Mdrake2016

I hope whoever sees this reads my whole post because on all of the Facebook groups, they seem to ignore everything and just keep telling me "humidity" or "bad film". 

I'm basically getting white overspray around my prints. Attached has no powder on it. This is how it looked straight out of the printer. 

- I use an XP-15000 - an older and brand new one still have this problem
- humidity is around 50% consistently. This happens in other humidity levels anywhere from 40% to 60%.
- I've used 8 different films - from DTF Superstore and other well known suppliers.
- I have NO semi transparent pixels. I make sure of this and it happens randomly to images I frequently print.
- Running 2 head cleans seems to fix it temporarily, but begins happening again a few prints later.
- Pressing twice SEEMS to look better but after washing the shirt, the excess powder shows and looks like a mess.
- I currently use Cendale Inks from Amazon and I don't know if this is the main issue or not, I can't remember if I had this issue with other inks previously.

If anyone has any idea what could be causing this, please help me out here. 

I just got the XP-15000 once again, after seeing many people troubleshoot the typical problems with clogging and all that. I have 2 minor issues that I need to figure out:

1. Nozzle checks - this seems really stupid but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do a nozzle check from the rear feed. The first day, it forced me to do it in the bottom casette. The next day, I put paper in the rear feed and when I did the check, it printed there. Now the third day, it's forcing me to use the bottom casette again. Anyone know if there's a setting to fix this?

2. Using Cadlink, A3 images are starting 1 inch from the top of the paper and 13x19 prints are starting 2.5 inches from the top. Anyone use Cadlink know how to fix this? In mine, all margins are set to 0 already.

On 2/2/2023 at 8:02 PM, johnson4 said:

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!

Shortly after my last reply, I had a huge paper jam that destroyed the printhead. I have no idea how it happened....I stepped away and came back a minute later to a nightmare. I think I'm done with this printer (3rd one and over @3500 wasted). I got an XP-15000 again that for some strange reason is printing much faster and much better quality than the P800. I got some minor issues to work out with it but if I can get it worked out, I'm already much happier with it.

On 1/31/2023 at 8:05 PM, johnson4 said:

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. 

Before attempting to deciper your replies lol, I tried to do something someone suggested on one of the Facebook forums as a temporary solution since I've had an urgent order. They suggested swapping 1 white channel with the Cyan (I use Cadlink and that is easily done). 

Prior to swapping them, I ran a nozzle check and the LK (White) channel was perfect while the Cyan had half of the nozzles missing. After swapping them, the blues on my prints look much better (although let's just say 95% perfect). Now the strange thing is my new White channel (where Cyan was before) is starting to clear up, and the new Cyan channel (where white was before) is starting to show missing nozzle.

To me, this has to mean something is wrong with the Cyan ink. I would never think White ink would start to clear up clogs. If anything, I expected it to get worse. 

It's crazy that after 2 years I still have these issues, and I take extreme care of these printers. 

I've had Cyan clogs on 3 separate P800s (half of nozzles missing on nozzle check). I searched and it seems to be a common problem with the P800 and cyan....so strange. The first 2 P800s, from the very beginning I could never get a solid blue using Cadlink (I use 1440x720 but even 1440x1440 gave me some banding on blues). The strange thing is 1 day suddenly on my second P800, it began printing a perfect solid blue. On my third P800...same thing. Banding on Cyan from the beginning. It stayed overall consistent until about a few weeks ago, then it got worse and worse 5-10 prints in before having to do a head clean. Then 1 day I was getting no Cyan at all. Here's what I've tried so far:

1. Daily - I keep it in 50% humidity. Run a headclean before every printing session. I do a headclean and manual cleaning, and also clean wiper blade and capping station every day when done printing.

2. When the cyan was completely lost, I thought it may have been the capping station. I took it apart and flushed it. Didn't work.

3. I removed the dampers, and did a flush and reverse flush with cleaner through the Cyan channel. When I put it back together, the cyan was 90% back but still banding and not a solid blue. A week later, back to running a head clean every 5-10 prints.

