A3 Brother

[Sbanks]

Hi, after spending all night on the forums I decided to join up this morning, this being my first real post after my intro post.

I am pretty new to having my own sublimation set up. I was about to buy a a3 epson with CISS system, but after reading a few posts on here. Mainly this one by JSR

http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/sh ... mation-use

I decided that I would go down the brother route. So last night i ordered a brother mfc-j5910dw, 4 large ciss cartridges, and a pack of A3 trupix paper. Leaving the only thing to purchase today is some ink.

Honestly, I plan / planned to get sublimation set up in January, but have been turning down so much business the last week, I kind of had to make a rush decision and get a set up to be able to do some work for the xmas rush. I was pleased with the results and what I read in the post by JSR, I am hoping that everything works out well.

Im planning to use this thread as a update to how it all sets up and works if thats ok here?

also obviously leaving it open to any advice or questions along the way.

[Paul]

Dont go for ciss fir for your bro. Get normal refillable carts.

[Sbanks]

hi Paul, sorry I did mean refillable carts, and not ciss.

this is what i got.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220929218637? ... 1497.l2649

I have read your name many times the last day or so, that you are the goto guy for completing set ups (icc profile) how would I go about this?

[pisquee]

http://www.frames4photoshop.info/custom ... ation.html

[Sbanks]

thank you very much pisquee.

is this a silly question in asking, could i be lucky and have a good set up straight away. Or you 100% NEED to sort your ICC

[daviddeer]

Definitely need the icc especially with third party inks. Must admit my profile wasn't way off the unadjusted soft proof but consistency is king and if you plan to sell you need consistent colour otherwise you'll spend endless nights explaining to customers why their sisters hair is magenta!

[rossdv8]

I'll add that I use a pair of Brother A3 printers (both are MFC-J6510DW) and they are cheap and reliable. Both run the same cartridges you got. With your cartridges will be a little bag with 4 funny clear round things each like a pair of tiny funnels joined together. These are air filters. I've added a pic that shows where they go because I completely forgot about them when I first started printing.

I have sometimes had to leave the brother for weeks at a time without printing. when I come back there is sometimes a little bit missing in the nozzle check, usually in the magenta, but a clean fixes it. Oddly, the only time I have any nozzle problems is when I am printing a lot of images one after another, but again a quick nozzle check and clean fixes it for a long time.

I find that printing 'photo' or 'best' quality makes images far darker than I like and that plain normal seems nicest. Photo and best seem to put out far too much ink and the paper is almost wet. But I cannot use an icc profile, so you might find better results.

Those big cartridges get me hundreds of A4 size prints between fills. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2235[/ATTACH]

[pisquee]

Oddly, the only time I have any nozzle problems is when I am printing a lot of images one after another, but again a quick nozzle check and clean fixes it for a long time.

I've seen this happen with tube fed CISS systems before, and put it down to either the CISS having a problem with flow/an air leak, or the printer not being able to pull from the system effectively/efficiently.

I find that printing 'photo' or 'best' quality makes images far darker than I like and that plain normal seems nicest. Photo and best seem to put out far too much ink and the paper is almost wet. But I cannot use an icc profile, so you might find better results.

Using a good quality sublimation paper, you shouldn't have problems with not enough ink being absorbed, we run our printers on the "enhanced matt" paper setting to make sure we lay down a lot of ink, and have them on maximum resolution to give us the best possible quality print. We make our own ICCs to make sure the colours are accurate. If your paper is still wet, I would question the quality of your paper, and/or your inks.

[pisquee]

Definitely need the icc especially with third party inks.

All sublimation inks are 'third party' unless you have a very expensive Epson with their sublimation inks!
Your printer (in this case a Brother) has all the colour settings in the printer driver for Brother's own inks. If you put any other ink into it, whether it be dye, pigment, or sublimation (from any company) then the printer needs an ICC to tell it how to mix the 4 different coloured liquids to make the colours that your graphics program is asking of it.

[rossdv8]

If your paper is still wet, I would question the quality of your paper, and/or your inks.

In my case the paper is from the USA and is called Texprint. It is a high release paper. As far as the printer goes I have settings for Fast, Plain, High, Photo and Best.
Printing from Windows or Mac would give a lot more settings and allow me to use profiles.
Printing from an Android tablet sort of bypasses most of those little luxuries.