Any comments or advice on my equipment thoughts... thanks.

[Justin]

Would be great to see some comparisons on print quality between the different printers, would be useful for threads like this.

[kevdsn]

Yes, wish I could go somewhere and see some prints side by side for comparison...

[Alastair@Xpres]

Hello there Kevdsn,

Personally I would recommend the Ricoh A3, we sell it over the Epson A3 based on quality, for me that is the straightforward choice.

The heat presses are where it is not so straight forward.
There are a few points to consider, quality, after sale support and budget.
At Xpres we sell quality with extensive aftercare and warranty support but we cater for different budget options.

-You can go for the best of the best, a cast aluminum swing press, it will last a long long time and reliably carry out the job requested to a high standard, we usually use this press for our photographic samples.
-Next is the Auto Clam range, cheaper, made of fabricated steel but still high quality with even heat dispersion and pressure. Also as sublimation only requires light pressure you do not necessarily require a swing press making the autoclams a great choice on a lower budget.
-Finally there are the standard clams, same as the auto clam but smaller with no auto release function, these will be the lowest cost and we sell many of these presses to users operating smaller scale sublimation set ups, sometimes with space restrictions or certain budgetary requirements.

All in all there is a lot to take in but I would be happy to offer my assistance if you want to send me over an email, if you want to you can visit our new demonstration suite and test the presses yourself on the printer you want, before you make any investment. Let me know if this is of interest and the best of luck in your new business venture.

Have a great day.

[pisquee]

Personally I would recommend the Ricoh A3, we sell it over the Epson A3 based on quality, for me that is the straightforward choice.

You'd recommend the print quality of a 4 colour office printer over that of a 6 colour art/photo printer?

[FutureProject]

I guess it depends on what you are printing, the extra colours often deal with flesh tones or depth of black, if that's not something you print lots of (photo products make up less than 1% of my product range) then perception of print quality shifts, crispness or vibrancy of colour for example may be of more importance in which case the 4 colour may trump that of the 6.

[kevdsn]

This is something I have to consider strongly... My work for sublimation is mainly fine art photographic images, skin tones, subtle hues, accurate colour reproduction and detailed blacks are all extremely important, much more so than vibrant colours and ease of use of the printer. If I was buying a printer purely for standard media printing then I would probably buy the Epson R3000, as quality wise Ricoh don't produce anything that would come close; unfortunately Sawgrass don't support this printer with their sublimation inks. This leaves the choice in terms of supported printers in the Epson range to only the 1500w or a big jump up to the 4000 series which at this stage is not an option but may be the route forward in the future. The other consideration is costs, I can buy the 1500w and set up with 125ml of each of the 6 inks for under £490 ready to go with A3+, the Ricoh on the other hand is going to come in at about £1150 with the bypass tray to do A3+, the printer cost of the Epson setup is only £229 and at this price is not a huge financial risk if it really proves to be a pain in the backside, however if I'm not happy with the Ricoh quality then at more than double the price It's a harder pill to swallow.

I understand a lot of you are very happy with the Ricoh and I'm sure it really is an amazing printer in terms of reliability, consistency, speed and ease of use and quality of output, and I understand the Epson is probably not quite so suitable for sublimation printing and can be a real pain in the butt; but I have to balance this with what my specific needs and product requirements are to make the right choice.

I can't thank you all enough for your constructive input on this thread, it has given me a lot of food for though and has been hugely helpful in helping me get to a decision with which I've been battling with for weeks.

Thanks all

Kev

[Justin]

That in mind, I don't think you should be looking at 4 colour, 6 minimum but ideally more.

[kevdsn]

UPDATE

Firstly thank you all once again for your advice, comments and input; it has been very helpful in helping me buy the equipment.

In the end I bought a Stahl Hotronix 40x50 Auto Clam. This was sold as new in the box, just over 12 months old and in mint condition, and at half the retail price was a bit of a no brainer. Even if I decided to get a swing press later on this will still be very useful to have and if I sold it I doubt I'd lose anything on it at the price I paid.

The printer was the hardest choice. I did in the end take a chance and bought the Epson 1500w with the CIS and Artanium UV+ inks. I then spend two days tearing my hair out trying to get the dam thing to actually print light magenta... not a drop! all lines full of ink, cleaned, purged, took it out put it back (many times) nothing! not a speck of light magenta in sight, put OEM inks in... perfect... back to CIS nothing! ... at this point regretting buying the Epson...

Finally took the bung out of the top of the light magenta cartridge, put a syringe in and sucked out a load of air, realised at this point that although the tubes were full and airlock free the cartridge didn't seem to have ink in it, not much anyway... upon putting it all back.. hit nozzle check and hey presto! perfect. It's now been printing for the last two days and (touch wood) not missed a beat. The quality is superb and colour matching has been spot on... so in a nutshell a happy bunny for now.

Sublimated a whole load of placemats, coasters and a large A3 glass worktop saver (wow.. they get hot!..new skin slowly growing back on finger tips!) and so far everything has come out lovely.

So a big thanks once again guys and gals... may the adventure begin!

[socialgiraffe]

I can't thank you all enough for your constructive input on this thread,

Becoming a premium member would be a start

Good luck in your venture.

[kevdsn]

Becoming a premium member would be a start

Good luck in your venture.

Just doing it now mate :-)