AMartinez

8 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Good luck with everything. 

Thanks bud, as always I appreciate all of the wisdom!

33 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

Not a problem at all. Sublimation ink is dye based and would work well in those types of printers I'd imagine.

Oh I gotcha.  One last question, what if I were to find a used p800 only ever used as intended as an ink printer, would it be worth buying and converting, for a low-mid volume printer and Are parts readily available for the p800 down the road?  Or even a used unconverted p400 for that matter

9 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

I absolutely do. 
 

If you haven’t ever had an eco tank printer- they are very poorly made. I have had 3 of them. 2 repaired under warranty. All malfunctioning with OEM use within a year. My WF series printers with aftermarket inks were running before I bought the ET printers- and still after those new ET machines broke. 
 

The price of them- you are paying for the “ upfront” cost of no ink cartridges mixed with a lower quality printer. 
 

everyone I have known to use them ultimately they end up disappearing after some catastrophic problem or end up with the 15000. 
 

You can buy one and love it, or buy one and learn why it was a bad idea. It’s like a game of financial Russian roulette.

 

it’s hard to find a good low volume machine, because the nature of the process, this low volume use is what breaks them. 
 

I’m telling you, this guy on here knows what he is doing with the xp-15000 machines. Check out his kit with the white ink management and all of the aftermarket controls including white ink circulation. About $450 I think it was for this machine. 
 

In my day, my “ low volume use” printer was the Epson P400 which worked well, I roll printed with it. Carts are real and not what the 15000 takes, so it’s easy and never leaked. Sucks they discontinued them. 

Ok sounds great, ya we have an et 15000 for sublimation, so far that thing has been a champ, 2 yrs old and no issues other than an occasional clog mostly from sitting.

I'll def just stick with an xp for now sounds like the wise idea, maybe I'll check that machine out on here.  Thanks again brotha.

12 hours ago, johnson4 said:

The P5000 is best for lots of daily printing. xp-15000  good for small scale in my opinion. 
 

Chipless firmware advancements has been dead since the xp15000 that I am aware of. 
 

the conversion is as easy or difficult as you would like. It can be as simple as loading refillable carts and being done. Long term usage on any printer is difficult, so if it’s not going to see at least 200-300 12” x 12”s a week I’d advise against it. 
 

just your basic chip resetter. Once it runs out, reset it and put it back in. They are 250ML carts so it’s not often needed. In theory you can do anything you want, as I’ve found. But you’ll ultimately exchange something for the experience and knowledge. Your best bet is to buy refillable cartridges.  
 

 

I am down sizing personally. DTF has become saturated and has started to get a bad name due to poor quality sellers. I ran 3 P400’s- then 3 P600’s- Then 3 P800’s, then 3 P5000’s. 
 

i am moving over to 1 P6000 and one P5000 DTF and bringing back 2 of my DTG machines. It’s become quite scarce, people are looking for DTG softness again so for the finished product side of the business that’s where I’m going. I converted a washer/dryer for bulk hassle free pre treating garments. Works very well. 

I have learned there is no best method or “ one for all”. It’s what’s best for the application and CMYK DTG is hard to beat. So I’m splitting it up between DTG, Screen printing, and DTF.
 

my point is be certain, otherwise it’ll turn into a regret and waste of money if you go with a bigger machine than the 15000. None of them will save the hassle of maintenance and repair costs. 
 

 

 

Thanks for this break down, I 100% get what you're saying, which aligns with my original thought, that is, that I'm not ready for a big machine yet, the business isn't there yet.  So you still think the XP 15000 is a better machine over the et8550?

2 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

That’s part of the reason Chinese machines are enticing. 
 

Crazy on those prices, I remember when refurb P800’s were $500 delivered and the ink was worth $400. 
 

P700/P900 I have no idea, they are new and don’t have Chipless or aftermarket chips- so to me won’t work. 
 

