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School me on DTG printing/printers

houseofgrafix

houseofgrafix

none
N

noregrets

New Member
I did days and days of research as I was in the same boat as you. In the end, I decided to go down the screen printing road. The best that I found was the brother, but the cheaper (540 I think) one is only for light shirts, and I could not afford the more expensive dark shirt one, I think the 780 or something.

There is a lot of info on t-shirt forums, and there seems to be mixed opinions however from what I gathered, apart from the brother, they dont seem to have got the white ink problems sorted yet
 
signage

signage

New Member
Hose one thing I can tell you if you go with an Epson based printer you need to run them daily and they do require attention! The T-jet is no longer being manufactured and the company that made them went out of business. They do take a lot more maintenance than a large format printer!
 
Air Art Girl

Air Art Girl

New Member
I have a Tjet, it's been a love/hate relationship. I have the white option but it takes prep and time to do dark shirts. With the volume you are talking about, sub them out.

You can't walk away from a tshirt printer like you can a plotter or printer. You have to constantly feed new shirts in so you have to be tied to the machine while you are processing the shirts. It's great for doing short runs when a company wants a few to 3 dozen but more then that, I sub out.
 
houseofgrafix

houseofgrafix

none
Air Art Girl said:
I have a Tjet, it's been a love/hate relationship. I have the white option but it takes prep and time to do dark shirts. With the volume you are talking about, sub them out.

You can't walk away from a tshirt printer like you can a plotter or printer. You have to constantly feed new shirts in so you have to be tied to the machine while you are processing the shirts. It's great for doing short runs when a company wants a few to 3 dozen but more then that, I sub out.
Click to expand...

At first there is going to be 1-off shirts to see what kind of crap sells.
Thats why subing would not really work.
If the stuff takes off like I think.. then subing the work out may be the best bet


B Snyder said:
Check out http://www.t-shirtforums.com
Click to expand...

Thanks! Will do!

signage said:
Hose one thing I can tell you if you go with an Epson based printer you need to run them daily and they do require attention! The T-jet is no longer being manufactured and the company that made them went out of business. They do take a lot more maintenance than a large format printer!
Click to expand...

Thanks! by maintenance.. just cleaning ect ect ect?

noregrets said:
I did days and days of research as I was in the same boat as you. In the end, I decided to go down the screen printing road. The best that I found was the brother, but the cheaper (540 I think) one is only for light shirts, and I could not afford the more expensive dark shirt one, I think the 780 or something.

There is a lot of info on t-shirt forums, and there seems to be mixed opinions however from what I gathered, apart from the brother, they dont seem to have got the white ink problems sorted yet
Click to expand...

Screen printing is a bit out of the question due to space.
And because there will be alot of 1off shirts... it seems this DTG printing may be the best bet
 
houseofgrafix

houseofgrafix

none
Air Art Girl said:
I have a Tjet, it's been a love/hate relationship. I have the white option but it takes prep and time to do dark shirts. With the volume you are talking about, sub them out.

You can't walk away from a tshirt printer like you can a plotter or printer. You have to constantly feed new shirts in so you have to be tied to the machine while you are processing the shirts. It's great for doing short runs when a company wants a few to 3 dozen but more then that, I sub out.
Click to expand...



is this the one you have??

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fast-T-Jet-2-Di...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ead16e81c
 
signage

signage

New Member
Cleaning and flushing lines! I would look into one of four machines if i was looking for another one (DTG, Voloci-jet, Belquette or Brother) not necessarily in that order! I would recommend going with your own files and having them all print them for you! Doing white does take twice as-long as light colors! And you do have to print every day or clean the whole system out and keep liquid in it and still do head cleans and nozzle checks!
 
Air Art Girl

Air Art Girl

New Member
binki

binki

New Member
Air Art Girl said:
I have a Tjet, it's been a love/hate relationship. I have the white option but it takes prep and time to do dark shirts. With the volume you are talking about, sub them out.

You can't walk away from a tshirt printer like you can a plotter or printer. You have to constantly feed new shirts in so you have to be tied to the machine while you are processing the shirts. It's great for doing short runs when a company wants a few to 3 dozen but more then that, I sub out.
Click to expand...

2nd that on the love/hate. We have the KioskII and have put as much into it in aftermarket parts and repairs as the initial investment. Just when it looks like it will run good something happens to screw it up.
 
V

vroongraphics

New Member
I have done a TON of research on this subject, and can tell you that we are going with the Neoflex. Check out the webpage: http://www.neoflexprinter.com/

We are going with the "full meal deal" all in....with extra custom platens etc.

I have attended tradeshows, traveled specifically to do test runs with machines, and scoured the web forums in my efforts to determine which machines will work for me. As I live in a remote area in BC Canada, I need machines that are workhorses and trouble free.

Before making a decision to go with Neoflex, we were seriously considering the Veloci-jet.

Hope this helps.
 
WhiskeyDreamer

WhiskeyDreamer

Professional Snow Ninja
binki said:
2nd that on the love/hate. We have the KioskII and have put as much into it in aftermarket parts and repairs as the initial investment. Just when it looks like it will run good something happens to screw it up.
Click to expand...

same thing here....installed a bulk ink system about 2 months ago, and ALL the problems went away....
 
tcorn1965

tcorn1965

New Member
We have 2 T-Jet jumbo 2 DTG printers in use daily. Nearly impossible to get good white results on dark shirts (can be done though). I would not recommend these to anyone unless doing daily runs as ink dries in the lines fairly quickly, especially white. Not sure what your budget is, we just got the Kornit Breeze and it is a very fast DTG printer with amazing results. Here is a you tube link to ours in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQUcenzCoo

Terry
 
W

wildindian

Grumpy
Have a Brother GT-541 and it has been an incredible machine for us, but will only do light shirts. We purchased an Anajet Sprint to do colored shirts and the print and durabilty was fine but it has to be used daily or the lines will clog. We had to be gone for few days and it clogged and now needs flushing and cleaning but would sell for a reasonable price. I hope this is okay to post.
 
J

JERHEMI

New Member
tcorn1965 said:
We have 2 T-Jet jumbo 2 DTG printers in use daily. Nearly impossible to get good white results on dark shirts (can be done though). I would not recommend these to anyone unless doing daily runs as ink dries in the lines fairly quickly, especially white. Not sure what your budget is, we just got the Kornit Breeze and it is a very fast DTG printer with amazing results. Here is a you tube link to ours in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQUcenzCoo

Terry
Click to expand...

How much did the Kornit Breeze cost? I was checking out their website, but no prices are listed. Looks like a nice machine though!
 
binki

binki

New Member
I have an update on printing on darks. We tossed the wagner and use a spray bottle and 4" paint brush from home depot and are getting much better results. The cost to print is still very high though for white ink based printing.
 
V

vroongraphics

New Member
we have a Neoflex, and use the Viper pre-treatment machine - with excellent results! Neoflex has a new RIP, which can print white ink with complete control of output (i.e. gradient white printing). This printer is definitely worth the money....
 
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