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Hello Everyone,
I'm brand new to the forum. I am very confused about which Sublimation printer I should get to print my mugs
Thanks in advance for all your help :redface:is this any good to start with http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EPSON-S22-...item1c26f3f4c9d
Can't go far wrong with a Ricoh GXe3300N
I will 2nd that as well and you wont go far wrong with getting it from BMS as Martin and gang are full of help with setting up plus the advice
I am veering that way for my first printer I have to admit
looks in the FAQ section of the forum for a thread entitled "Which Printer"
You'll very quickly learn that there are 'supported' printers and lots of other printers. Buying a cheap printer isn't necessarily a cost saving. Only today I had a phone call from someone who's blues were coming out purple and getting very frustrated with the whole printing process. It soon turned out they had an Epson S22 printer and unaware that a colour profile was needed. If you go this route then you'll be entering a steeper learning curve than buying a supported printer (and cost wise there isn't much saving). Whilst a S22 printer is cheap you have to factor in £240 of ink plus empty cartridges plus ICC colour profiling and then if things go wrong you have support limited to this forum. Whereas if you buy a 'supported' printer such as mentioned here like the GXe3300 you get a printer with dedicated sublimation cartridges, colour profile support with PowerDriver software and backup support from the distributor you bought it from (including warranty on the printer).Quote:
Originally Posted by mjcb
i bought the sx130 epson printer. at first my blues were purple and god knows what the other colours were turning out like. i purchased a profile from Paul on this site and ay presto, im happy as Larry. (who's Larry)
im not sure where to get my next lot of sub ink from but can anyone tell me why would a Ricoh GXe3300N work out cheaper on ink than a epson? surely i need to buy the same bottles for either printer.
ps, im not ruling out a Ricoh GXe3300N just yet though.
The Ricoh's won't work out cheaper than the epson's on ink (and they don't take the same ink), but with the Ricoh's there is very little down time in terms of head cleaning which can (not always) be an issue with Epsons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave271069
[QUOTE=i purchased a profile from Paul on this site and ay presto, im happy as Larry. (who's Larry)
[/QUOTE]
can i ask who is paul {i am new here}so i can see about a profile thanks
if you search the forum or im sure he will pop up soon on here, Paul has a website which has some nice templates really good for people like us (beginners) and he does profile for printers which really worked well for my printer. im learning the hard way but enjoying every minute of it.
I went for the Ricoh purely because I don't sublimate every day.. so didn't want to run the risk of having any blockages.. and therefore any down time..
If I leave my Ricoh on for a couple of days because i'm using it, it does routine maintainance itself.. and then when I am not using it.. which can be up to a week at a time.. it's worked perfect every time it's started up..
Iam here :-) iam here....
I would sugest to go for ricoh if you have funds and no time to learn. But if you already got ink and printer then profile is you option :-)
Listen to Martin and Paul plus as Nikki says you can leave it and not worry ,epsons are good for constant use but in long term Ricoh works better and from experience cheaper
I would not agre with "working better" bit. But defo is easier to ise. Is like digital camera. Put on AUTO mode and start shooting. But if you want to learning curve for cheaper then.epson or brother.
hmm.....not gonna jump on the brother cart .....nope, not doing it :tongue:
and magic pauls profile---- no not doing it... saying nothing:tongue:
This is Paul : http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/member.php?4-Paul
He's Super and a Moderator/:wink:
Edit: Oops! I only read page one then posted this.:mad: ( I can't be perfect all the time.)
Jack.
Well, being short of money and always willing to go the non traditional route I took the plunge and went for a Brother A3 all-in-one for under £100, a set of refillable cartridges for £20 and filled those with bulk ink. After getting the 'out of the box' print settings adjusted with help from bigj2552 I had more than acceptable results. Profiling will give you extra comfort when printing so well worth arranging once you have worked out all the basic settings. It is worth remembering however that profiling matches your current ink to your current sublimation paper and if you change either you may require a new profile hence best to work out what combination works for you best then get that combo profiled.