ANY ET printer is a waste of time and money in my opinion, but I’ve never used one for DTF. I have helped a few people with them, ultimately they are worse than the 15000. I’ve had 3 with dye ink, and I would never imagine using them for anything else. All 3 broke with normal OEM printing in less than a year. 
 

that’s why people are going with the P5000, still in production and has unlimited resettable chips. It’s about the only one left that seems worthwhile. That or a P6000 with a P6080 mainboard with ARC chips. 

beyond that, Chinese printers is the way to go. 

 

Hmm ya the p5000 looks enticing, man but I really wasn't looking to drop $2k+ right now, but it looks like my real options are another xp15000 now that at least I definitely know what not to do, or a p5000, I love the roll printing option too.

Is the p5000 a pretty easy conversion? So by resettable chips then, I take it that it doesnt have chipless firmware available?  So how does that work, you have to reset it before the ink empties, then fill it and slide it back in?  Can we use OEM cartridges for p5000?

On 1/6/2023 at 3:40 AM, johnson4 said:

That’s something that should be checked daily to make sure it’s perfect, then every 5-10 prints. If you run them while a bozzle

is clogged it can kill that nozzle. 
 

it’s a tiny piezoelectric crystal per nozzle. It “vibrates” when powered in, creating a pump like action firing ink out of the nozzle. They also get cooled by the ink, so something that once was a head clean to fix can become permanent within 5-10 prints. 
 

same goes for if air gets in there. 
 

that’s the million dollar question, sometimes you get them back, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes it gets better, sometimes it gets worse and you need a new printhead. 
 

could try cleaning the bottom of the printhead, then wet capping with cleaner for 10-15 minutes, followed by a head clean. 

WELP!  I done did it now.  After cleaning and flushing and wet capping and more cleaning, I got the dreaded 031001 death code.  Mother Father!

Unfortunately I don't have $3k for a p800, and only refurbished ones below $2k.  I see p900 for about $1200 and a p700, what do you know about these, mainly the p900, will they dtf?

I thought about the et8550 but the ecotank makes me hesitant, and I'm not sure that it won't have the same sensitivity issues as the xp15000.

23 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

Wet capping fluid just has more glycerin in it. I use the same liquid for cleaning and wet capping the printhead to clean it. 

 

Hot steamy water- no idea. I have never done that. 

Ok thank you, I'll give it a shot, I really pray that's all it is. 

33 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

This shouldn't have happened unless you had the carts out for some prolonged period or forgot to remove the air plugs when you reinstalled them. Forcing anything more then 2-3 PSI can be damaging. 

Wet capping with cleaner for 5-10 minutes should fix you up. 

I'm dumbfounded to say the least, not only were the carts only out for about 10 min, they were about 75% full of ink still, so all I really did was top them off.  And no Plugs to remove, I'm using OEM carts, that have worked flawlessly up until this issue.

I only have regular cleaning fluid not the special labelled "wet capping fluid", do I need that stuff for it to work thoroughly? Also That same video I saw said they cleared their blockage up by wet capping with hot steamy water, what do you think about that method?

I watched a video that suggested forcing air with an empty syringe into to of carts while installed in printer, with a paper towel underneath head to see if ink flows out, seems logical but it's that safe to do, without risk of damaging print head?  But that wouldn't help if it's air in the ink system right?

My xp15000 had an almost perfect test print, I didn't want to run out of ink, so I removed carts (OEM Epson carts with dtf ink) refilled them out them back in, and suddenly no ink comes out test after test a couple of head cleanings, nothing, no ink on paper.  What could have happened so suddenly?  Anything I can do to clear possible air in system or clogged nozzles?  But it would have to be every single nozzle clogged which seems improbable.

3 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Each small line that makes up each large slanted line represents one nozzle. Example- Magenta, top center- one nozzle missing. 2nd row in the right, one nozzle missing. Cyan 2nd row has two nozzles missing. Cyan top row has 4 nozzles missing. 
 

this is a nozzle clog, or a dead nozzle. 
 

it would appear as super tiny lines in the print at this point in those colors. If you are using a higher resolution like 1440x1440 it’s less obvious, but it’s there. 
 

