Here is a thread that will give you links to the plans and the videos for making your own. There is an entire section called diy dtg on this forum now, that covers lots of other topics as well.
Thanks to everyone who has posted on the topic. Your encouragement has led me top complete a DTG modification for an Epson C88. Everything has gone well to this stage, but I now seem to have print head problems.
My question with respect to the Epson C88 printer is if there is an active ink pump mechanism to power the ink flow or is ink flow is powered by internal pressure within the carts. Currently I do not get any ink flow and have tried various cleaning approaches. Thus I am wondering if I removed some important component during the mod.
As Mark already mentioned...pretreatment is usually only used for printing white ink. However, there are a couple pretreatments that USSPI sells to improve the vibrancy and washability of the ink on lighter colors.
To all concerned and this is just a comment.
The DuPont inks are a very special DTG ink and they work WELL without an undercoat.
If you all want to fire standard pigment inks you CAN, but the sprayon undercoats WILL BE necessary to control (absorption). This is why many of the pigmented ink prints do look faded or under saturated. WITH A GOOD base coat on the garment you'll have the same effect as using your heat transfer paper, you're printing TO the base undercoat and not actually TO the shirt. In this way you'll have uniform appearance, control the absorption and use the great pigment inks at less cost than the DuPont inks. Without an undercoat you'll be allowing different & varying degrees of absorption into the shirt and hence a bad looking image. The pigment inks will be better on the printer life as well. So in effect you will STILL press the shirts after DTG printing to SET the inks into the undercoat. This will form the permanent bonding and give the same result as using the transfer paper, without the transfer paper of course.
Getting your process of applying the undercoat is KEY as you need enough of a coat to block bypassing inks to control absortion but not too much to have a mess or too thick of a feel that saturates through the shirt making a (hard feel) to it.
The automated tables work great, but they take a little practice and are expensive.
not sure what your getting at ross, i have tried your inks as dtg ink (cmyk) and they washed out almost totally (i tried loads of different heatpress settings), i didnt use any pretreatment (undercoat in your words) but i dont want to use pretreatment for just cmyk printing, so im sticking to dtginks for now.
Question for sodrisc (or anyone else with a 1280 DIY).
I just purchased two used 1280s. They both came without ink but were guaranteed "to work as soon as I bought new ink".
I want to make sure they both work and print on regular paper before i take them apart.
What is the best/easier way to clean out the heads before I put in some new test ink. Also (I know there is a lot of discussion on about this) which is the best dtg ink for this printer?
I know I'm probaly asking questions that have been asked before. So I apologize and ask for your patience.
If you know where the answer is on this forum you can point me to a link.
not sure what your getting at ross, i have tried your inks as dtg ink (cmyk) and they washed out almost totally (i tried loads of different heatpress settings), i didnt use any pretreatment (undercoat in your words) but i dont want to use pretreatment for just cmyk printing, so im sticking to dtginks for now.
YES, exactly. We have had several different people ask us about using pigments for DTG inks and using pigments this way without a substrate to print on(underlayment/ pretreatment) you cannot use them. The Dupont DTG inks are an entirely different chemical ink.
Question for sodrisc (or anyone else with a 1280 DIY).
I just purchased two used 1280s. They both came without ink but were guaranteed "to work as soon as I bought new ink".
I want to make sure they both work and print on regular paper before i take them apart.
What is the best/easier way to clean out the heads before I put in some new test ink. Also (I know there is a lot of discussion on about this) which is the best dtg ink for this printer?
I know I'm probaly asking questions that have been asked before. So I apologize and ask for your patience.
If you know where the answer is on this forum you can point me to a link.
Thank you.
one of the easiest ways to clean out the heads would be to get yourself some refillable carts, fill them with i guess regular inkjet cleaning fluid as they have only had regular ink them so far and run a couple of head cleans, i would also download ssc service utility and run a few power cleans. Then i would buy cheap lookey likey regular ink for the printers and work on a perfect nozzle check, once thats achieved you are ready to start the stripdown, dont bother attempting the conversion on either of them if you cant get a perfect nozzle check at this stage. do the conversion and then only when you are happy add the dtg ink.
For ink i have tried alot of whats out there and i can heartily recommend dtginks.com bright vibrant ink that does not wash out. I am going to try the new dupont cmyk soon though as i hear good things about it.
Hi again all any ideas y my printer only works when the black stip across
under the print head is in place, take it away only end up with red and green
lights flashing together must be somthing simple epson 21o now thanks.
hi all: need help again making this tshirt printer was working ok
now when u turn it on the motor just moves a bit then i get 2 red
lights flashing inderpentitly epson 210 any help welcome,when working good
i will post some pics of it,printer moves over the tshirt still run by the paper drive shaft thanks all.
Hi guys i am looking to purchase an epson R280 tomake a dtg printer, but i am having some trouble understanding the draw mecanism, can any one help me on figuring how to make the draw move?
Thx in advance
I'm not sure how it works myself, but wouldn't it have to move as if a paper is moving thru in a normal paper setup? IE., as the printer is printing the paper some how moves thru. I think you would convert the paper feeder to a drawer. So instead of the paper feeding through maybe you have a belt that then feeds the drawer to move forward.
Hey selanac thx for response,
after viewing couplepics on web, i think that the printer's main feed roller has to be place under the platen with is inside the draw thus enabling the platen to load as if it were paper.
Does any one know were i can find plans for a epson 7800? or more detailed version of the plans currently offered.
Thx
Hi. I am not sure whether you will find plans out there for an Epson 7800 printer, as that is going way beyond the format size needed for a regular garment printer.
The whole diy dtg building scene is still in its early stages and people are still experimenting with the concept. There will be lots of questions posted asking about plans, but where these are not available for the particular model people want to use, it is going to be a case of experimentation.
In (very) simplistic terms you are lifting an inkjet printer by a few inches, to allow a garment to feed directly under the printheads. On most inkjet printers, the power supply and other electronics are behind the printheads, so these have to be relocated to allow free travel of the garment along its full length under the printheads. Most feed mechanisms will use parts from the original paper feed, to power a drawer type assembly to which a raised platen is attached.
I understand T's site is currently down, courtesy of hackers, but I'm sure the plans will be back up on there soon.
Re: Made my own DTG Printer for $150 
