta keep the tension going in the shaker and a flat surface with it. It’s how most of mine died. glad you got something going though, the 15000 should be about 11-12 12”x12” an hour full color. Not bad at all for $400. Even replaced every 6 months, it’s practically impossible not to come out on top with it.

If you have a positive pressure from a faulty or poorly designed ink system, it can cause the printhead to do that. the recirculating pump turning on while printing can do this if designed poorly. But leaky dampers or just an overall too high of a positive pressure can do it. in my experience, it also can be caused by deflection. Nozzles that don’t spray perfectly downward- easily noticed on a nozzle check. This is mainly from dirty head or partial clogs that are not full clogs. Deflection is always seen on a nozzle check. if nozzle checks are perfect( may or may not have stray dots, doesn’t matter as long as check is good), another cause for this I have seen is dirty electric. Either from the power supply in the machine, or on the same circuit the machine is plugged into. Interference from a nearby device. so- if your nozzle check comes out good, ( with or without stray dots- as long as all nozzles are straight and in place) then it could likely be the power supply. Try turning off any “ noisy” devices on the circuit, or simply to test turn off everything and run only the printer to test. if you are using an uninterruptible backup power supply or any type of power converter, bypass them and test the machine. I have witnessed and experienced all first hand.

If your inks have been open longer than 2 months, or if they are older than 6 months old, I would toss them and try new inks. Or don't toss them, and just try new inks with a proper flush on that channel. In short- my CMYK inks for DTF superstore give me crap after they are 6 months old. Period. Other places, They always give me crap. So I'll take the 6 months of "no crap", haha. Good luck!

That happens absolutely. I’ve had white ink clear CMYK clogs before. basically that is what my replies said- ink and the potential damaging effect it can have on an otherwise healthy printhead.Haha. I went way in Depth with my experiences and reasoning why and the types of decisions I’ve made based on these findings

It is. The F2100 is built from the same bones as the P5000. I guess it depends on what you are after. I am after 24” print width. If you are not, I don’t see the benefit. The p6000 does require a bit more modification than the p5000. The P6000 having unlimited ARC chips with the p5000 needing them reset with a resetter. overall its the same technology in all three machines. If you don’t need the print width, then the P5000 is the best in my opinion. for the 6000, I just started with it, haven’t printed with it yet. The 6000 can produce more prints per hour based on what I know so far. 23 11”x11” an hour on the p5000. In theory the P6000 will do 40+ 11”x11” an hour. so we’ll see, just waiting for the shaker. this will be my last model Epson conversion that I do. (The P6000). I think all said and done cost wise, you’ll be in the P5000 about $2,300 print ready, the P6000 about $2,600. That includes everything but the ink, film, and RIP.

I do use DTF superstore supplies. Everywhere else I have tried causes issues and QC is “so-so”. i purchase everything aftermarket part wise overseas directly. The P5000 can have 4 1430’s sit on easily. It’s huge and heavy. But it works. It’s still susceptible to the same issues as other machines though, maintenance maintenance maintenance. I’m about to finish the P6000. Its fully converted over. Right now the P6000 is only $148 more than the P5000.

I’m not familiar with that setup, I don’t believe acro supports this and I don’t think the l805 has it.

Depends on the RIP and the printer you are using, if it's possible.

Depending on the Printer and the RIP you use, It's a setting to designate the printhead height when printing. At it's lowest setting it shouldn't touch the film, so probably need to check on that. For time being you should be able to adjust head height in the RIP or on the printer.

It's just 6 in-line dampers, can be purchased a multitude of places. Then they are placed/glued to the port on the aftermarket ink cartridges and function as dampers for this printhead.

Personally I believe these inks are thicker In viscosity than stock and if the head has to “ suck” harder at all- it wears it out faster. I believe they are designed to be in a neutral state, with the damper pressurized behind the printhead reservoir. When the printhead uses the ink in the damper it slowly opens the valve where new ink is forced in quickly closing the valve. Making it require very little suction or work on the printhead. any deviation from that and the printhead has to create a larger “ suction” to activate the damper and it soon dies from the extra work. This would also make it more prone to clogging during this time. A higher viscosity ink will cause this. In my mind I imagine if you do a head clean it “pre loads” this pressure and damper. Sort of removing the extra work on the printhead until that equalizes again. After a few prints the thicker ink is hard for the printhead to overcome and results in lost nozzles again. Cycle over and over until the head gives out on that channel. I tested this a bit with an R2400 and P400 since they are gravity fed. I assumed by design they would be a bit more “resilient” due to their design. The two that also had this issue. I flushed them and reloaded the ink, same. Flushed them added DYE ink, printed perfect. Put back in DTF, poor results. Went back to dye, perfect. I did the same with a couple of the failed P800s and while some nozzles were permanently gone, all the channels came back quickly. that’s my speculation of it. I know it sounds stupid, but I also feel like the older the cmyk ink gets, even in sealed containers, the thicker it gets. I should get a viscosity meter and test the theory. to kind of go along with this theory- ALL aftermarket dampers I have used in ANY of my Epson’s, never work like the original if at all. Dropped channels, dropped nozzles, intermittent drop outs, all kinds of stuff. constant nozzle checks and cleans. I mean never- has it worked well. I have tons of knock off dampers that give me this type of issue, throw in an OEM damper and I’m good for 4-6 months after priming it. so I’ve been using only ( expensive) OEM dampers, but, beats the alternative. overall I genuinely believe it’s a finely tuned system, these inks push that to the limit and sometimes beyond that limit depending on the supplies used. I am happy to say I haven’t had any issues like this since doing the aforementioned. As long as I flush, clean, and change my dampers regularly and keep an eye on my ink expiration I get to enjoy the one head clean a day life. I am kind of testing this theory a bit on my models I use now. I printed an ink line adapter to use the OEM damper assy and bypass the white ink cartridge bays. I used a medical grade submersible pump to mix the ink in the tank without introducing air and pressurized the ink container to 2Psi with about another 2 Psi due to the height over the printhead. overall it’s been working fantastic, cost me about $100 to build and I’m still testing it. In theory if you added the CMYK they would share the pressure pump and not need the mixing pumps, so it would be much cheaper to add those. I don’t because I don’t need to refill CMYK that much and don’t want a giant row of ink tanks unnecessarily. this kind of also tests that theory, because if I remove the pressure pump and make the ink level even( not lower than, just an equal pressure)- making the head do all the work- it drops nozzles almost immediately- head clean- few good prints- another head clean. it’s why I went the route I did and pressurized the tanks. may not be helpful at all, but food for thought.

