Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
I am new here so an introduction first. I am David...owner op. of motoskingraphix. We do custom auto graphix, logos and t-shirts (heatpress) on site. We sell through our website and do custom import/truck shows. We probably do 2 to 3 events a month. I am interested in anyone who has used the new T-Jet technology. I have seen the price of this unit drop in half within a year. In reality...I think its just an epson printer but would like some feedback from anyone who has purchased the damned thing. If you have any questions about onsite selling, heatpress, airbrush, vinyl graphics...please ask...I will be glad to help in anyway I can.
I am new here so an introduction first. I am David...owner op. of motoskingraphix.
Welcome David,
I'm fairly new here also although I have been doing shirts for years
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We do custom auto graphix, logos and t-shirts (heatpress) on site. We sell through our website and do custom import/truck shows. We probably do 2 to 3 events a month. I am interested in anyone who has used the new T-Jet technology.
I owned a T-jet table top model for almost a year. I sold it this past March as it was not a fit for my business.
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I have seen the price of this unit drop in half within a year.
Where have you been looking? The price has increased actually. When i got mine the price was "$10,995". I then upgraded to white ink and it was another $2895.00. They shortly after i purchased my machine came out with the T-jet2 which is going for $14,995. So i'm very curious where you have seen the price drop almost in 1/2?
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In reality...I think its just an epson printer but would like some feedback from anyone who has purchased the damned thing. If you have any questions about onsite selling, heatpress, airbrush, vinyl graphics...please ask...I will be glad to help in anyway I can.
The T-jet is an Epson 2200 printer which has been modified to work to print on T-shirts. I owned their first model which was a "red" machine. The Red model is more "versatile" than what they sell now. The new model called T-jet2 is the same machine as the "RED" machine except the "look" was spiced up, i can print a little larger and has a laser beam that causes the machine to "stop" if the bed is too high.
The Red machine "called a T-jet Standard" can print either 7 ink colors (no white) or if you have the white ink upgrade you will be printing using the same bulk ink system that house the ink but in it will be 4 ink colors and the other 3 recepticles use white ink. I have read recently you can use the Fast T-jet Inks (7 ink colors) in combination with the (Fast T-jet Ink2 version) in the RED machine. But you can't use the "7 ink colors" batch of ink in the T-jet2.
The fast T-jet2 batch of ink is more vibrant.
The new model called the T-jet2 can "ONLY PRINT" the 4 ink colors and white ink. Therefore if you "can't" get the white ink process down so you can print on black and dark shirts you are pretty much wasting a lot of productivity only being able to print on White and Light Shirts. The machine that has "white ink" inside requires special care and several cleanings a day to keep the white ink moving through the lines and prevent it from "clogging" so you need to make sure you do a lot of printing as it can be come wasteful to do 2-3 cleanings a day and not be printing anything.
Anyway,
Here's a good article i found recently that explains about the "white ink" technology which may help you better understand what you are up against.
As i said I sold mine recently. Reading the article I now understand why I had problems and could never get the white ink to work. I don't regret selling my machine. The person that purchased mine is have "great success" with it so what works for 1 person may not work for another.
Also,
There's a checklist that may help you with considering these machines. You may find a lot of the questions are things you would never think to consider but when you get all the answers you will have enough information to make a well informed decision on which machine is right for you.
Very informative response and I appreciate the firsthand info. The pricing came from my vinyl dist. when the units were first coming out...well before white printing was available. I think they were throwing numbers out around $20,000 to 30,000 for the unit before they even had one. Now I see them around $14,000. I still think the unit is overpriced for what it can do....As with any new tech. it will be reworked, improved upon and eventually dropped in price hopefully. Thank you again for all the great info!
Those articles were excellent by the way!!!!
Last edited by MotoskinGraphix; May 9th, 2006 at 07:14 AM.
Hi PC!
I hadn't seen any posts from you at the screenprinters forum. I guess now I know why.
I have the red t-jet and love it. But I admit removing the white set up until some of the bugs get worked out. There has been really good progress made though and I will look at setting up the white again after I get moved. Argh...
In my opinion, if a person wants quality prints the DTG is the way to go. If you want high production talk to the screen printers. If you want alot of specialty work (puff, glow, etc) talk to the screenprinters. If your budget is tight talk to the transfer folks. But watch out for the companies that offer great deals on equipment (any kind) without backing it up with support. There are people that float the forums doing covert sales jobs. LOL
Yes, my t-jet is gone so I haven't been on the board a lot. i still stop by from time to time to see how things are progressing with the white.
I really couldn't afford to wait for them to perfect it. Actually i'm sure you know i loved my t-jet. Then i upgraded to white and it drove me crazy.
Anyway, hubby wanted to sell it so we did and now we take delivery of a Brother on Thursday. He's not computer savy so we had to have something that was a less complex.
Just before i sold mine they announced the "1440 dpi underbasing" but by that time hubby was just ready to sell.
