A4 Printer Suggestions (£600-£700 budget which must include heat press)

[BMB]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the forums after being a long time lurker. We've finally decided to take the plunge and start offering custom t-shirts etc. for our bears and we've decided on dye sublimation. However before we go out and buy a printer (we think the Sawgrass SG400 would be ideal for us as we only need A4 prints for teddy bear t-shirts) I thought i'd post and just ask if anyone had any better suggestions. Our £600-£700 budget must also include a heat press which I think will be a harder decision and I will ask advice on that in the heat press forum.

Thanks for your help and time!

[socialgiraffe]

The Sawgrass is a superb A4 printer that is very reliable and very stable for sublimation work where it is not used everyday.

Sublimation ink is quite thick so you do not want the heads to clog, the Sawgrass (rebadged Ricoh SG) is the best on the market for this although there are some Epson's that come close. I have a little Ricoh SG3100 here which bangs out about 500 prints a week. Its about 7 years old now and still works like it did when I first got it.

Loads of different suppliers on here for your requirements, the guys below are the ones I would trust to sell me a great printer with the back up you might require. The list below is in no particular order:

Inkexpress.co.uk
Listawood Trade Supplies
Dye Sublimation Supplies
The Magic Touch

Ink Express and Dye Sub Supplies sell different inks than the Sawgrass and you will see lots of different opinions on which ink set to use. Up to you on that one and not something I will get involved in

[webtrekker]

Hi Rob. I agree with everything SG says above. I'll just add that, seeing as your budget is tight, you may not be happy paying the (extortionate, in my opinion) prices for genuine Sawgrass inks. Do a little more research and you'll find third-party inks that perform as good as, if not better than, Sawgrass at a fraction of the price.

BTW, I know you just want to knock out some teddy bear shirts but, believe me, sublimation is addictive and you may soon find yourself branching out. Be warned!

[BMB]

Thank you both for your input, it's really useful to me and it sounds like the [LEFT]Sawgrass SG400 is the right printer for us at the moment (as we won't be printing daily by all means and as webtrekker says the only plans we have are teddy bear t-shirts - unless I do get addicted!) It sounds like I am going to have to dedicate some time to ink research (something I didn't consider - but thanks for letting me know).[/LEFT]

[mr-gobby]

You mention heatpresses and again buying wisely as you can obtain good quality ones secondhand which will save you at least half the cost. Adkins as a brand is reliable and has uk service and support, thay are often rebranded as both Magic Touch and Xpress, two big resellers in the market offer them themselves, so you get the idea they are popular. Other makes are pressmech which is another UK based supplier and then there are Stahls and SEFA even Siser all big name brands with good reputations. There are cheaper options which may or may not work, one thing which is important is temperature consistancy over the whole heatplate surface area, no more than 5% and preferably less, I think Adkins claim within 2% or 3% tolerance. Some cheap ones will be all over the place in that respect and cause you issues if not with your teddy shirts then with the other things you will no doubt end up trying! Good luck.

Oh and the SG400 is a great unit, we use one too with Sawgrass inks, yes you pay for these inks and the setup but with machine warranty its part of the deal for a couple years, then you might think to change later or have the confidence to use other inks (some are much cheaper) but for consistancy, support and reliabilty with a new SG400 I personally think Sawgrass ink is the best way to start. We began with an older model (new) Ricoh 3110 that was £50 as going out of production and some cheap inks, that worked fine for a year but colour matching wasnt as easy and it wasn't as consistant with the results in the end but then that setup cost us less than £100 new all in with refillable carts and the ink at the time so it was worth the dabble and paid for itself as ultimately all this equipment does over the medium term though you may need to revise your budget, if you go cheap you buy twice and everyone here will tell you exactly the same on that so ultimately it's a better investment to spend a little more as it goes a lot further!

[BMB]

Thank you for that information, I will have a look at the brands you mention (I presume they may be out of my league at the moment but it's useful to know at least). Also thanks for the information and experience about the ink!

You mention heatpresses and again buying wisely as you can obtain good quality ones secondhand which will save you at least half the cost. Adkins as a brand is reliable and has uk service and support, thay are often rebranded as both Magic Touch and Xpress, two big resellers in the market offer them themselves, so you get the idea they are popular. Other makes are pressmech which is another UK based supplier and then there are Stahls and SEFA even Siser all big name brands with good reputations. There are cheaper options which may or may not work, one thing which is important is temperature consistancy over the whole heatplate surface area, no more than 5% and preferably less, I think Adkins claim within 2% or 3% tolerance. Some cheap ones will be all over the place in that respect and cause you issues if not with your teddy shirts then with the other things you will no doubt end up trying! Good luck.