4. Changed the Cyan cartridge but didn't make any difference.

I was told the dampers would be the problem....I seriously doubt this because again, it's Cyan on all of these printers and they were a problem from the very beginning. And flushing cleaner through the Cyan channel seemed to bring most of it back. So there seems to be just a reoccuring clog.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot this? 

Just now, johnson4 said:

They all just unclip. I removed all mine because if not, having only grip on one side with roll printing causes it to feed sideways after some time. Meaning 40 foot in, it’ll be a 1/4 inch to the right from where it started. Without the rollers this doesn’t happen. 
 

however with sheets, it’s likely ideal. 

The way they clip is why I don't see how it's possible. Removing the clip removes all of the rollers on the side...at least 4 inches in. Am I not seeing something? 

I've seen comments on here and on Facebook groups where people claim they leave the side rollers in to keep the film down and to be able to closer to the bottom of a sheet. Is this possible on the P800? The rollers are connected to pieces of plastic (about 4 inches wide) and I don't see a way of removing all of them except one.

On 3/20/2022 at 5:46 PM, johnson4 said:

https://compassmicro.com/products/inkjet/surecolor-p800.html

 

It's a distributor/ repair center for Epson.

They removed the listing, but you can just email them. be sure to say the part number and printer. You'll need your printer serial number.  

For now, it looks like my prints are acceptable...1 White channel is the biggest problem and increasing the percentage has been working so far.

16 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Oddly enough, the P600 printhead is like $550. But, I can confirm I haven't been able to do that, unless the p600 had a p800 head in it from a previous swap.

 

Personally, I doubt you'll save much by buying one elsewhere, but from Epson direct at least you'll know it's brand new. 

I am having a tough time finding a way to buy it direct from Epson. I’ll have to email them and see what they say. 

I basically ruined my P800 just 2 days after using it. It is VERY sensitive with how the exit tray needs to be. Any millimeter off seems to cause head strikes. It basically mangled the film and the printer kept printing and now 1 white channel has 90% missing nozzles, and some of the the other channels missing some nozzles throughout. 
 

I started looking online to find out what printhead is needed to replace it but I can’t figure out the exact one. When going to allprintheads.com, they have the P800 printhead part number as F196020. On Aliexpress, they have it as F196000. Then another website has it as F196030. 
 

How do I figure out exactly which one I actually need?

On 1/17/2022 at 11:32 AM, johnson4 said:

1. Cleaning it daily helps, but is it being done correctly? Not questioning your ability, but it is a meaningful question. Different times, different cleaners, I mean it’s a huge variable. I’ve seen “ clean” be a caked up wiper before. 
 

2. that build up on the metal bracket, yes it’s bad. It means the wiper isn’t able to do its job. It could also indicate a cleaner has damaged the non stick coating. If a nozzle has deflection, or clogging, it accumulates on the surface, causing excessive build up. Making a clean wiper essentially useless. 
 

3. When testing and making my own cleaner, ( because of  various reasons) I ran into this issue. I used a stronger cleaner and let it soak too long, and it ate the non stick surface away. If you wipe the head with cleaner and it doesn’t immediately bead up, then that’s what the ink will do to. 
 

I had a printer that did this, DTG, when making my cleaner. Originally it was to remove a clog. The cleaner caused the ink to stick to the head, and do what you described. It worked fine for a few prints, then needed a head clean, with ink buildup on the head. With DTG, I have the privilege of watching it in action from the underside. As ink would spray out, it would also accumulate on the surface. On a normal head, it didn’t accumulate. While the head worked, I damaged it with strong cleaner. 
 

does any of that sound like something that may have happened? 

The cleaning part I can confidently say I am doing 100% properly. The video you posted here:

I cleaned even WAY more thoroughly than you did there just to make sure I wasn't screwing anything up. I always makee sure to clean the wiper blade to the point that it looked brand new, and also soak the capping station and get as much cleaner out of it as possible, where the sponges looked as white as it could possibly get. I spent about 15 minutes cleaning it all every night. The only thing I didn't do was clean under the printhead. When that first P400 began having the problem I'm describing, I got the second P400 and decided to try using the cleaning carts at the end of the day. Typically what I did with this second P400 when I finished printing was this:

1. Remove the ink cartridges and clean the nipples with cleaner - I used the Firebird cleaning solution because DTF Superstore was out.