The brother printer has the added bonuses imho of being able to print up to A3 size, has a built in A4 scanner and seems to work perfectly over my wireless network so can be hidden in the corner :smile:
:confused:i think i bit off more than i can chewQuote:
Originally Posted by WorthDoingRight
i like the sound off a Brother A3 but what type is conpatible
print settings adjusted what do you have to do
iam very very new to all this :confused:
it does not matter what paper you use. Its nice to use same paper but if you fancy a change then all you need to do (if any) is just change pressing time and temp a little.Quote:
Originally Posted by WorthDoingRight
if you change ink or printer then yes. new profile would be needed.
the one WorthDoingRight is talking about are same ones i bought bud - Brother 5910dw @ £99Quote:
Originally Posted by mjcb
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005QOX4K...SIN=B005QOX4K8
have a read through JSR's & my own posts + some of PAULS should enlighten you some more before you take the plunge :wink:
if you use the settings i gave to WORTHDOINGRIGHT for his 5910dw, you will get decent results almost right away - but, as stated in my(and others)posts, a profile from PAUL on here will give you maximun colour results...
and if the pocket/wallet allows - dont buy the cheap inks n papers from ebay - recipe for disaster ( most times, but not all ).
You want the good results, try and buy the best you can afford ! - thats the general word on here as well :wink:
Will save you crying later when you have to buy better inks n papers(again) - it AINT a cheap business to get up and going - well, it can be if you want to cut corners :rolleyes:
Well.. Not all that is on ebay is crap. Iam telling you something guys... I saw some decen print with inkteh ink from ebay. Bloody good andvivid colors! Iam not pushing any one to this ink. Iam not using it too. Just saw some prints and tey were excelent!
This thread - http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum...-Which-Printer - may prove helpful in "unconfusing" you.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjcb
This is an interesting topic all of its own. How can you determine what is "better ink" when the only choices we have are (i) Sawgrass, and (ii) something that isn't Sawgrass?Quote:
Originally Posted by bigj2552
Which is the best? It could be argued that Sawgrass dye-sublimation ink hasn't changed for over 10 years. Whether you use today's Epson B1100 or a 10+ year old Epson 1290S, you're buying the same Sawgrass ink. Has it changed at all over the years? Or are you buying 12 year old formulated ink for today's modern printers?
Okay, so you don't know the answer to that for non-Sawgrass ink either but higher-priced ink isn't better just because it costs more. They are all unknown inks. One just has a high price tag on it.
Perhaps if we were legally allowed to buy non-Sawgrass inks, the dye-sublimation community could do ongoing tests of alternatives to find out which really is the better ink. I bet we'd be surprised by the outcome.
I'm sure we would, I'm sure we would :wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by JSR
It would certainly be interesting and useful to the end-user if Sawgrass improved their offerings to be the very best ink on the market, which would encourage us all to use it because it turned out to be the best. As it is now, we all end up using Sawgrass ink for fear of legal implications - it doesn't matter whether the ink is the best or a pile of donkey-doings, we have no choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin
I'm sure we'd much rather be using the best ink available, rather than having legal wranglings force us into buying a single product that could be the worst.
ok i think i am going to go down the Brother 5910dw road wish me luck lol i think i might need it lol
thank you very much for all your help these last few days
what a great forum
thanks
Good luck, you'll need it.
Good luck mate. Hope you will find it problemless :-)
yep, second good luck also - hope your is as "ok" as mine have been ......so far !
TBH - if your not tech minded, i would go down the supported route......
I love tinkering and the learning curve and i,m also a gadget freak - so this kind of challenge suits me to the bone lol
but if i was NOT tech minded ect, i would def go down the supported printer route from one of the main suppliers.....
Horses for courses bud - good luck, but think long and read plenty on here BEFORE you commit to buying
Absolute rubbish, certainly on UK Ebay, there is only one real make of ink and that is InkTec. OK, it is only licensed for large format printers, and only allowed to be sold in litre quantities, but it is far from "cheap" in terms of being low quality, or inferior. Look at the papers and tests InkTec have done, but also the FLAAR report. It is bulk ink intended for professional use, on large expensive printers (costing £1000s not £100s) and for printing onto large runs of textiles (it can be used for printing directly onto poly textiles, not just using sublimation transfer paper) - an environment where they don't want a printer going down due to blockages, or a print not coming out print and 100s metres of fabric having to be binned. Yes, it isn't a "household name" as it is not intended to be used by 'small users' but in industry. It is very good ink from Korea, so not to be confused with the common phrased "cheap Chinese ink." The cheap chinese and/or unlicenced sublimation ink usually disappears from Ebay pretty quick, but InkTec inks are there and not disappearing because they are licensed by Sawgrass, and an official product in their eyes.Quote:
and if the pocket/wallet allows - dont buy the cheap inks n papers from ebay - recipe for disaster ( most times, but not all ).
