Discussion, tips, pictures, reviews and peer to peer support for current and future owners of Belquette manufactured machines, including the MOD-1 DTG machine and the Flexi-Jet set series of printers.
I wanted to check in and see if anyone here has actually used a flexi-jet printer. I've been looking into purchasing one and heard that they were better than the t-jet ( apparently too many problems). Of course, if anyone has had good sucess with the t-jet or another model, I'd really love the imput. I been thinking a lot about purchasing a direct-to-garment printer but for that kind of money, definitely, want to get the right one. If anyone could share I'd appreciate it. Also does anyone know of some companies out there that offer direct-to-garment services. It would be nice to start out with that until I know which one I want to purchase.
Of course, if anyone has had good sucess with the t-jet or another model, I'd really love the imput.
Hi there, if you read some of the past topics in this DTG forum, you will see people that have had both positive and negative experiences with the t-jet models. You'll probably find the same with most equipment.
You'll also find topics on the machine from Brother that others have had experience with.
Here's a good topic that covers a lot of the machines:
Good evening,
I have a Brother and love it, although it cannot print black shirts and white ink. I have screenprinting for that.
I have not been able to find many people that print white with the flexi, as I have been looking into one also, but I am thinking I will just stick with Brother until they can come out with another great printer to do white ink
I don't know if this will help but it's just my opinion
I have seen the Flexijet work on white shirts and it worked great. I have not seen it demonstrated on dark garments.
Colorado Timberline does direct to garment printing. I have used them and the price was great $3.50 + shipping per shirt and this included the white T-shirt. They have a 9 piece minimum.
FLEXIJET...I received samples from several companies, and nothing, Nothing looked as good, as crisp, as detailed as the flexijet samples. I gave the long tshirt with the 40" rose to my wife and she was thrilled. One wash. One wash and the lovely red rose started to fade already. The green stem still looks okay, but, other items washed with the shirt are pinky. I guess the technology ain't ready yet, so I will wait.
I have had a decent amount of experience working with a Flexi-jet printer, as I actually worked with the guys at ALL AMERICAN SUPPLY in Philadelphia directly on several occasions to make sample shirts of my own design. I'm not a screen printer by trade so I can't speak to the business ins and outs of the machine, but from a person using the machine for FASHION brand screen-prniting I was extremely impressed
using is on white a light colored I had great success with the actual prniting process, I got amazing results in both color and image accuracy. The only problems I encountered with the machine was ling up the graphics and then in the drying process. We dried the shirts using a heat press and with certain colored and the heat from the press actually effected to color of the shirt, either causing the fabric area around the prnit graphic to become either lighter or darker depending on the blank
The white ink Method worked, but pretreating the shirts with their machines took too long and was far from a scientific process. The pretreatment works, but it leaft the shirts I used it on with a kind of oily feel on the inside.
the biggest pros I could speak on about the machine would be that it is amazing for short run, multicolor print light colored shirt. I personally favor the actual ink itself on printed shirts because it had has the consistency and texture of water based ink printing without the hassles most facilities give you for wanting to use water based inks. One great success I had was with doing multi-colored prints onto the collar of the T-shirt, which is usually unheard of from most domestic screen printers. You basically get the print quality of top shelf designers brands like TRUE LOVE AND FALSE IDOLS
My biggest complaints about the machine are as follows
-Less effective then advertised for dark colored/ white ink shirts
-Too Narrow a print area, 15 inches max just doesn't really cut it for everything, especially when compared to the 50 plus inches of height on the L model
-The machine does require a STRICT maintenance regiment if you want to be able to continue to use it. Several local shops I know that have it have trouble keeping the machines running because they let the ink sit to long
MY SINGLE BIGGEST COMPLAINT THOUGH IS THAT I SIMPLY CAN'T FIND ENOUGH LOCAL PRINT SHOPS IN THE NEW JERSEY AREA WHO OFFER PRODUCTION QAUNTITIES AND PRICES ON THE MACHINE AND ACTUALLY HAVE THE MACHINE RUNNING TO USE. I HAVE HAD TO DRIVE AS FAR AS BALTIMORE TO RUN MY PRODUCTION RUNS WHICH IS REDICULOUS. AS A CUSTOMER OF SEVERAL PRINT SHOPS I LOOK FOWARD TO THE MACHINE BECOMING MORE POPULAR CAUSE I KNOW I HAVE WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
Last edited by sunnydayz; April 17th, 2008 at 05:24 PM.
Reason: Removed Email
MY SINGLE BIGGEST COMPLAINT THOUGH IS THAT I SIMPLY CAN'T FIND ENOUGH LOCAL PRINT SHOPS IN THE NEW JERSEY AREA WHO OFFER PRODUCTION QAUNTITIES AND PRICES ON THE MACHINE
Just curious as to what you consider production quantities and prices?
I have been quoted and paid prices around 3-5$ per shirt (no white ink) and I consider production to 50 plus shirts of the same design, similar to any print shop using normal screen printing machinery.
I currently have 1 print graphic that I expect to be printing several 100 prints of as soon as I find a new print shop (my local shops machine is supposedly down, first no ink now the claim a piece has broke) with preferably a LONG BASE flexijet machine
thanks for all your help Mark, in a short time you have proved to be extremely helpful. I will be reaching out to east@contractdtg.com tonight, hopefully I will hear back from them soon. I hope they can accomodate me, as my image is 14.5 inches in width 25 in height.
Sorry, but the Kornit does not print 25" long. You need to look at a Flexi-Jet or a T-Jet Jumbo. There is another company on this forum that has a T-Jet Jumbo in the MA. Here is a link to their site - http://www.jmclothing.com/. He goes by JMclothing on this forum. You can contact him.
will do, I'm also looking at teeburn in baltimore. it is all very annoying though, because regardless of where I choose I will have to drive all the T-shirts to the location because the blanks are already purchased