T Your ink shipped today and I also sent you some cleaning solution and I strongly recommend flushing those Epson inks out of your printer before adding the DTGInks. They make a Bulk ink system for the C88/Sublimation so maybe you could locate one of those to add to your system "YODan"
WOW, it seems that this topic is becoming one of the hottest latelly...
As a developer, I do feel compeled to warn everyone to be realistic as to what this is and what can be expected from it at least in the short-term. If you buy a set of plans for $100 then spend $200 building it, and it either doesn't work because you didn't build it correctly (imagine that) or doesn't yield the results you expected... don't go screaming about it. To quote a certain well-known figure in the industry "it is what it is and it does what it does".
[edit]After reading my post, I found that it can come off kinda negative. I certainly don't mean to sound discouraging or negative to wards the endeavor. Quite the contrary... I think it's cool and will be watching intently. [end edit];
-- Fred
Last edited by FredP; November 12th, 2007 at 05:25 PM.
Thanks Dan....I have an extra bulk system to try for your inks. I will be calling you sometime this week to discuss my next idea and I think you could help with the ink part....but for now I do appreciate your contribution and I will compensate you some how for the help you are providing.
Fred you put it very well....I can draw up these plans to a T (pardon the punn) but not everyone can build it and get it to work correctly or work at all. I understand your point and I hope other will as well, it wasn't easy and took alot of @!#$@! words until the first shirt was printed, but I feel great about my accomplishment and not spending alot of money. But you are right "it is what it is and does what it does".
Granted it is a $89.00 printer and It may not print as good as a $15,000 model but it could be the first step to make a printer that will yield good results for the least amount of money, And make some cool shirts for my kids!
I do feel if It is massed produced as a printer you could purchase at the local office store, reguardless of the results not being perfect, it would be on most Mom & Dad's Christmas List.
Reminds me of the TJet...it runs on an Epson. We have one and it doesn't work here in the Utah mountains...has alot to do with the bulk ink system...either the ink runs all over the place or no ink at all...other people here have had alot of problems. Now make one with cartridges!!! Its still neat, you are an inventor, keep at it!
I do feel if It is massed produced as a printer you could purchase at the local office store, reguardless of the results not being perfect, it would be on most Mom & Dad's Christmas List.
Absolutely. Very similar to a comment I made on the phone earlier today to a colleague. This may not be the "print 1000 shirts a month" type device, but as an "occasional use" type device it would be good. Just a few shirts a year. Company BBQ shirts, holiday-picture shirts for the family, etc. etc.
This may not be the "print 1000 shirts a month" type device, but as an "occasional use" type device it would be good.
For a lot of people, the C88 is basically a disposable printer. Run it for all it's worth for however long it lasts, when it konks out, toss it and buy another. At this price, this could serve the same function for DTG. Run 2 or 3 simultaneously with a couple of backups and I don't see why you couldn't achieve some respectable production numbers.
I like the fact that someone has the ingenuity to create this. But we ( as businesses) should look at this in a good way and bad way.
How many out there think that if a printer like this, at a relatively LOW cost would be mass produced? most definitely. Dont you think that would effect the local business, as more homes would have printers like this and less and less people would come to "our" shops and buy the 24-48 pieces for the family events, birthday parties, etc?
I think what kind of sets the DTG market to a professional avenue is the cost.
(printers, ink, etc)
For a lot of people, the C88 is basically a disposable printer. Run it for all it's worth for however long it lasts, when it konks out, toss it and buy another. At this price, this could serve the same function for DTG. Run 2 or 3 simultaneously with a couple of backups and I don't see why you couldn't achieve some respectable production numbers.
An engineering perspective:
Your right about the c88 being disposable, but after you actually put the effort and time to make this modification you may not be so willing to just toss it out. Trust me on that one. We understand exactly what it takes to accomplish this task, for reference I included an old c67 that we mocked up to evaluate. As you can see it’s put together with wood, and duck tape. I can tell you that even this took many, many hours of work and we knew it would only be stable for a very short time. If someone wants to try the DIY approach to DTG printers I would suggest that they do so as a hobby type project and not thinking of supporting a business venture.
If I turned this old c67 on today I would expect it to lock up and bind. The possibility of this approach would ever become stable for day-to-day use is extremely remote, however because it took so much effort to build it is in no way disposable, but more of a museum piece. In order for these systems to work on a day-to-day basis the mechanical tolerances must be stable over temperature and humidity variations and not change dimensionally, warp or flex. This simply cannot be built in this fashion unless you’re a very, very, very patient person and enjoy tinkering. A system built without the mentioned considerations will require a great amount of patience and tinkering to use on a daily basis.
For an analogy I could have posted that I made this flatbed for $149.00 (sorry I had to undercut you by $1.00) but that would be quite miss-leading to think that this would be practical.
I like to see and encourage creativity but there is a reality to making something practical that you can turn on every day and get repeatable results without it being a science fair project everyday.
How many out there think that if a printer like this, at a relatively LOW cost would be mass produced? most definitely. Dont you think that would effect the local business, as more homes would have printers like this and less and less people would come to "our" shops and buy the 24-48 pieces for the family events, birthday parties, etc?
This is so true. Being in the retail/manufacturing end of things, I can honestly say, if you underprice anything, you make it too affordable for people. If something like this was on the market for $300 - $500, it would literally put so many screen printing shops out of business. How many orders have you received that were in the $300 - $500 range? Most people, if they have access to something this inexpensive and they don't have to learn the ropes of screen printing, would spend the money the first time around to buy a machine and then do all theirs from here on out.
Pricing being around $15K for smaller units, does not put people out of business. It makes it more difficult for the average company to buy a machine, but it also gives those same companies a goal to reach if they are going for a machine like this.
Also, seeing the problems that exist with current DTG printers, I highly suspect, a small unit like this would have even more issues overall. Mark mentioned some of the things that these kind of machines need in an engineering sense and without all the "extras" needed to make these work, I'm sure there would be more downtime than the average DTG printer.
It is cool to see and I've thought about doing something similar from time to time. Then I come to my senses and figure I'll leave it for the big boys.
Re: Made my own DTG Printer for $150 
Re: Made my own DTG Printer for $150 
but that would be quite miss-leading to think that this would be practical.