Those magenta nozzles halfway down that look fuzzy or slightly out of place is called deflection. It’s a firing nozzle that is partially clogged, causing the ink to not fire in a straight line. Kinda like putting your finger over a water hose. 

Holy crap I didn't think it was a serious issue, so what's the protocol for unclogging it figuring out if the nozzles are dead?  I've done a few head cleanings with standard cleaning fluid nothing changed.  It's in an xp 15000

Started about a week ago, every single nozzle check looks exactly like this, dot for dot, the broken parts of the pattern never change or move, I've done nozzle cleaning with cleaning solution and with ink itself this results refuses to change, however as far as I can tell my prints still look great, if anything is wrong with them, I can't tell.  what does it mean?

8 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

Same here, it’s almost daily some random crud going on. Time consuming, but gotta do it to pay the bills. 

I wish you continued success! 

Yessir!  The bane of my existence, and probably all of ours... Bills.  Thank you, and to you as well bud!

4 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Nice simple resolution, haha. I’ve seen some crazy cause and effects for stuff like this. 

Ya this had me going for about a week, it was affecting every cure, because the powder was sticking up like hair off of the the ink in spots, so the good cures were sporadic and completely unpredictable.  I was close to throwing it all out rather than sell prints I couldn't stand behind.  I'm just glad it was a simple resolution in the end.

28 minutes ago, carlathebluegeckoprinting. said:

Do you have a humidity gauge hydrometer?  Ideally you should have humidity somewhere between 35-45% where the machine is located.  I am in Arizona, and let me tell you getting humidity that high here is a chore.  In other areas of the world with winter kicking in, humidity tends to drop.  So that is the first thing I would look at.

The weird thing was I have the old bottle of powder and the new and only the new has an insane amount of static.  Anyways it turned out to be the plastic bottle it came in, I poured the powder adhesive into another container and all of the static disappeared, And I can still feel the static if I put my hand in that original container, so the plastic itself is charged somehow.  Regardless, my issue is resolved, just tossed out that container.

8 hours ago, Mr.Carter said:

Acrorip gives best prints on medium+large dot size

This is the setting I started on, and yes I agree the image looked much more solid and bold color, however this was the actual reason I was asking about icc profile for Andy's ink because the colors were off with this setting, much darker shades.  I have another ink coming with an icc profile and I'm hoping this will allow me to use med+lrg with the correct colors.

I thought I understood what the dot size was doing, however with acro the dot size changes the colors/shades/brightness of the image so that confuses me a bit.

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

It's a whole nother world with its own issues and learning curves with things your Epson will never experience. 

 

Like I said OEMs will be coming out with their own DTF printers relatively soon. 

Oh I didn't catch that, that's good to hear! I'll most likely just hold out for an oem machine, I still have some business building to do before I'm ready anyways.

Or if anyone has actual experience with any of these that would be awesome to hear about.  And I'm really only referring to smaller desktop printers up to 17" or so, I realize the standalone wide format printers are a while different beast.

So when it comes to those purpose built dtf printers, or whatever you want to label them, that are made and sold by companies, the best example I can think of is the knight 12 by kingdom dtf, which I don't believe is a conversion, it looks like a completely new printer, and I know there's plenty of others, what's the general consensus on them? Riskier than converting a p series, or could they potentially be a better option?

7 hours ago, johnson4 said:

They are all about the same speed. The p800 being the fastest though minuscule. 
 

The p600 has a weak and prone to failure ink system. The p400 is great for low volume use while the P800 is ideal for roll printing and larger volume printing with a strong ink system.
 

 

Gotcha, that clears it up more.

On 6/27/2022 at 8:48 AM, johnson4 said:

The 1390/l1800 are 13”, 90 nozzle machines. The slowest available for DTF.

pick up a p400/p600/p800 and double your speed. 
 

pick up a p5000 and quadruple your speed. 
 

if you are using acro, then that’s also slowing you down further.

