AMartinez

1 hour ago, Mr.Carter said:

Happens when you have too much white ink more than required and fast curing of the film always bake the film at low temperature with more time 2-3mins

That's kinda what I figured, but then when I lower the white ink the final print is more transparent, less ability to block the shirt color coming through on the white sections.

As far as curing, I have always cured the same way 350° at 2.5-3 min. even with EKprint, and have never had this issue before.  

Do you use EKprint or acrorip?  I'm getting the feeling acrorip wasn'tade for small 2 channel white printers, maybe they threw it in on the last revision to include us who use it, but it seems like it's just not optimized for it.

On 12/17/2022 at 8:24 AM, johnson4 said:

ICC profiles are printer/setup specific. 
 

you would need to buy the tools needed to create your own with your film, ink, and printer. It would need done for every different setup. 
 

in general if your colors are off, It’s not the ICC. ICC will only “ fine tune” shades and colors. If blue is coming out purple, or dark blue, you need to adjust your ink percentages. 
 

been there done that. Spent over $2,000 and I still ended up running without a profile. While it’s a bit less color accurate, it makes colors more bold/vivid/solid unless it’s a photograph.  

The easiest example I can give is red. It always comes one a tinge orange with a profile. Without, it comes out an accurate red.
 

That’s with 2 low end spectrophotometers and one high end giving the same result across Cadlink, acro, and EKprint with over 200 hours of testing. 

Have any recent updates fixed the greens on EKprint?  This post was referring to acrorip colors being ever so slightly off, but definitely liveable, but honestly after tons of testing yesterday, I still prefer the finished quality of EKprint over acrorip 10.5, but I can't get over how bad the greens are on EKprint.

Anyone with success, care to share their certified settings for this combo.  While I love the user interface and the color reproduction of acrorip over EKprint, I spent a full day yesterday, burning through ink and film searching for the perfect settings using custom ink settings, and all ink settings, 720 vs 1440, mix vs med vs med+lrg drops, and mostly I got thin prints that couldn't fully cover up the color of the t shirt (white base prints), and when I finally got thick white base that should have been capable using 30-40% color/80% white, after cure the print was FULL of pin holes and the print became almost completely see through when held up to the light, I never experienced this with EKprint, and nothing has changed except the software, same printer, ink, powder, film, etc.

And just to make sure I then used the same image into ekprint just to make sure I didn't screw something up, and it came out perfect just like I'm use to.

So I just cracked open a new "Super dtf powder". For the first time.  Up until now I've had bottles with the black label that say medium stretch dtf powder.  

Anyways, I've always cures using the heat press hover method at 350° for 3 min and had perfect cures, now with this new powder using the same parameters, the adhesive "looks" wet but is noticeably tackier than the old powder, and also doesn't seem to cure as evenly, with some random spots of seemingly uncured powder that still looks grainy and semi dry.

Anyone have a "what works best" for them with the hovering method and this new powder?

Does anyone have an icc profile for Andy's ink.

fwiw I'm on an xp 15000 and acrorip 10.5, I'm not sure what info is relevant

Even a personally made one would be helpful.  Also maybe a tutorial on how to create one, I have NO idea how to even attempt that.  Thanks in advance 👍

3 hours ago, johnson4 said:

it does make a difference, my suggestions imply they are properly cured with a shaker.   The 300-320F pressing temperature is just my preference. It doesn’t alter the colors and allows me to peel immediately. I also use blends and don’t want to scorch the garment. 
 

it’s all preference and testing based, so wherever works for you works for you. 
 

the powder/ink doesn’t start to cure until around 350F, shakers set to 200-220F can easily reach 800F every few seconds to maintain that “ 220F” setting. 
 

I have made my own shaker with a curing portion heated from the bottom and from a consistent heat instead of the bulbs typically used. The printer runs at 510 inches an hour or 8.5” a minute. With a 28” curing portion the transfers are in there a little over 3 minutes at that speed. Similar to your heat press settings. I run it at 360F and it cures perfectly. 340-350 and I get about an 80 percent cure. 
 

the film is also in direct contact with the 360F heat for the 2 out of 3 minutes it is in there, instead of radiant or “hovering”. 
 

id say somewhere around February I’ll have the kits up for sale in various forms for easy DIY shakers that will ship UPS ground. 
13”/17”/24” full cure width shakers that run on a standard 120V 15A outlet. 

