Pigment printer for transfers

[Markola]

Yes the cartridges do have a float inside. The printer throws a bean of light lat reads the ink level. This is thwarted by a black bit of plastic on the refillable carts. However on mine they also have the chip. I presume this counts the amount of runs the cart has done? Still messing with it to get it working again. I have a feeling that the carts I bought were not the best and the company I bought them from give zero support and almost never answer their phone. Swapping the chips around a couple of times looks to have done the trick.
Still had no blockages and printed almost 200 a3 transfer sheets.

[rossdv8]

I just checked my old original cartridges and the refillables. No chips in either. That means the later model brother you bought must have chips :-( Bummer. I hate printer chips. For now though the only problem I've had in hundreds of pages on all the Brother 6510 printers is the cartridge sensor and the magenta clogging occasionally on the pigment printer, and some odd paper feed problems on the one I use for A3 Dye Sub.

I print a lot on canvas, and so far the Brother 6510 I use for that has been brilliant.

[rossdv8]

Just another thought on the Brother A3 printer, in my case MFC-J6520DW running Epson compatible pigment ink.
I don't buy from this mob, but they advertise high quality inks and their 480ml bottles are pretty good prices. I have bought ink from the USA and postage wasn't bad.
http://www.inksupply.com/arcink_mispro.cfm

Also, as I mentioned in an early post. Leave the Brother turned ON all the time. It will waste ink, but not as much as an Epson. One of mine does its self clean about 11pm, and the other, some time in the early morning. You can;t change the timer as far as I know.

Also, if you do a standard nozzle check each day, you probably won;t have clogging problems as I do. Sometimes I leave mine a week or two while I'm away, or for a month or more if I'm overseas. So I deserve problems, even though I'm lucky.

On the control panel press Menu
First item on screen should be 'Ink Management' - Press OK
Next you should see 'Test Print. - Press OK
Next it should say 'Print Quality' - Press OK
Then it should say 'Press Start' - Press the GREEN start button (Colour)

It uses stuff all ink, and you get to see the nozzle check. If one set is not showing properly, do a clean. As I've said, with mine it is usually Magenta, but once in a while if I have been overseas for a month or more there might be others. Very rarely it is black.

The other thing to do is obvious. Load the Brother with A4 paper and use it for your day to day printing. And print colour pages regularly.

For a start, you'll notice odd colours if anything is wrong, and also you will keep ink flowing through the nozzles.

I use cheapo ink. I mean really cheap Epson compatible pigment ink. I expect chunks of stuff to float around in it. Once in a while I let the cartridges get low remove them one at a time, and flush with cleaning fluid.
I don;t know if it is a good idea or not. but I do it pretty religiously once each year or two.

[Markola]

Once again Rossdv8 Thanks for the pointers. I have been following your advice and so far no blockages. As a result I am up and running at a fraction of the cost. So far the brother has more than paid for its self and I'm going to get another for dye sub. Have a great Christmas.

[rossdv8]

Hi Markola,

I was looking at possible replacements for my Brother 6510 printers yesterday just out of curiosity, and I saw Brother MFC-J6520DW are on sale for a couple of hundred dollars. So if mine were to die today there's a chance to replace them and have all my ink cartridges simply interchangeable. The new ones even look prettier.

Let me know when you are going DyeSub. I would suggest you get an ICC profile made by Paul, because you wil probably be doing what I do and putting Epson dye sub inks through the Brother printer. I'll give you some settings to try in GIMP (like Photo Shop, but free). These settings will let you print out some test prints. If you have a flat bed press, you can do what I have suggested in other threads on the forum. Buy some cheap 100% polyester WHITE bed sheets and cut them up and use the pieces to make test prints. Much cheaper than wasting blanks.

And if you PM me when you can I'll give you my email address and make a suggestion for something else to do in Pigment if you keep it under your hat.

Also, think about downloading a program called LibreOffice. It is completely free.
http://www.libreoffice.org/
Google 'LibreOffice Draw' to see lots of stuff about it, and also click Images and you can see some examples of what it can do. It is like an earlier version of CorelDraw and works the same way. But it is also a full Scalable Vector Graphics program.

Just another of those free tools that people just don't know about - so they spend a thousand dollars on commercial stuff. Even if you don;t use it for graphics it is a good office suite and has had things like one click PDF creation for many, many years. For a long time it did things you couldn't even dream of doing with MS Office.