So what would you say is the deciding factor between the p400/600/800?  If crazy speed for roll printing isn't factoring into the decision? Besides the p800 being 17",  Is it just about initial cost and maintenance cost at that point?  Or is there a quality upgrade in sequence from 400 to 600 to 800? Or some other significant factor?

On 6/27/2022 at 8:48 AM, johnson4 said:

The 1390/l1800 are 13”, 90 nozzle machines. The slowest available for DTF.

pick up a p400/p600/p800 and double your speed. 
 

pick up a p5000 and quadruple your speed. 
 

if you are using acro, then that’s also slowing you down further.

Has anyone had an issue with their powder being fully charged with static? This is only the second bottle of adhesive powder I've purchased, but the first one is totally fine all the way through. This one though, as soon as I opened it anything I put in there the powder clings to it and you can tell it's static. So much so, that if I pour it out of the bottle it actually starts jumping out of the bottle and sticking to the outside of it, and after powdering the print, a lot of it is standing up it almost looks like hair it's not even laying flat on the ink the way it should.

Does anybody have any idea how to fix this, how to discharge the whole bottle? or something I could put in the powder to discharge it?

Thank you guys for the tips, I didn't give up lol and I finally got good prints with 35 ink/75 white and mix drops, the color seemed a bit light still, so I will tweak a little more, but it's 90% of the way there now.

5 hours ago, johnson4 said:

It's tough switching RIPS, and this is a good example. 

 

nothing in EK crosses over to acro. I used I think 38 percent CMYK in acro, but 80 in EK. The same for the white, it was less than half in Acro. 

 

It's all a learning experience and figuring out why that issue is occurring and not coming to conclusions based on assumptions. 

 

It's part of the reason why I had so many hours in testing for color reproduction and profiling the RIPS. It took me forever to figure out how to get a profile in EK. Cadlinks is built in. Acro was the easiest when made externally. Beyond that- I had to learn how to proficiently use them which takes quite a bit of time- for me anyway. 

 

You won't find a perfect RIP. You are either going to sacrifice quality, speed, color accuracy, or convenience. None of them offer all of the above. After you have spent 4-6 weeks with Acro, and have EK under your belt, you should then try another RIP and spend the same time with it. Cadlink for example, but you are limited to 15 days free trial. It becomes apparent after you figure out how simple they are to use, but the downfalls of each one. 

 

I have reached out to all of them. Literally. Pick your poison, because most of them just are what they are with the exception of added supported devices and small changes for those devices- if you are lucky. 

 

All of them can and do work great- it just depends on how much effort you put in and which "downfall" and " perk" you want. I dislike Acro, but the next guy has made a million bucks with it this year. It's all preferences. 

 

When it boils down to it, it's trial and error and part of the DIY learning curve. I'm going on 2 years and 3 months doing this for my only income. I still learn something new daily which may or may not change something I have previously said. 

Ya I definitely get what you're saying.  I personally, because I'm not high volume, yet anyways, I prefer color accuracy and quality over speed.

With EK I get perfect quality prints that last forever with no issues whatsoever, but the greens are so dark and ugly, I can't get a bright green to save my life, I do have another brand of ink coming so that I can compare and see if that makes a difference.

I Love the user interface and workflow of acro, and the colors are much more accurate and vibrant, BUT I cannot get a perfect print and press like EK.  The best smoothest cleanest prints don't have enough ink or white or both to properly cover up the shirt it's on.  Then when I do get enough ink and white coverage, the print is pin holes and hairline cracked everywhere.  I have tried what it seems like most people do on acro which is 25-35% ink and white, those are the one that come out very smooth and clean, but slightly translucent after cure and press.

I guess at this point I will keep producing with EK while tinkering with acro on downtime.  I also only have the demo for EK and am not looking forward to spending the money for the full program.  Is there much difference between the demo and full program? Besides the watermark, I have a workaround for that, are there any actual functional benefits?

By the way the comparison post you made a while back, I found to be dead on accurate between EK and acro, from times to colors to quality.