Brother printers for sublimation use.

[JSR]

mind tell him to add the £22 for the 3yr warranty....worth its weight in gold that one !

I didn't mention that but I'm sure he'll read this thread.

The most recent printer I bought for dye-subbing only cost me £22 anyway... When it's done all it can, the skip is welcome to it! :biggrin:

[danm]

Thanks guys, about to leave work and head home to collect it from the lady.

I am tempted to buy the 5910dw - the only worry being that it uses LC-1240 cartridges. I'd need to spend another £40 on an empty set.

That said, if I get it to work, I could always sell it with the empties and use the profit towards the 5910dw.

Do you know how long the PC World offer is on until? And is it the square trade warranty?

John Lewis has it for £99.95 until 31st May - somewhere I have more faith in returning to than PC World. So that's good to know I have some time to decide.

Right time to pack up. Fingers crossed!

[bigj2552]

Thanks guys, about to leave work and head home to collect it from the lady.

I am tempted to buy the 5910dw - the only worry being that it uses LC-1240 cartridges. I'd need to spend another £40 on an empty set.

That said, if I get it to work, I could always sell it with the empties and use the profit towards the 5910dw.

Do you know how long the PC World offer is on until? And is it the square trade warranty?

John Lewis has it for £99.95 until 31st May - somewhere I have more faith in returning to than PC World. So that's good to know I have some time to decide.

Right time to pack up. Fingers crossed!

£19.99 gets you -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-LARGE-EMPTY ... 337068584d

for this printer on ebay....inks sold seperate.....i bought one yesterday...should arrive tomorrow...If any good...will be buying another for the new printer that should be here fri/sat..
Inks from same seller are cheap to ( not sublimation inks )....this can be used for your sub inks when you get em m8 ( seperate ones for sub & ordinary printing obviously ! )....what i,m gonna be using for sub & non sub work ..works out way, way cheaper either using sub ink or ordinary inks !

AND...
what the hell is a "square trade warranty".....

and i wouldnt think this deal will be there after april.....has been going for a while now !

Johnny...

[danm]

Printer has landed, as has the freebie Epson dx3800.

Didn't do anything with either as I decided to go see battleship at the cinema (good movie, think transformers on steroids with fake cheese on top...always with the cheese!)

I'm told the owners husband tried various ways to fix the non colour printing issue, didn't say exactly what, but is bet it was only one or two clean cycles before they gave in.

The plus is that they bought the same model again as they said it was such a great unit.

The guy passing on his Epson preached only for ciss and Epsons, saying never buy a brother. Fanboys will be fanboys! He is a photographer slash photoshop imagery whizz, so meh.

I guess if I buy the pc world deal and don't touch it until the oldie works, I have a few weeks to return it if the old model surpasses expectations. But ill end up with both, I just know it haha.

Time to order hi capacity cartridges - any recommended sellers in particular? For a few pounds difference between several I've seen across the bay, are there any types to avoid?

[JSR]

Time to order hi capacity cartridges - any recommended sellers in particular? For a few pounds difference between several I've seen across the bay, are there any types to avoid?

I've always got mine from this company: http://www.printercartridges.net/printe ... &cPath=116

You should be able to use the code "rc1" to save £2 on any order over £15 (as stated here: http://www.ink-girl.co.uk/ ). They're on eBay, too.

[danm]

Thanks JSR - I am going to order a set of cartridges in the next hour for the older model first.I am a little uncertain on how to approach the whole cleaning process too. I presume most guides for epsons can be followed, with the generic Brother equivalent clean cycles etc.

I also need to buy some sub ink - but as sub ink is more expensive, would it be silly to purchase regular ink during the whole unclogging/cleaning process to see if it works to start with, rather than waste expensive resources using sub from the start? The reason being that is is a hell of a lot cheaper to try it this way should the clean cycles use up shitloads of matter (I've read that 10 cycles should clear it).

I'm not sure how messy it is to get it running with regular inks and tidy that up for sub inks after. Is it worth the risk? Bear in mind it has had old inks previously, so ill have to flush it regardless.

The isoproply alcohol pen arrived this morning, nice bonus.

So should I get it running a set of cheap ink first? Or jump the gun and straight into subs and cleaning?

I've read a bit into the Ricoh system of 'sucking out' almost a full cartridge into the system for those models - do Brothers' do anything similar? I apologise if these are novice questions, but info on the Brother is relatively scare.

[JSR]

I've read a bit into the Ricoh system of 'sucking out' almost a full cartridge into the system for those models - do Brothers' do anything similar? I apologise if these are novice questions, but info on the Brother is relatively scare.

There's a lot of FUD going around about how Ricoh printers "waste" loads of expensive ink if you've first put normal ink in and you want to flush it out to get the new dye-sub ink flowing through it.