I miss our conversations regarding your FastT, Printchic. As you know I've been involved in the direct flatbed technologies with the first ever "red" machine and the last one sold last week, before it became known in the garment industry. Things are looking good in the direct to garment, and direct to other products market, and I'm just loving the ride. Things are moving fast with the new possibilities with different inks and technologies advancements.
Hi again Printchic!
You've always provided such great info and advice in the past. Thank you. Please let us know how it goes with the Brother. Best of luck!
I miss our conversations regarding your FastT, Printchic. As you know I've been involved in the direct flatbed technologies with the first ever "red" machine and the last one sold last week, before it became known in the garment industry.
I miss you guys also but since I dont't have a machine anymore i just pop in to see how things are going now and then.
I see the person that bought my machine has become very active on the board. He loves the machine so I feel to that the machine is getting great use.
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Things are looking good in the direct to garment, and direct to other products market, and I'm just loving the ride. Things are moving fast with the new possibilities with different inks and technologies advancements.
Dave / LipChip
Yes they are. I was very excited when I saw the t-jet as I had been looking for years for that type of technology. I did transfers for years and saw this as a faster and easier way to product garments. Although I didn't keep the t-jet i knew I wanted to stay within the DTG arena and spent the last couple months trying to drum up the funds for another machine.
It's really going to be interesting watching this technology grow and seeing what new things come out.
Hi again Printchic!
You've always provided such great info and advice in the past. Thank you. Please let us know how it goes with the Brother. Best of luck!
Hi Fred,
You are over here too?
I missed sharing info with you guys. My Brother was installed yesterday. The install went smoothly.
Down here in Fredericksburg, VA we had a "tornado watch" so I didn't get to play with the machine that much as it was raining, thundering and lightning, etc.
I plan to do so today however and I will share some things I printed soon and let you know about the machine.
Hello printchic, good to see you posting in this forum. I always knew where you were coming from in the t-jet forum and the other one. This forum will now too benefit from your honest insights and "teaching" skills.
I visited your site, very well done. I've a question, if it's possible for you to answer. How did you accomplish the create your own design part of your site? Did you do it yourself, or is this a template/package that is available for purchase?
Hello printchic, good to see you posting in this forum. I always knew where you were coming from in the t-jet forum and the other one. This forum will now too benefit from your honest insights and "teaching" skills.
Thanks
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I visited your site, very well done. I've a question, if it's possible for you to answer. How did you accomplish the create your own design part of your site? Did you do it yourself, or is this a template/package that is available for purchase?
The t-shirt design part of my site is not a template/package. It was written specifically for me.
Before coming up with my store I searched high and low for someone to develop in flash something like Spreadshirts, Custom Ink, Uberprint, etc. but got rediculous quotes like "$10,000+". I considered freelance sites as I saw people quoting prices like $2000 but... I have yet to see someone really say they got the work done. I kept seeing the job cancelled so I don't know what went wrong with those people's project.
I have recently saw 2 pre-made stores like the ones mentioned above but when i read feedback from people that bought it they all say they were riped off. All sent money to a foreign source who didn't come through on the job.
Anyway to date I have yet to see anyone with a pre-made template t-shirt design store.
I had considered selling a limited amount of copies of my store but I've yet to really make any effort to do so. I'm hoping to eventually re-design it in flash but I haven't finished learning flash yet.
I didn't have to do any color tweaking, etc. I just said;
File>Print>
- selected the color shirt i wanted to print on
- selected the vividness I wanted usually 0-2 (from a scale of 0-4)
- selectd ink volume usually 8 (on scale of 10-0 base on thickness of garment)
Then press OK to print
When the job was ready to print I heard a bell
I looked at the display panel and it tells me "how much ink i use"
(I really loved that feature)
I press the print button and the shirts were out in between 25-38 seconds.
All except the Dirty South design cost less than 80 cents to print and they were usually 12 x 14 designs.
My jobs i had to do I was finished with them in about 15 minutes and some were back and front. I was standing there wanting to print more stuff "but didn't have any orders to fill".
So all said I think the Brother is awesome. It woud be perfect if it could print on "white" however I've lived without the ability to print on "dark shirts" this long I can wait until they release a new model with white ink.
I tried to really make the t-jet's white ink work. I know some have it licked but I admit I couldn't cut it
Anyway that's my experience so far with the machine. We had a thunder storm thursday and a tornado watch after it was installed, I got to play with it a little on friday and on saturday I had to go to a graduation. Today it's back to thundering and lightning again so not sure I will get much work done.
Of all the samples I printed B and E (are clipart/designs) I created and I didn't like them that much as the rest. I may have to start designing in a different application as my stuff came out very looking dotty instead of smooth. I think it's the application i designed in so I have to test that. But all the other stuff looked great and I love the vivid color without a lot of effort.
Hey PrintChic, your first print on that sample page looks like my niece when she was a baby. Pretty cool! She still resembles that picture and she's 14 now!
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Mod1 Direct to Garment Printer, Made in the USA www.belquette.com
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