Hi! I am considering purchasing the new Anajet to supplement my embroidery business. I am a solo operator. I am looking for input on the pros and cons of this new, improved Anajet. My concern would be clogging of ink between runs. I know I won't run it every day. Any and all comments would be most welcome. I am fairly new to this site.
Thanks, Mona
No matter what dtg machine you're looking at, if you aren't going to run it everyday, then you'd probably be better off finding someone else to fulfill your printing needs.
I have an Anajet, and love it, but it has taken a lot of learning on my own from these forums to keep it running right. If you go this route, we'll be here to help, but you might want to try to build your printing business up with another printer first.
Not all DTG clog, I got a Brother and never have any issues with it and clean it once a month, compared to everyday when I owned an Anajet.
Anajet = Garbage : ) and if you don't believe me read about 100 threads of people bit$hing how machine is clogging, not running right ect.
Just remember as soon as you bought machine from them, they will leave you high and dry, just talked to someone yesterday that bought sprint and Anajet are still playing there little games of screwing people
You're not printing with white ink. Of course, if you're only using cmyk, the maintenance goes way down, but who doesn't want to print on darks?
I don't have any major problems with my Anajet, but I keep it clean, and I keep it printing. I think it would be reckless to advise someone to "invest" over $15k if they're only going to print a couple times per week.
Yes if using CMY ink maintenance is far lower but alot of folks may not print everyday or may print a few times a month Yes idiotic, but true, hear it all time, funny story I heard was that, someone bought a machine and didnt use for 9month at all : )
Not everyone does a thorough cleaning of machine, I suppose if you did, may guarentee longer longevitiy
If you are not going to use it every day, that will be a major problem for any machine that uses white ink. We looked at a lot of different brands, and went to a show to watch them in action. While printing on black, or very darks would be a great capability to have, the costs out weighed the bennifts for us. There is a lot of good information here on this subject. Do your research and talk to people who have one, not just who the manufacturer recommends.
As for us, after doing all the evaluations we went with the brother, one of the primary reasons is that I know we would not print everyday, and we have a sublimation printer that is a real pita so did not want another one.
If you are not going to print shirts everyday, be prepared to run the equivalent of several shirts daily, and only run the white inks when you have to.
I remember talking to Anajet Vp ( real nice guy) and he even said, after 3 days of not using white ink, will dry in lines an cause huge problems.
He recommended to put cleaning fluid in line, when white in is not in use, which I think you mention doing Sean, right?
Prob. with this is, soo much ink being waster, like $40 each time, yea you can syringe it out but come on, time = money
I remember talking to Anajet Vp ( real nice guy) and he even said, after 3 days of not using white ink, will dry in lines an cause huge problems.
He recommended to put cleaning fluid in line, when white in is not in use, which I think you mention doing Sean, right?
Prob. with this is, soo much ink being waster, like $40 each time, yea you can syringe it out but come on, time = money
Using a syringe takes seconds, so the time issue isn't an issue.
I personally don't flush my lines regularly with cleaning fluid. I mostly use distilled water, which doesn't "break down" the white ink, but it still pushes it through. I've had white ink in my system for the last 4-5 weeks without any clogs in my lines. Before that, I had white ink in for well over a month or two. I've been printing with white ink for about a year now, and I've only had my lines clog once or twice. I also have recently began flushing my head (VERY gently) with a syringe directly into a spare damper and into the head. This bypasses the tubes completely, and I use a mirror under my printhead so I can see when the nozzles are all clear.
I do keep my capping station clean and flushed regularly. This has kept my ink flowing well.
Now what I will say, is that I proactively keep my printer clean. The head, capping station, wiper blade and foam, etc. If I were simply following Anajet's recommendations, then my printer would be a clogged mess. But I've learned how to keep my printer working using these forums and the tech support at Anajet.
2009 apparently hasn't been a great year for Anajet if you just look at some of the comments around here, and I don't know why that is. What I do know is that my Anajet (purchased 7/08) works GREAT. Now that I know how to service it, I have NO complaints. I print on lights and darks with ease, and I have very little waste. In my last run of 150 black shirts I had one reject, and that's because I wasn't thinking and I "ripped" it off the platen before the color printed. (It was late, like now, and I was tired.)
I remember talking to Anajet Vp ( real nice guy) and he even said, after 3 days of not using white ink, will dry in lines an cause huge problems.
He recommended to put cleaning fluid in line, when white in is not in use.........
BJ, If you are going to quote someone, get the terminology right...... The ink will not "dry" unless two things happen. 1) contact with air, and 2)contact with the pretreatment. The reason you keep the ink flowing, or purge from the lines is that the pigments will settle. In settling, the ink may become less concentrated (for opacity on the garment) or because of settling in the dampers.... too concentrated for the ink to get through the filter in the damper, causing flow problems. You can do the auto head clean which uses up ink, or you can put that ink on a t-shirt, generating sales or profit. Printing as little as $2 worth of white ink a day will keep things suspended and flowing well. If you are going to be gone for the weekend, no problem, but because of settling you may have to agitate and purge some ink to make sure you're ready to go. If you want to save a couple of bucks, when you do your scheduled maintenance on Friday, you can also clean dampers and/or backflush lines enough so that after a short start-up procedure, you are ready and flowing for when you get back to printing. For CMYK, you could go for weeks without any of this, but you will have to make sure you have a good nozzle check before printing and make sure that the capping station is kept clean. Simple as that.
Ian
__________________ imprimeo! ....Make your mark Btownpixelprint.com Are you kidding me?Free Embroidery software?
I sent a sample to Anajet, color was hideous and after several washes started cracking.
Send me a file and I'll do it right (Shipping and Handling please). Ink will not crack unless under cured and or way too much pretreat. I've got shirts 2 years old, no cracks with slight defibrilation. Colors will depend on wether CMYK is the best gamut choice for the specific colors and how clean your file is. DTG is not always the best for a particular piece of artwork, but it does work... and quite well.
Ian
__________________ imprimeo! ....Make your mark Btownpixelprint.com Are you kidding me?Free Embroidery software?
To buy or not to buy? 
The ink will not "dry" unless two things happen. 1) contact with air, and 2)contact with the pretreatment. The reason you keep the ink flowing, or purge from the lines is that the pigments will settle. In settling, the ink may become less concentrated (for opacity on the garment) or because of settling in the dampers.... too concentrated for the ink to get through the filter in the damper, causing flow problems. You can do the auto head clean which uses up ink, or you can put that ink on a t-shirt, generating sales or profit. Printing as little as $2 worth of white ink a day will keep things suspended and flowing well. If you are going to be gone for the weekend, no problem, but because of settling you may have to agitate and purge some ink to make sure you're ready to go. If you want to save a couple of bucks, when you do your scheduled maintenance on Friday, you can also clean dampers and/or backflush lines enough so that after a short start-up procedure, you are ready and flowing for when you get back to printing. For CMYK, you could go for weeks without any of this, but you will have to make sure you have a good nozzle check before printing and make sure that the capping station is kept clean. Simple as that.