Odd, almost same boat- except magenta and cyan when I used the P800’s. It usually wasn’t immediately though. The last one I modified the pressure pump so it would build up a bit higher pressure and it solved my flow issues. I didn’t use it long after that though, I switch models for faster speed. I personally assumed it was the viscosity of the ink back. I ran new bottles of ink through a new damper as a filter and only one bottle did leave settlement on the filter. however, on those models I switched to- I Leaned the CMYK ink gives me Shi* when it’s 5-6 months old almost exactly. Likely what happened to the p800’s. I throw away any close to that and keep fresh ink and I’m good to go, haven’t had an issue since. the DTG inks I used in my p800 DTG never had any issues at all. It sat for months without issue at times except needing to flush the settled white ink. something to consider, the dampers not only have the filter but they also have a small needle valve in them that the ink passes through. Working them manually with your own pressure doesn’t mean inside the printer running at its standard pressure will let it function properly. You could test this, but would need to test the PSI of the printer and replicate it outside of the printer or compare it to a new damper. hope you figure it out.

Maybe. You have one line for the MK, which goes unused generally. just let us know it goes when you change the damper.

Personally I have little tips that go on syringes so I can check them. If replacing it doesn’t work, it likely means there is something wrong with the ink bay, which would be odd.

This wouldn’t be a damper problem. If it goes forward under capping station suction and sucks air back into it into the lines as you describe without the pressure pump releasing- it’s an ink cartridge/ink bay problem. For whatever reason ink isn’t flowing into the lines from that channel. Usually the cartridge. check that cartridge.

It shouldn’t flow back, unless the pressure pump is releasing pressure. If it is, then it’s normal. If dampers are new and function correctly and you manually flushed the ink bay without issue and it’s not the capping station- it only leaves the printhead being clogged very badly.

Wow, that’s really low humidity compared to what I am used to. I run my printers from 50F-80F without issue, as long as I keep the humidity the 45%+. Anytime my humidity drops below 40 I get clogging mid print, and one heck of a time when sitting over night or the weekend. I don’t know “ scientifically” but to me the temperature only really changes the viscosity of the ink, which hasn’t been a big deal until it hits in the 40’s in my workspace. The lower the humidity the faster the ink carrier evaporates since the air is drier pulling the moisture from it quicker. for me it’s hard in the summer to keep humidity up when I run the A/C since it inherently removes moisture from the air, winter time is a blessing, everything just works lol. It’s almost always over 50 percent humidity here, unless in an air conditioned space so I’m lucky in that aspect. I wish you luck and hope you can figure it out, hopefully that fixes your issue.

I wouldn't know then, unfortunately unless your cartridges are clogged. They have filters in them that can clog, or gunk build up around the port. Me personally on this machine 2 heavy head cleans would clear the white ink from the ink lines. I do know my next step would be to check the cartridges, if no change then remove the damper assy and see if I can push fluid from the cartridge bay out of the lines easily. If not, then there is something wrong with that. If it does fine, I would replace the dampers. This is of course assuming I had already checked the waste pump had a good suction/seal with cleaning solution and manually rotating it. Anytime you don't have ink flow and do a head clean, you risk damaging the printhead in two ways. One the suction of no ink flow can damage the seal on the printhead, it can only handle so much vacuum before there is a permanent leak/damaged seal. Sometimes all it takes is one go. the other way is with this suction, air will suck back up into the printhead once removed from the capping station and dry out whatever ink is left in there. It's not a good situation to be in frankly because it's a double edge sword on the printhead. If this happens I will wet cap with cleaner directly after a head clean until I can find and fix the issue, this would stop the printhead from having air go up into it and drying out essentially protecting it in that way- if it wasn't damaged from the suction already. I went through 10 of these printers in my day. Hopefully you get it situated!

Personally I’d never do cleanings without ink flow. Can damage the head seals. Is your ink cart pressure pump running?