2. Put the cleaning carts in, clean the wiper blade and capping station edges as much as possible.

3. Run an ink charge and while the pump was pulling the ink through the capping station, inject cleaning solution to clear up the sponges.

4. Once the ink charge was done, I'd clean the wiper blade and the capping station edges again. Then I'd run a Normal head clean. Again while this was done, I'd inject cleaning solution while the pump was pulling the ink.

5. Once that clean was done, I'd clean the wiper blade and capping station edges one last time, and then put a few drops of cleaning solution on each sponge. Then let the printhead park on it, leaving the printer on until I come in the next day.

One thing I noticed with both of the P400s I had was it was the Orange channel that kept getting these recurring clogs.

Also, after doing the ink flush and clean above, I noticed the bottom part of the wiper blade always had some ink on it. Even after doing an ink flush and 2 strong cleanings. Maybe it's just the gravity and the cleaning fluid mixed with the inks causing it to fall to the bottom (since this wiper blade folds in)? I don't know. I was never sure if this meant that the wiper blade was doing it's job properly or not.
 

So the question I still have and can't figure out is how it's possible that a cleaning would clear up a clog, perfect nozzle check but then 5 prints later, clog comes right back. I mean if the nozzle check showed no clogs, and the first few prints were perfect, doesn't that mean the wiper blade and the capping station cleaned it properly? Could it be some dried ink inside the printhead that is grabbing onto new ink flowing through and causing a clog (like an icycle I guess....water flows but overtime the icycle becomes larger)?
 

Today, I took apart the printhead once again....ran cleaner through everything. Here is a picture showing the nozzle checks and describing what I did both times after taking the printhead out: 

I will take pictures of the wiper blade/capping station tomorrow or Monday. I didn't see your post about that until now and I'm no longer by the printer for the day.

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

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. 

- Absolutely. This is something I did EVERY day...when the printer randomly did those little mini cleanings after 20ish prints, and each time between the final ink flush and the head clean I ran with my maintenance carts.

2. make sure there isn’t any buildup on the head. I usually don’t, unless I’ve had a head strike. 

- The only buildup I saw when I took the printhead out was along the metal frame that secures the printhead to the manifold. I don't know how it got there because I never had any head strikes. But either way, if running a head clean gets rid of the clogs, doesn't it mean the capping station and the wiper blade is working and there is no obstruction on the printhead? If so, why the F do the clogs keep coming back even though the nozzle check and first print after a clean looks perfect. This is what's driving me insane.
 

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. 

- I did this daily, but sometimes I came in the next morning and the cleaning carts I used emptied out. I think this has to do with the U thing you mentioned on your post.
 

4. make sure the nipple area is clean, there are 4 tiny holes per “ nipple”. The rest needs cleaned manually. 

- With my first P400, I didn't pay attention to this. I didn't even use cleaning carts. I thought this was my biggest issue so on my second P400, I began cleaning them as my nightly maintenance along with using the cleaning carts. I would have bet my balls that this was my issue, but I would have lost my balls I guess because I literally began having the same problems on my second P400 exactly 1 month in just like my first one.
 

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.

- That's the thing...I see many people not using the cleaning carts at the end of the day but most of these people have a different printer so I thought maybe the P400 is a bit sensitive. So I did exactly what you're saying (again, with cleaning carts though) DAILY. I didn'r tun them to 90% empty. It looks like 1 ink flush and 1 regular clean got them to 50% empty.

 

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. 

