My initial printer thoughts for starting with..

[Twedd]

Hi Guys as requested I am posting this here also:

I have pretty much weighed up all the pro's and cons of each process and yes I would love a dtg but I will be printing mainly onto dark tops so the budget cant stretch that far...

I am thinking of using 3 different printers for the all the printing that we are going to be offering but I am very flexible on this and will listen to you guys for any guidance....

Inkjet Epson SX130 - this printer is going to be our printer to print onto inkjet transfers for use on dark t-shirts only.

Canon Ip3600 - this printer will solely be used for edible inks to print cake toppers / cupcakes etc..

Epson Photo 1400 - this will be our main printer for printing everything else such as white/light t-shirts and anything with a polyester coating as I am wanting to set this up with a CISS system using dye sub ink...

Thanks

Alan

[Twedd]

I originally had this in my introduction and was requested to have in here also I will add a few comments from recent posts:

From ADP

its a minefield to a newbie so much choice.. I went for the Ricoh SG3110dn A4 printer for the reason that all the bits i want to do to get started it is the right size and another fact i went for Ricoh was i used to use a epson 1400 which was great being A3+ for larger prints but the person i used to work for refused to buy the correct ink and no matter how many icc profiles i had done for it the colours wernt up to scratch and it kept clogging up , If i had the money i would love to get the A3 Ricoh but as im starting on my own A4 Ricoh is a great starter and it wont clog as much as epson.

From Craig

Alan

Welcome to the forum, Firstly being new into this industry aswell there is alot of advice on here that will help along the way and also Martin/Scott at BMS ae very helpful and will giv any advice you will need.

If you join the premium membership which Justin can help you with for a small sum a year then you will more than likely receive that back on the order of your equipment.

Being new and taking advice from people i went for the ricoh gxe3300 a4 printer as i did not want the clogging/cleaning issues with the epsons etc and also the wasted ink that comes with unclogging the machine so for my only recommendation frm being new is the ricoh printers

Finally sounds like you have a good plan in running it from your shop and good luck

Craig

From Martin @ BMS

Welcome Alan

Here are my views...

SX130 is okay as a cheap entry level printer and so long as you continue to use the genuine Epson durabright inks in this printer then you can print onto printable flex as well. Do you have a cutter to cut around the shapes? If not then have a look at the Cameo cutter as this is a great little machine for cutting around images as well as offering the possibility of cutting letters for going onto garments, e.g. BECKHAM on the back of a t-shirt etc. If funds permit then I'd consider going to a laser printer as this will give you options printing onto light cotton garments using TTC3.1+ papers or onto dark garments using OBM5.6 and contour cutting around the shape. The OKI610 is recommended but a big jump in the budget. Great machine for standard office printing as well.

Summary: consider Cameo for cutting letters, SX130 okay but might become expensive to run using genuine inks.

Canon iP3600 isn't widely available now. The iP4950 is a quicker printer and same quality as iP3600 and same price I think!

Photo 1400 for sublimation. This printer has been discontinued from Epson now so no longer available new from most places. Whilst this is a 6 colour printer most sublimation printers these days are 4 colour and the colour reproduction is excellent. You don't need to go for 6 colour. The CISS system is fine, except you should expect to have a higher maintenance workload keeping this working compared to a Ricoh using a cartridge based system. Do you need a A3 printer for this? As you SX130 is A4 why do you need an A3 sublimation printer? The A4 recommended options would be the Ricoh GXe3300 or the SG3110DN.

So, assuming budget is no object I would suggest you look at the OKI C610 instead of the SX130 and consider a cutter like the Cameo. iP4950 is ideal as a edible printer and for the sublimation work if you need A3 then consider the Ricoh GXe7700 but if A4 is large enough then the GXe3300 or the SG3110DN would be ideal.

Okay, just to throw an alternative into the mix to completely confuse! The printing to light coloured cotton garments can be done with the SX130, Oki C610 or you could look at the Chromablast system. Cheaper than the laser, more expensive that the SX130 but really good results onto light/ white cotton garments. You can't print onto dark garments with this though. Personally if you're going down the dark garment route the OBM5.6 is a better material - it is thin so doesn't hang heavily on the t-shirt and if you want to experiment in the future with a good quality heat press you could look at WOW7.2 which gives you reproduction close to DTG but with the Oki laser printer.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well, I have the following printers. I have a Brother A3 MFJ5910dw that I use for sublimation using refillable cartridges. I have an Epson PX710 6 colour A4 printer that I use for standard inkjet transfers and for printing blanks for cd clocks. I have an OKI 710 that I intend to use for TTC and OBM for shirts. I have considered swapping my Brother printer over to pigment inks to allow me to print A3 size transfers and buying a cheap Epson printer (or going for the Ricoh A4) for sublimation purposes. I also have a 610mm wide chinese cutter that I use for flex and vinyl cutting and intend at some stage to add the Cameo to my equipment also due to its smaller footprint.