 

anyway, If it works it works ;). Good luck! 

 

So I did do some testing last night, and as you said, the powder would not cure at anything under 350, and that's that I always heat the bottom tray with the press before laying the film on it and hovering the heat press.

As far as pressing, I tried pressing at 325, and you're right about that too!  The film peeled off so much easier, and the resulting image on the shirt felt softer and smoother, well done you, thanks again!

Oh and I'm curing using the heat press method not oven, if that makes a difference.

On 10/24/2022 at 6:42 AM, johnson4 said:

It’s universal for all film, the only difference is the hot/cold peel aspect. Meaning how long you have to wait before peeling after pressing. This is just the optimal release temperature of the film itself, to let go of the print. 
 

heavy pressure, 300-320F 15-20 seconds for cotton. 
 

the temperature comes from melting the adhesive if you have properly cured your transfer. Some melt at lower temperatures some at higher. If the ink or powder wasn’t cured correctly, you’ll get a large variable of issues that appear during pressing that may look like pressing issues.

 

overall, I have used at least 10 different brands of film and 4-5 brands of powder. I use 300F 15 seconds, peel in 3-4 seconds. Never had an issue in any of them. For polyester I use 265F. 
 

now if your pressure sucks when applying the transfer, your heat press is off in temperatures , or your heat press is inconsistent, you’ll also get issues. I used 2 cheap Chinese auto open presses from eBay for a few years which worked fine until they literally broke apart, now I use heat press nation heat presses going on two years. Both worked fine.  For DTF I modified them with an air cylinder so they close at 60 PSI and I get a perfect embedded transfer every time. I can peel cold peel film hot with that. 
 

Over a busy period earlier this year I hurt my back pretty bad. You have two “ large” muscles in your back and I am left handed so I pressed ( with very heavy pressure) thousands of shirts ( hundreds a day) with four heat presses. I’d guess about 5,000 presses in 30 days. I was out for over 4 months, unable to do much of anything. It caused a “ disc” to slip and bulge as well as this large muscle was heavily inflamed. To this day I am still not able to do things I was able to do before. I am only 30. 
 

but, I also weigh 220lbs and had to practically lift myself off the floor to close the presses. For me, this is a must to make sure that transfer is permanent and embedded throughly, also so I can peel faster. Using heavy pressure makes them softer, embeds the print and literally makes it feel like screen printing. 
 

so I spent a few hundred and modified my clam presses to be semi automatic and now I just push a button to close them, they open themselves when timer goes off. Andy recommended California air air compressor so I went with that, it’s super quite. 

 

anyway, it’s all about the pressure, if your transfer is cured properly and the melting temperature of your powder. Nothing else. It’s not brand specific or printer specific. 
 

I will say that when you are printing, your ink settings will vary greatly from brand to brand and type to type. Other than that though, that aspect is practically all the same. 

So I'm glad I found this post, I've been curious about this because I've been seeing 320° for 15 to 20 seconds, after extensive testing, I've been curing my powder at 350° for 3 minutes and pressing at 350° for 15 seconds with a second press using Teflon or parchment paper for 10 seconds, and all of my prints have come out solid. None of them peel, or crack. Longevity after multiple washes and wearing is great, but now I'm just curious if there's any benefit going down to 320?!  

I guess the easy way to find out would be more testing lol and going down to 320, but I also noticed that they say to cure at like 200 and something degrees I've been curing it 350 and like I said no negative effects as far as I can tell all of my final prints are solid no issues at all.

I'm using Andy's ink powder and film roll.

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

I never had a need to print longer than 44" in one single print job, but I'm sure it would work. I simply add my images, X copies, and do that over and over again. I do gang sheets the same way. I don't sell gang prints longer than 36" so I have never really tried to print anything at 44"+ length. 