I was going to ask if THIS could be my issue because most of the mornings when I come in, at least 1 cartridge has been emptied out and I never knew why. But this isn't a part of the printing process so I can't imagine this would be my reocurring clogs? I'm having a tough time picturing how you have that U shape. Is it basically like this?: https://imgur.com/QA1lTvI

I'm telling you guys....I am very dedicated to anything I try to learn, spending years if I have to to learn something. But these printers might be the first thing I ever have given up on lol. A year doing everything, trying different methods of cleaning/maintaining but I still have the SAME problems? It just blows my mind.

14 minutes ago, anum11 said:

Keeping wiper blade, cap sealing and under printhead clean; prevents Air leakage and clogs. It is more important than you think.

Well that’s what I said in my post...that I made sure to clean it daily not missing 1 day. So why would I have any of these issues if I am doing that maintenance daily?

The buildup that I saw was on the edges of the printhead...the aluminum metal thing surrounding the head. I never had headstrikes (that I was aware of) so I’m not sure how that ink even got there. Could this build up really somehow get in the way of the printer printing? Remember...when I do a head clean, the clogs are gone so the blade and capping station seem to be doing their job. The clogs just come back a few prints later. 

Long post ahead...

I personally have had massive headaches with both of my P400s. Used DTF Superstore inks as my first set of inks in both. 
 

My main issue was that after exactly 1 month of use on both, I began to get clogs every 5-10 prints. Running head cleans cleared it up according to the nozzle checks, but then 5-10 prints later, once again clogs. To this day I haven’t figured out why this happens. 

I consistently ran maintenance on these, not missing 1 day:

- Cleaned the wiper blade, capping station and the nipples above the printhead at the end of every print day

- Used cleaning cartridges at the end of the print day and flushed all of the think out (ink flush and then a head clean...maybe I needed to do more? I have no idea)

- printed and kept the printer daily at a controlled 55% humidity

The only thing I didn’t do daily which a lot of people don’t recommend is cleaning under the printhead with a cloth/paper towel because it could scratch the surface of the printhead, but I began doing it after I continued to have problems but it didn’t seem to make a difference. 
 

Yesterday, I finally decided to take the printhead out and apart to see what could be going on. First, there was a ton of dried ink around the printhead (I don’t see how this could have caused issues though..it’s not like it was obstructing the nozzles on the printhead.) Second, the manifold seemed to have ink still in it even when running the cleaning cartridges at the end of every day. So the inks were not getting flushed out completely. But still, there are people, like @johnson4I believe, that don’t even run cleaning cartridges every day, so I’m just clueless how they don’t have these issues while I did on both of my P400s, while I was at least clearing out MOST of the inks every single day. It’s extremely frustrating that I haven’t figured this out after almost 8 months.  

After taking the printhead out, I did what most say is a bad idea to do: did the waterfall thing to clear out clogs. After putting the printhead back in, most clogs are gone but I still see some broken lines on the nozzle checks. We’ll see if that clears up and if the clog every 5-10 print thing happens now.

I got my hands on a P800 and I’m hoping I don’t have these problems, but I am paranoid as hell to start using it after the issues I’ve had with the P400. 

@MiguelH Please keep us updated on how it goes for you. I’m really curious if you run into this clog issue. I don’t see too many people with a P400 to ask. 

3 hours ago, thedesignlabmiami said:

Hey everyone, I’ve been having some issues with my cadlink rip software connecting to the printer. Every time i try to print or check printer status from cadlink it says data cannot be retrieved from port, please check that the printer is online and connected. Tried to reach out to cadlink but I didn’t get a response. Anyone else have this issue that might be able to shed some light on this. Thanks ! 

Go to Queue, Manage Queues, and under Printer and Port, select the correct option from the dropdown. On mine, it's just the name of my printer.

Cadlink support sucks...there's no way to contact them through email and every time I called, I left a voicemail. The lady that called back didn't seem to know how to fix the issues that I had. I've had better luck through online forums but still, there are things I can't figure out.

9 hours ago, johnson4 said:

That is different than mine, both of them. 

So basically, whoever designed mine doesn’t like me. The thing sucks all around. 

2 hours ago, johnson4 said:

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).

 

 

 

I think I pretty much understand everything you explained in your post, but this part here about the holes sounds like your unit may be a bit different.