Please note: Not only am I a dealer for InkTec in the UK, but also a very happy user of their inks, both sublimation and pigment. I am not posting this to attract sales, but it does frustrate me when people keep saying to avoid the inks on Ebay - as they can only really be referring to InkTec. I am certainly not the only InkTec sublimation ink seller on Ebay, but I have been doing it the longest, and have many happy customers. I happily offer support and help to them on the phone and in emails, both pre and post sale.
OK, got that off my chest - can get on with getting the trade show stuff finalised ready for tomorrow.
Just to add my two pennyworth, we got through 2 Epson R1800s over the years and when they were good they were very good but boy were they (in our experience) fussy beast and sooo prone to clogging! Had CISS for both of them and ended up putting in the separate ink waste tank (as you drill through casing you do think there goes the warranty!) and it is depressing(and expensive) to see how much ink gets flushed in cleans. And they even clogged overnight from one job to the next on occasion so it wasn't like they had been left for a while......anyway finally threw in the towel and got Ricoh GX7000 a year or so ago with Sublijet R ink carts and Powerdriver and love it love it love it:smile: I have nothing but praise for it - it has earned its keep for us! I appreciate there is a cost/benefit analysis that works different ways for different folks according to needs and work profile but its Ricoh for us!Quote:
Originally Posted by Renniwano
think you missed the bit where i said - most -but not all - and i,m NOT refering to INKTEC inks at all bud.Quote:
Originally Posted by pisquee
maybe i should have not tarred them with the cheap crap when posting this !
i take it back :wink: - not all ebayers sell crap ! - but most do !!
Absolutely, torn between the 'if it aint broke don't fix it' route and 'are we getting the best out of our equipment' with old technology - or is it new technology ink - we don't know! Having suffered windows upgrades from 3.1 (yes I go that far back lol) to ME to 2000/NT to XP to that useless crock of *** Vista and now Win 7 64 bit (that seems to have no drivers for equipment :rolleyes:) I kind of like the comfort zone of if it aint broke don't fix it! But monopolies drive me nuts and sometimes competition drives advances that are beneficial....Quote:
Originally Posted by JSR
Regards to cloging with my epsons in the past lt was all caused only when hooked up to the ciss. Ciss systems are poorly made and get the air in and thats what cas the clog. Not drying ink. Its an air!
Btw. And i had all sorts of ciss. sawgrass one, posh expensive from city ink and some cheaper ones from china. Build quality warry but i must admit all of them was saffering of head air locking. After swaped crap, useless ciss with refillables my problems ended.
My 2p :-)
In my view, the Epson R1800 should *never* have been adopted by Sawgrass as a dye-sub printer. They did it because they panicked themselves into thinking that it was the replacement for the 1290S. No one with even half a braincell believed that, and this was proven when the 1400 came along.Quote:
Originally Posted by hughb40
The R1800 was specifically designed for pigment inks with the capacity for a very tiny droplet size down to 1.5pl. It's an 8-tank printer but, for dye-sub, you're not using 8 colours to print with. The printer has two blacks - optimised for either matt or glossy paper. You're only ever going to use one black for dye-sub. The other will just disappear into the waste tank during cleaning cycles. The printer has a gloss optimiser to compensate for the gloss differential of pigment inks. You never use that with dye-sub, so you're provided with "cleaning solution" that, just like the extra black, is only there to disappear into the waste tank during cleaning cycles.
The printer has full-Red and full-Blue inks to compensate for the weak colour gamut of pigment inks in the red and blue regions. For 99% of your prints, you'll never need these. Many dye-sub inksets work just fine without a full red or full blue ink, with just the CMYK. Which leaves the other four inks of the R1800, which are CMYK.
For the vast majority of prints, you're only going to be using those four CMYK colours. The GOP/PK/RD/BU inks are largely irrelevant. Using the R1800 as a dye-sublimation printer is the printing equivalent of putting a square peg in a round hole. It's a superb printer when using pigment inks for full-colour photographs with glossy paper for long-term fade resistant purposes, but for dye-sub? No, I don't think so.
Dye-sublimation ink is a thick ink for which there is no especially-designed desktop printer. At some stage it will go wrong. Shoving it in a £400 printer, or that £2K+ one that was recently announced, is something you only do when you're afflicted with "too much disposable money syndrome". (And, boy, do I wish I suffered from that!) :biggrin:
I do have an Epson R1800 here, but I wouldn't put dye-sub ink into it if it was the last printer I had here.