Advice for all the newbies here

[purpledragon]

Hi Guys
there seems a lot of new members to the forum recently asking similar questions, but one thing that seems to scream out is how much you new guys are paying for your equiptment and what you expect from it so heres a couple of lines of advice take it or igonore it its up to you.

1. Cheap equiptment gives cheap results simple . So many posts here start with im on a budget so i bought this off ebay and i cant get a decent print. is that really suprising ?beg steal or borrow but remember the if you want saleable goods from a sustainable peice of equiptment you gotta pay for it. Before buying put the company name in the search here see what the others on here say about it we are a nation of moaners apparantly so one things certain bad experiances are well documented. Lovecut is a fine example i have a large press from them it cost £300 a peice on it broke 2 weeks after buying it i fixed this with a botch but you dont expect that. The press served me well after my various fixes it lasted nearly 2 years great if i only wanted to be in business for 2 years. My next press is a stahls and cost me £1200 what a huge differance the build quality is second to none and i have the manufactuirers back up .... very important .

2. Cheap consumables also a false ecomomy how many of you are printing stuuff out and theres black ink spots on your print or the paper jams i suspect cheap paper here, my epson 1400 hates cheap paper with a vengance i use trupix paper with no problems ever over christmas bms ran out of a3 plus size trupix so i had to buy xpres paper and boy did that stuff give me problems jammed printers crap prints ink spots the lot keep away from that stuff

3. cheap printables really guys do you want that customer to come back to you? dont scimp on quality here i read a post recently printer ink and mugs all bought from ebay and now the print after a week is rubbing off the mug. Theres a good reason why that mug might be a bargin price of 50p each when im spending £1.00 for dishwasher proof mugs . consider this one of my biggest returning customers started off by the guys wife buying him a joke mug for his birthday. He was impressed with the mug and i now do all his promo work do you think he woulda come back had the print faded after a week. Good reputaion is extremely hard to gain but can be lost in an instant.

4. copyright .... dont be fooled i bet most of us on this forum has sailed close to the wind on this one and believe me it just aint worth it you will be found printing that doctor who mug or the harley davidson mug could cost you thousands . I created a greta mug lovly design (my own) and then i slapped the harley logo on the mug it was my best seller until i had a rather stern letter from lawyers in michigan i was lucky that time you might not be can you afford to lose your house in a law suit and btw after id taken my advert down for the harley mug i checked a week or so later on the harley site guess what the buggers were using my design grrrrrrrrr really though cant stress this enough it just aint worth it there are lawyers that trawl ebay etc looking for violations and then sueing on behalf of the firm thats how they make money its like ambl=ulance chasing but for copyright.

there ya go a few pearls of wisdom hope this helps a few of you new guys
Brett

[smitch6]

some brill advice there Brett.
i also use tru-pix but also use xpress for A3 stuff and so far it's been fine
i am using an epson B1100 tho

[purpledragon]

i also have a b1100 and to be honest the xpres paper does work ok on that though i do tend to get ink spots now n then but no paper jams my 1400 just will not entertain the paper i think the 1400's a bit of a snob
lol

[jennywren]

My advice is don't go cheap but to begin with to see how you will fair, aim for the middle of the road. Stick to suppliers that have had good feed back on this forum. Remember if its to good to be true then it is.

[jennywren]

My advice is don't go cheap but to begin with to see how you will fair, aim for the middle of the road. Stick to suppliers that have had good feed back on this forum. Remember if its to good to be true then it is.

[harlequeen]

My piece of advice to newbies (which I am still myself) is spend some time reading everything on this forum, old posts and new. There is so much to learn and a lot of the info is already on here. Before I took the plunge I spent a month reading opinions, etc. I think I made the right choices for me in the equipement I purchased. I a paid member of the forum now as it's already saved me more money than it costs to join, not in discounts, but in good advice and information.

Harlequeen

[purpledragon]

Didnt realise how may people from wales are on here what part you from harlequeen

[harlequeen]

I'm from Llanelli, a good hour away from you I would imagine. Where abouts in Pembroke are you?

[Ian M]

Superb advice Brett. I now use Xpres paper but, my Epson S21 is a tramp

[Paul]

Superb advice Brett. I now use Xpres paper but, my Epson S21 is a tramp

Tramp but i bet it does the job and effects areexcelent