Mine has 3 heating bulbs with 9 holes directly over each one. The holes are about 1/4". Tough to take a good pic but take a look here: 

In my case, it looks like I may actually need to drill holes in between the bulbs to keep the heat in instead of escaping right away with holes being directly above. I didn't have a fume extractor on mine but I will be adding one, so I'm sure that will make it worse too unless I get this fixed.

On 11/17/2021 at 4:01 PM, johnson4 said:

Sorry I somehow completely missed your last 2 posts here. 
 

Yes mine has the same problem as well. I’m guessing that’s why I had issues with the power sticking to the sides of my prints. Didn’t even think about that. 
 

I’ve gone through a few pages on this thread to see what modifications you made. Overall other than the brush problem, my heating has been an issue too. I put an aluminum plate but it didn’t help much. It looks like the holes over the bulbs as you mentioned could be the main problem with my heating. After taping the existing holes, you said you drilled 8 holes correct (4 between each bulb)? We’re the holes larger than the existing ones?

15 hours ago, johnson4 said:

@Mdrake2016 So, After some time F'n around I decided to change some stuff on the powder. my issue is getting the perfect amount of powder. either it's too much, or too little, or the motor quits because its low. 

 

So, Instead, I made the powder flow max, and turned it all the way up. I used a Timer: ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T3KCQZB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 )

Right now I'm fine tuning it, since different slapper speeds will cause more/less powder to fall off, But After 5 minutes I've nearly perfected it. For my setup, The duster on Max, with all the holes bigger, It runs 45 seconds on, and 4 minutes off for the powder. working perfect, and has GREATLY extended my run time before refilling powder. Now I'm getting over 3 hours run time without adding powder. Mix that with the guides for the take-up roller, ( and thanks to the 80ML P800 carts) you stand there doing nothing.

I was done trying to get the perfect powder coming out, without clogging, stopping, too much, all that. This is the best $13 I've ever spent on this thing, that and the $10 take up roller guides I made. 

Man that’s great. This is with using your extra “box” that allows you to have about 5lb or powder sitting on the machine correct? I’m here trying to catch up on orders and refilling every 20ish minutes or so. 

Can I ask how you get all that powder to sit under in your turkey pan without it overflowing on the sides or piling up? I know you raised the whole machine a bit but with the powder coming off the sides of the film, mine just piles up on the sides until it touches the film above it.

By the way, since I cleared out the clogs and made a few extra larger holes, my motor seems to be working way better. No real strain from what I see. I think the humidity is causing the powder to get sticky and get stuck in the holes. From day 1 I’ve actually let my powder sit in the machine after every use and I think it should’ve been moved to a lower humidity area instead. 

9 hours ago, anum11 said:

If you manually clean your printhead too many times, even if you do a good job, after a while it will start to leak from sides or channels will mix together because you will damage the glue inside of printhead. If you are getting nozzles right problem is something else.

I rarely cleaned the bottom of the printhead. The nozzles have been getting clogged since Monday. At the same time, I'm getting the 2 blinking lights (printhead obstruction). I thought I fixed the problem, but it is still happening. I'm thinking this is somehow related to the clog. It typically happens when I hit the ink button to refill inks. When it goes back, it fails to dock at its home position completely (although it feels like it did..I can't move the printhead physically).

A few times, it happened while printing. Really not sure what I can do about this...I cleaned as much as I possibly could on and around the capping station and I don't see anything blocking the printhead from moving.

Spoke too soon...magenta started going out again 1 minute after my post. 

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

What inks are you using? 

The Wide format ink might work better, I haven't tried the USA inks yet. The P400 being gravity fed will encounter the issues more often. IF your capping station isn't clean and the bottom of the printhead that will aid in this too. 

Overall if the cartridge isn't sealing well, it can cause it too. Make sure there isn't any build up, and the cartridge port is clean and makes a good seal. 