44 inches is over 3.5 feet, I'm not sure what kind of shirt that would fit on and look good at the given width limitation. 1 foot by 3 feet seems rather limited. I would personally go with a 17" printer if that is the length you are looking for, it would be more appropriate. for 6X shirts I don't do anything bigger than 15-16" wide by 24" tall usually. It works out because my biggest heat press is also 16" X 24". 

Oh no sir not over 44" that would be one massive person! Haha, I meant an image over 19", so 24", 30" etc.  But  you still answered my question I think if you print 36" 👍🏽. Thanks

On 4/15/2021 at 7:10 PM, johnson4 said:

Printed well over its max 44” on sheet mode. This is after it sat for a bit over 48 hours, no cleans. No modification to the tray at all,  no head strikes. 

The Xp 15000 specs state up to 13x19 borderless, up to 44" printing, do you know if it will print a single image over 19" if not a borderless photo?  I see you printed multiple images over 44" but what about a single large image?  I'm thinking about the 5x and 6x shirts that are getting more and more common these days

1 minute ago, kcinnick said:

Are you sure it is clogging and not a bad cartridge?  Aftermarket carts are not reliable for the XP 15000 and most people are switching to refilling OEM carts.  The drawback is they only hold 12-15mL of usable ink.

You know what, it could be the carts, I have changed the carts a few times to fix the issue after failed attempts with nozzle cleanings.  I assumed maybe the carts stopped working in those cases.  So how would I go about refilling oem carts?!  I didn't know that was possible.  Chinese carts only hold like 17ml anyways right?

3 minutes ago, kcinnick said:

I would buy 11 if it was available...  

Ya that's what I'm currently waiting for, it was supposed to be out in feb, so hopefully it comes out soon.  I'm using the ekprint demo meanwhile but the limitations of the demo are driving me nuts.

Also unrelated to program, the magenta in my xp15000 is constantly clogging, but only the magenta, haven't had any other issues not even with white. What could be the issue?  Ink related? Nozzle related? Chinese carts don't like magenta?!  I'm using Andy's ink

On 3/29/2022 at 8:36 PM, kcinnick said:

I don't think it is that big of deal ganging a 13X19 sheet but man would that save some time on rolls.  I wasn't planning on roll printing but you know, things change...  If you want 10.3 or 10.5 for a stop gap the non us resellers have dongles for as little as $17.. maybe cheaper.

Ya I have no problem paying for the full program, I rather not take any unnecessary risks.  I have used cracked programs in the past and there is almost always quirks that come along with that.  I do appr coated the heads up though.

15 hours ago, johnson4 said:

In acro 11, that hasn't been released yet this "gang" or multiple images per print has been showcased as a new feature. 

It is not a feature on any previous version.

The acro 9 is not from the same people and is a hacked version. Acro 10.X is not updatable to 11. So if you are looking for this feature I would wait for Acro 11 to be released. 

 

 

Oh man thanks for the heads up, I think that alone makes it worth waiting for, that would definitely improve workflow.

Does anyone happen to know if you can add multiple files onto a single print in acrorip?  Im currently using ekprint demo and trying to decide on a full program to buy, leaning towards acro because of this post.

Also I have never actually used the "rip" button, what exactly does that do?  I usually just load a file, resize, enable white, adjust settings and print

17 hours ago, johnson4 said:

I just pulled out the cotton, left the top off and put it back in. Whenever it needs reset, it’s about half full

or so. I just empty it then.

Ok thats what i ended up doing, i wasnt sure about how full it would get, thanks again!

29 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

The sensor on the bottom of the printhead is a light sensor, using thicker film works. There are other ways, but that and the strip of tape are the easiest. 

awesome.  One last question, I already have to empty the waste tank, i have a resetter, i pulled the tank out pulled the lid off, but there is material inside that is soaked in ink, how do you drain it to reuse the same tank?

I figured it out, it was the underbase choke was set to 10, lowered to 1 looks near perfect now.  on to tweaking for perfection, thanks again!

6 hours ago, anum11 said:

It is prob. checking paper widht. And cannot recognize dtf film at all so it prints empty. You need to put a white sticker on film so sensor sees paper and starts to print. 

