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Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 11 Feb 2020, 22:54
by LauraMargaret
Hi all, so, the choice of printers for sublimation printing is kinda overwhelming for someone just starting out!
I’ve been looking at the Epson L805 and wondering if I really need 6 colours or if 4 will be more than sufficient for my needs. I’m going to printing mugs and my designs are fairly simple but use large areas of block colour.
Can you recommend any other decent reliable starter Epson printers I should be looking at? Budget no more than £300 really.
Also, is borderless printing important??
Thanks for your help!
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 11 Feb 2020, 23:12
by Mrteajunkie
Hi
have a look on here
https://www.inkexperts.co.uk/product-ca ... -printers/
they have starter packages for printer inks and paper.
to be honest I had a few different Epson printers all great but the refillable cartridges just kept failing.
so just bought myself an eco tank model.
for simple designs you wouldn’t need a 6 colour system unless your printing artwork
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 11:08
by Justin
I've just added the L805 to my printers. It's basically the older P50 with ecotanks attached. The P50 was always a superb 6 colour printer so the 805 extends this.
To me at least 6 colour is essential (our main printer is 8) it depends what you're printing, many folk get by perfectly well on 4 colour. Block colours can be challenging to print at times.
Borderless is irrelevant for sublimation so don't worry about that.
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 12:39
by LauraMargaret
Thanks guys.
Yeah, definitely looking at the eco tank models. Justin - how are you finding the L805 then?
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 12:40
by Justin
It's a great quality printer, a little faster than our 1500 which is basically the A3 version. I'm struggling a little with pizza wheel marks right now but I do print onto film, paper should be fine.
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 12:54
by LauraMargaret
Can I ask how much ink I should expect to get through printing mugs? I have no idea what to expect in terms of how often I will have to replace the inks!
Are the Sublinova inks good/safe for printing mugs? (you don't need a special 'food-grade' ink or anything?? Sorry, just totally new to dye sub! I'm a screen printer normally and use eco-friendly inks!)
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 13:44
by Justin
The inks will last a lot longer than you expect! it's hard to say exactly how many mugs you'll get but from experience I'm always surprised how far these go when using bulk tanks rather than carts, you won't be disappointed there.
Yes the Sublinova are fine for use on mugs, no issues.
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 14:49
by InkExperts
LauraMargaret;141850 wrote:Can I ask how much ink I should expect to get through printing mugs? I have no idea what to expect in terms of how often I will have to replace the inks!
Are the Sublinova inks good/safe for printing mugs? (you don't need a special 'food-grade' ink or anything?? Sorry, just totally new to dye sub! I'm a screen printer normally and use eco-friendly inks!)
Hi, we have calculated that 700 full coverage A4 pages can be produced using a set of 100ml of each ink (some colours still had ink left, whilst a couple of the colours had depleted) turn that into mugs you'd get 3 mug designs per A4 sheets so 2100 in total.
Based on the L805 using 6 inks, the cost of a set of Sublinova 100ml x 6 is around £48.00 meaning a single mug size print equates to just under £0.03 in ink cost.
The Sublinova inks are safe for mug printing they are not food safe as such but the ink is sealed in the polymer coating on the mug so its not really relevant as the coating makes it safe. They are also Oek Tex certified which means they are safe for use with baby and children's clothing.
I hope this helps.
Alex
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 17:07
by Daninho
LauraMargaret;141850 wrote:Can I ask how much ink I should expect to get through printing mugs? I have no idea what to expect in terms of how often I will have to replace the inks!
Are the Sublinova inks good/safe for printing mugs? (you don't need a special 'food-grade' ink or anything?? Sorry, just totally new to dye sub! I'm a screen printer normally and use eco-friendly inks!)
I am in the same boat as you with the difference that i already bought the printer and ink and all i can tell you so far is that setup of the ecotank was really easy. Its easy to fill in the ink into the tanks with syringes. I filled in 30ml from every color because i wont use all the ink in 18 months since it has a shelf life of about 18 months. So it is possible to fill in only 30ml in the beginning when you setup the printer for the first time.
After you filled in the ink it wants you to select a special program in the menu to pump the ink to the print heads, it goes automatically and the printer need 10 minutes for that. Since that day i printed a nozzle check everyday to be on the safe side. The only thing i didnt made was a firmware update because i wasnt sure if i could do that but i guess its no problem. So the FW update message is popping up everytime i switch it on and the message that i selected the wrong paper type, i have to look into it how i can disable that paper message. Others than that its nice so far.
Re: Help me choose a printer please!
Posted: 12 Feb 2020, 17:14
by InkExperts
Daninho;141871 wrote:I am in the same boat as you with the difference that i already bought the printer and ink and all i can tell you so far is that setup of the ecotank was really easy. Its easy to fill in the ink into the tanks with syringes. I filled in 30ml from every color because i wont use all the ink in 18 months since it has a shelf life of about 18 months. So it is possible to fill in only 30ml in the beginning when you setup the printer for the first time.
After you filled in the ink it wants you to select a special program in the menu to pump the ink to the print heads, it goes automatically and the printer need 10 minutes for that. Since that day i printed a nozzle check everyday to be on the safe side. The only thing i didnt made was a firmware update because i wasn't sure if i could do that but i guess its no problem. So the FW update message is popping up every time i switch it on and the message that i selected the wrong paper type, i have to look into it how i can disable that paper message. Others than that its nice so far.
Firmware updates are ok to use on Ecotank models, they are typically used to stop 3rd party ink cartridges being used in printers. As ecotank printer use no ink cartridges, they have no ill effects on the printer
The paper type message can often be solved if the printer allows you to set the Paper Setup directly from the printer (via the screen) match the paper type and size to what you are using / using in the printer preferences and this will resolve the pop up message.
I hope this helps! Alex