I ran two p400's for the first half of the year, I printed over 6,000 transfers on them without a single issue related to the printer using the basic DTF superstore inks. inherently one printer ran continuous, while the other was " ready" for when I needed more done in the day. I had 4 sets of carts and just swapped them, did a head clean, and kept going. I never once had colors drop out or any clogging issues at all. 

We took a break for about a month, for the first time in 5 years. Came back, everything was cool, then out of nowhere my cyan and magenta was doing what you are describing. Replaced the printhead, same thing. 

 

I've been trying different Chinese suppliers....at the moment, I'm using OCBestJet for the ink (CMYK only...ran out of white) and DTF Superstore for white. I've had no issues for a month (until now with the magenta). When I had issues similar to what you're describing with your cyan and magenta, that was with DTF Superstore inks. 

So it's a huge guessing game as far as inks. People over on the DTF Facebook groups seem to always say that Vibrant Vibes on Etsy has the best ink. Although I honestly feel like they're just trying to support her since she's in the same Facebook groups so I can't say for sure how well her inks are. But I did research and found that I may know her supplier. I've used their whte inks and they're VERY thin compared to everyone else's inks that I've tried. When I used their white, I had to increase it to 75% while I use 60% with DTF Superstore in Cadlink. But I'm thinking the thinner inks just may be what I need to do. I still have their color inks (they're a bit old) but they claim a 1 year shelf life if they're unopened, so I will give them a try.

When you used your P400 for 6,000 transfers, did you ever have to remove the printhead and do any cleaning? That's one thing I haven't done because I've seen way too many warnings against it. 

What I typically do at the moment is put cleaning carts in at the end of the day, run one head clean and then an ink charge. In between each, I clean the wiper blade each time, and squirt cleaner into the capping station while it's cleaning. It was going well until this week. For the first time on Monday, I cleaned beneath the printhead with a paper towel and cleaner, and there were definitely some dried particles that came off, which blows my mind because of how much cleaner I've ran through the printhead.

Earlier, I gave up tryiand decided to do the reverse flush, regular flush on the magenta (I know you say to never do that....but the frustration today pushed me). So far it's been printing fine for the past hour since then.

I'm wondering if cleaning below the printhead shouuld be part of the daily maintenance at the end of the day. I thought it wouuld always be clean since I use cleaning carts every night, but with dried ink still being there earlier this week, it looks like it may be necessary.

Nevermind on that question about if this could be causing my magenta issue....I'm still losing it (now after 5ish prints) even with the capping station issue resolved.

This has been my single biggest issue with DTF since starting this back in April. No matter how much I take care of it, I keep getting these sudden clogs that happen every few prints. On this P400, I literally flush out my ink every single day with cleaning solution and that still seems to not have helped. This is my 5th printer with this same problem. This time the white has been fine, but the magenta suddenly isn't. Losing hope here honestly.

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

I'm going to be honest with you, I wish they would have stuck with the first design I received. Yes it needed a few changes, nothing really but to satisfy my needs. This 2nd one, It's just a pain in the ass.

Yea this whole machine has been a nightmare. I’ll have to check those little holes you’re talking about to get that fixed. 
 

Unfortunately, I lost a big source of income that gave me 95% of my work this week, so I probably won’t be using this machine much for now. But I’m going to mess around with it here and there and see if I can improve it somehow in case I do get some more work. 

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

Look and see if the wiper is actuating in a straight up and going back down  like this "L". When crud gets in there if the wiper doesn't rotate exactly right, it pops and clicks, sometimes it will grind because it isn't being released properly. Anytime this has happened, a good cleaning and oiling usually helped for a few months, but ultimately it needed replaced. 

 

IF you need a new capping station, the p600 capping station fits it too. 

The wiper blade seemed to move up and down just fine, but the blade itself was a little bent in the middle (from me cleaning it of course). I cleaned it some more and focused on the middle to push it back in place and so far, it seems to have fixed it. 
 

I have to ask, does it sound like this could be causing my magenta issue? I doubt it’s a coincidence that this started happening at the same time. I start to lose the magenta after 10ish prints.

Also, you know that little pause over the capping station during printing...is anything happening with the printhead on that pause?