Logic dictates, however, that the only ink being "wasted" is that ink that's already in the lines between the cartridge and the printhead. As soon as the ink is at the printhead, you can start using the ink so you're not really "wasting" it at all. It only appears to be wasted because the ink levels go down to indicate how much ink is in the lines - not because it's been wasted.

The Brother printers are no different, except that there are no chips on the cartridges so you're not held to ransom by software dictating that you're out of ink when you're not.

The last printer I bought off eBay had regular dye ink in. To change the ink,all I did was to get a set of regular size Brother cartridges and fill them with 100ml of cleaning fluid (bought off ebay for a couple of quid) - 100ml will fill all four of the regular size cartridges. Then I printed pages of colour to clear out the unwanted dye ink until no colours were printing (indicating that the clear cleaning fluid was coming through). Then I swapped the cartridges out for ones that had dye-sub ink in and did the same "print pages of colour" to clear out the cleaning fluid. Once all four colours are coming through fine, you know you're ready to print. How much dye-sub ink was wasted? Hardly any at all.

If you're trying to get a blocked printer unblocked, then I would suggest a similar tactic. Either use cleaning fluid or buy regular dye ink (a tenner will get you 100ml of all four colours), and use that while doing all your unblocking. Once you're unblocked, flush out with cleaning fluid and then feed through with dye-sub in new cartridges.

[danm]

That's what I was thinking RE: using the regular dye ink for checking it works after the clean.

Thanks again JSR - I'll add the cleaning fluid to my list probably from the same ebay seller if they have it.

Did you have a spare set of empty cartridges just for the cleaning fluid use? Or did you obtain a set of generic Brother cleaning cartridges with cleaning fluid?

The lack of chips is definitely a positive - but what happens when the ink does indeed run out? Does it go on and on until nothing comes out? Is it merely a case of keeping an obvious eye on it (anyone who can't see ink levels dropping must have a potato for brains).

I can't get over what a fat pie this machine is - it's the size of a flipping microwave!

Edit - the ink woman has them - £13 for four cleaning cartridges. Think I will go with these!

[JSR]

Did you have a spare set of empty cartridges just for the cleaning fluid use?

I did do that, yes. As my printers all take the same cartridges, I figured it was better just to leave the excess cleaning fluid in a set of cartridges in case I ever needed them in the future. I find it useful to have plenty of spare cartridges around because of trying out different inks and using the different printers. The last thing I want to be doing is accidentally mixing inks/cleaning fluid in the same cartridge. But there's no reason you can't just clean them out, let them dry, and refill them, I suppose.

The lack of chips is definitely a positive - but what happens when the ink does indeed run out? Does it go on and on until nothing comes out? Is it merely a case of keeping an obvious eye on it (anyone who can't see ink levels dropping must have a potato for brains).

It's a combination of memory and a physical sensor, from what I can tell.

When you replace the cartridges, the printer asks if they are new ones or not. If they are new ones, it resets its own counter. It then seems to estimate how much you're using. However, this "estimation" doesn't appear to have any effect on how you use the printer - it's purely to give the status monitor something to go on.

On the physical side of things, the cartridge has a black plastic "floatation" marker that sticks out on the far side of the cartridge. While there's plenty of ink in the cartridge, the plastic pivots up which forces the "sticky out side" down. When the cartridge is nearing empty, the plastic pivots down which forces the "stick out bit" up. This moving black plastic is what triggers the sensor so the printer can tell you that you're running out.

If you're using the giant 80/100ml cartridges, though, you can just top the ink up while the cartridges are still sitting in the printer. You'll never run out of ink this way. By example, my 5890CN uses the 80/100ml cartridges with regular dye ink in them. The "status monitor" indicates that all four cartridges are running on dregs of ink, but they're all almost 50% full. The printer doesn't care because the black device is telling it that there's still plenty of ink there. Until that moves, the printer won't complain that it's running on empty (even if the status monitor says it is).

I'm using the smaller cartridges in my 295CN so I can't see the ink levels without removing them from the printer. They started running out recently and the printer does stop you from draining it dry. I took the opportunity to top up all four cartridges, told the printer that they were new ones, and all were good to go.

Before refillable cartridges were available, the easy way to refill these cartridges was to refill a "used" cartridge and then cover the sensor area with black tape. It's much better with refillable cartridges.

[danm]

Excellent!

I am bunching up my order now - I almost want to go for the smaller cartridges for aesthetic value and the fact I can close the lid and not have them stick out. Petty, but it bothers me as the machine is big enough as it is. Refilling isn't an issue for me - I do wonder if there is any variation on how quickly the larger/smaller cartridges dry up. I guess as long as they are sealed/cleaned if not used for a while, all will be ok. That, or run a print once a week to keep them alive.

JSR - I think I will try the economy chinese inks I have seen to try this out - but perhaps go for a slightly better quality of sub paper. This purely based on my experience of photo printing - the ink can be as cheap as chips, but if the paper is poor, results will always be poor.

Correct me if I am wrong though! Which papers are you using with the Brother?