 

Note that you should put sticker on Max width of paper, if you stick half for example it will print as wide as your sticker so it would print half of image.

I finally got it!  i did have to disable the check paper setting, got it to see the paper with a strip of white vinyl on the edge, its all i have, going to go buy thin white tape tomorrow.  Are there any other ways to get it to see the film that anyone knows of?  Unfortunately I have to keep it on manual feed, even with the white strip it wants to pull from the paper cassette rather than the rear feeder.

Also the white is missing very fine details of the color and not covering it all, what would be the setting to play with to tweak that?  I have it set to 1440x1440 for both color and white

On 2/2/2022 at 10:31 AM, johnson4 said:

This website and DTFsuperstore are the same people, yes. 
 

if it’s printing on paper and not the film, then yea you need a more opaque film. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with the film, some work better than others for conversions. Something like economy may be more opaque, the double sided film is more opaque. 
 

I did use Andy’s film, but I sourced my own because I liked the matte finish better, which he didn’t offer at the time. 
 

you can trick the printer with a sticker on the front edge of the film as a “ registration”   Making it think it’s paper to see if that’s it though.

 

 

something I just remembered, if it’s an option, paper width check and size need to be off. I don’t remember if the 15000 had this option. 
 

there is a light sensor that reads the edge of the paper on the bottom of the carriage.

Ok I'm halfway there!  I cleaned it installed newly filled carts, and it prints perfectly on paper.  So now I have to try to get it to see the film, One thing is that it keeps pulling from the cassette not from the rear feeder, is that just because it doesn't see the film, or is there a setting to only allow it to pull from the rear?

On 2/2/2022 at 10:31 AM, johnson4 said:

This website and DTFsuperstore are the same people, yes. 
 

if it’s printing on paper and not the film, then yea you need a more opaque film. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with the film, some work better than others for conversions. Something like economy may be more opaque, the double sided film is more opaque. 
 

I did use Andy’s film, but I sourced my own because I liked the matte finish better, which he didn’t offer at the time. 
 

you can trick the printer with a sticker on the front edge of the film as a “ registration”   Making it think it’s paper to see if that’s it though.

 

 

something I just remembered, if it’s an option, paper width check and size need to be off. I don’t remember if the 15000 had this option. 
 

there is a light sensor that reads the edge of the paper on the bottom of the carriage.

Thanks for this info, sorry I've been so busy past few days, so it didnthe same thing on regular paper, so then I did a nozzle check test print and that still did print, although the magenta seemed to be clogged all of a sudden, so the last thing I did was take the ink out and run a couple of cleaning cycles with cleaner carts in.  So I will just be getting back to it this afternoon with a fresh magenta cart.  I will check those settings you mentioned, I do believe I saw something like that paper check setting.  Thanks again, hopefully I can nail this down and get to it.

Damn editing isn't working, scratch that last comment,

Is Andy's film from dtfsuperstore?  If so thats where I got this roll from. The link I clicked on opendtg for film, took me to dtfsuperstore.

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

It possibly could be looking for the paper. The film your using looks rather see through, the 15000 needs a more opaque film. Try feeding film with a sheet of paper at the same time, or simply printing on a sheet of paper. If that doesn’t change anything, it’s some setting with EKprint. 

Actually I saw on another post that you use Andy's film, is that from dtgstore?  If so they seem to be sold out, and also does he have any rolls?  I only see sheets in the store.  any alternatives that will work with xp 15000?

Nevermind I found it in stock, search kept taking me to an out of stock film for some reason.  Still would love to know where you bought the roll that you use with the xp 15000?

57 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

It possibly could be looking for the paper. The film your using looks rather see through, the 15000 needs a more opaque film. Try feeding film with a sheet of paper at the same time, or simply printing on a sheet of paper. If that doesn’t change anything, it’s some setting with EKprint. 

I had considered the film but figured since it was picking it up to feed that should be good, however now realizing I have it set to manual feeding, I'll try when I get home you may be right, thank you.

Which film do you use that works well?

Couldn't edit previous comment so here is the video, and it printed fine with regular ink, and like I said also prints test page, just no actual image, and I have tried multiple png files as well.