Anyway, Happy Christmas.

have fun,

RossD

[Bob @ Prestige]

Ross and Markola

Have enjoyed reading this thread, mainly interested in the printer choices you made, I've got an Epson with standard inks, dye based I think, and have tried the Jet pro soft stretch transfer papers on some t shirts and have to say the results have been really good.

I know a lot of guys, in fact most of you recommend pigment and I understand the dye based should run and not last but seem to be ok.

I was looking at the Epson 1500 W with a ciss system rather than refillable cartridges should things go as I hope for the t shirts for image transfers (I do have a solvent printer with printable vinyl but actually like the look and feel of the ink transfered image better.

Bob

[rossdv8]

Any time you're reading anything I've written in a thread, please remember I am a hobbyist. Think market stall quantities. It would be a rare day when I would sell more than 20 canvases and 40 mugs. The average day is more like half that. So I can justify experimenting with stuff that should not work. And I like doing unusual stuff, like polymer coating pre-stretched canvas and sublimating to it.

So while what I write is about my practical experiences (and my experiences with Brother printers has been excellent compared to Epson) there are some really compelling reasons people relying on this work for a living tend to use Epson.

I usually can't see a lot of difference in the work I do because I work almost entirely with landscapes. But if you are working mostly with skin tones or with logos, you might want to consider using inks formulated for your specific printer, and even having an ICC profile done for your pigment printer.

I do a lot of canvas wall art. and the same think applies to canvas as does to Dye Sublimation. You get different degrees of white in the substrate. At the moment the canvas I have for my pigment prints is not as bright a white as the canvas I was using 6 months ago. So all my prints look just a little different.

Which meant I either need to change canvases, or, have a profile done to suit them.

Cheers,

[GILSAN]

RossD and Markola

I've also been following this thread with a great interest, and I must say it's been a treasure trove of great info. I'm a newbie that is very keen in getting into Printing T-shirts and canvas to start with and latter get into Mugs and ceramic tiles.

Initially I was thinking of getting an Epson Workforce WF-2650-DWF or other similar WF series which uses pigment ink. The main reason for picking Epson is the fact that since I live in Madeira Island we have an Epson Shop here if I need any maintenance.

But, after reading your very convincing and pretty detailed posts I'm now inclined towards a Brother printer. Problem is we don't have a Brother shop here in the island, so in case of maintenance I'd need to send to mainland Portugal which believe me, is always a bit of a hassle.

I'm particularly keen to know more about your canvas wall art. I take a lot of photos around the island so I have lots of great looking scenic shots of this very rugged, but spectacular island which I want to transfer to canvas. From what you say, you are using your Brother to print onto canvas, is that correct?

Would love to know more about this, if you are willing to share your experiences

Gil

[rossdv8]

Hi Gil,

If you look again at the beginning of this thread, I hope you'll see it is not an advertisement for Brother printers :-) The original poster was looking for ideas and I happen to use Brother because they have some A3 models which are priced cheaply enough to be considered throw away items if they break.

The only possible reason I can see for you to choose a Brother over the Epson Workforce WF-2650-DWF, is that some Brother printers are A3 size and I believe the Epson 2650 is only A4. If you plan to print small canvases I think A3 is a necessity. I tried A4, they look lousy. As you will see below, even A3 is small.

However, Epson have some A3 printers that are affordable. And you have a place nearby that sells Epson. It will probably cost you more to import Brother printers with no support than to use Epsons with support.

So some of the things you would need to ask Epson.

Can you get large refillable cartridges like the ones we use in our Brother printers?
If you can't, can you get an easy to install CISS?
Do they have an A3 model that will take A3 canvas sheets?
Can you get bulk pigment inks that are affordable?

By using Brother printers with Epson inks, you will lose some of the vibrant appearance of the colours. Especially if you choose to use the newest Epson inks, and if you can get a high quality white canvas. I make prints for a mass tourist market for people who buy on impulse, and are not looking for the highest possible quality. And I use my own photos, so only I know if the product is the same as the original. They are simple A3 hangings (not stretched). Just hung like a poster.

Here are a couple of rejects I kept from when I was experimenting with ideas and methods of hanging them. I have settled on a simple cost effective and more buyer friendly method since then, but it will give you an idea how the idea started out.

[rossdv8]

BTW, the pictures are not blurry, my camera was not still :-)