Hey guys! I recently bought an epson 1290 from a guy who was also selling his heat press. It has already got a bulk feed set-up. The guy said he hasnt been using it for a while. Whenever i print it's faded and liney, and the colours? well.... red just prints as yellow etc... help? whats happening here?
"liney" - sounds like you've got blocked nozzles, do a nozzle check and clean them. Often happens if the machine is not used on a regular bases.
Faded - with sublimation printing the colours on the transfer paper will look muted and dull, but when pressed onto a substrate they are supposed to come out vibrant.
Thanks for the reply, although i have run over 20 nozzle cleans / print checks... and theres still break ups in the lines. Theres no pattern forming in the print checks (they aren't improving, occasionally they are okay the odd one is so terrible.) The magenta wasnt printing at all which i found odd... and then i looked at the ink pots where i found the magenta was leaking badly down the side. I tightened the plastic around the tubing and now the magenta prints but it's still leaking.
On the check print cyan looks purple and light cyan looks lilac see here:
And this is what photos look like when i print them. A photo of a random lady in a very colourful top :
She printed llike this:
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE! im so bloody confused....
Unsure why it's banding there, the head test looks like just like it should. Could be air in the line (possibly the leaking magenta) but my experience has been it wouldn't show up at all. I would say that one color is at fault for the banding though, cause the skin looks normal whereas the belt/skirt/hair doesn't. I only have a 4 color sub printer, so I usually make some rectangles and fill it with each cart's color (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key) and that tells me which is acting up so I can check the line for an air bubble or do some more head cleaning.
The drastic difference in color is most likely due to not having a proper RIP or color profile for dye sublimation. My blues often would print purple until I started using the color profile properly.
Here's how it looks after printing on my Epson C88 with bulk fed dye sub inks. I just tossed it on with some mugs, and included the mug before/after shots so you get kind of a feel for how it looks faded on paper, but when printed it looks more like your original design.
You may notice that the image has been mirrored, all dye sub images need to be mirror'ed. Usually you just toggle a setting in the print driver and set it to default, then you don't have to worry about mirroring it in your artwork at all.
My suggestions to help resolve your issues:
Get the proper color profile/RIP software, depending on what's needed for your model. You will probably have to contact the previous owner to ask who made it and if they have the profiles, etc. Worst case scenario you will have to purchase the profile again after finding out which inks it uses.
Configure your print driver properly. Usually it's just a matter of toggling some settings, such as Mirror, do not use embedded ICC profile, and sometimes ink output settings. Probably information you can obtain by contacting Sawgrass and telling them what printer you have and so on (assuming Sawgrass made the inks anyway since they have the US patent).
Troubleshoot the banding problem. I don't think it's going to go away, but it may be less noticeable with the right profiles, as I believe they use less ink. Hopefully someone with a similar printer can chime in, otherwise I'd say just try printing a light cyan, light magenta, dark cyan, dark magenta, yellow, and key rectangle and try to just pinpoint the problem. Environment can also play a bit of an issue, I notice my printer doesn't like the heat and sometimes after the heat press has been on and the room's gotten hotter it will start banding on my prints. Unsure how it'll act in the cold, but I'm sure I'll find out soon!
Faded Prints? 
I recently bought an epson 1290 from a guy who was also selling his heat press. It has already got a bulk feed set-up. The guy said he hasnt been using it for a while. Whenever i print it's faded and liney, and the colours? well.... red just prints as yellow etc... help? whats happening here? 
Re: Faded Prints? 
Re: Faded Prints? 
Theres no pattern forming in the print checks (they aren't improving, occasionally they are okay the odd one is so terrible.) The magenta wasnt printing at all which i found odd... and then i looked at the ink pots where i found the magenta was leaking badly down the side. I tightened the plastic around the tubing and now the magenta prints but it's still leaking. 
