Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I'm a newbie and making newbie mistakes, now I just need help making some right decisions. Several months ago I bought a Epson 4800 just for sublimation, and a Epson 1400 just for t-shirts. I wasn't too sure on what printers to get but this is what the salesman recommended. I wanted the 1400 because of the larger printing capabilities. I do have the bulk inks. As you can probably already guess the problem is the ink is washing out. I have had alot of complaints this weekend from customers. So I came home started doing research and found out I have a dye based ink, and can not switch this printer to a pigment. So my question is what are my options? Switch my 4800 into doing t-shirts and change my 1400 into sublimation? I don't know how cost effictive this would be. Can I print t-shirts from my 4800 with the original inks it came with? I believe they were the UltraChromeK3 inks are the original. Are they a pigment ink? I have alot of orders to fill this week and I don't have alot of time to mess around. Or should I just buy a new printer like the Epson 1800, and can I use the duribrite inks it comes with to print t-shirts? the Epson 1800 is 399.00 on the Epson web site right now. Would it be cheeper to buy new or switch what I already have? If anyone can help I would appriciate. Thanks Ann
the ultrachromes that came with your 4800 are pigmented inks and will print beautiful, long lasting transfers!
as i understand it, the 4800 is a dual ink system. unlike the 4000 which pulled from both sides, the 4800 can be 'sub-divided' for lack of a better word, and eash side function independently with a different ink. call alicia at conde and talk to her about it - she is very knowledgeable and has no vested interest in selling you equipment that won't work for what you want to accomplish!
__________________
it's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!
I think switching the 4800 over will be exspensive, but I will check into it. The bulk system I was using was a magic flo cis with transmagic2 inks. They claim the inks don't run on their web site, I will put a call into them tomorrow. Has anyone else ever used the transmagic inks? and what were your results?
You have a couple of options that I listed below. You should do the math and determine which is best for your business based on cost and other things.
1) Switch the inks in the two printers.
You have already mentioned switching the inks in two different printers. For the 4800, you need to assume that approximately 25 ML of ink is located between the ink cartridge and the head. Thus, you would lose approximately 200 ML of ink by switching all 8 channels. Do the math and you can see that this could cost over $280 or more depending on which dye sub ink you have installed. This does not count the cost of ink lost in the 1400. Now, you are going to have to get new sublimation and heat transfer inks to go into the other printer. I think this is your last resort in my opinion.
2) Purchase an 1800 printer for inkjet transfers.
If you purchase the 1800 printer, you will have the cost of the printer, the bulk feed system or refillable cartridges and the inks (8 bags of inks). I would price this system out and compare it to option #3. This would allow you to get rid of or sale the 1400 system.
3) Convert the 4800 printer into a hybrid.
The 4800 printer is the easiest printer to maintain and the cost per a print is less than any other small format printer. To convert this to a hybrid printer, you need to remove the ink from the right side channels on the 4800 printer and replace it with transfer ink. Some people have done this by just plugging in the new cartridges and printing ink from that side of the printer to flush the old ink out and replace it with new ink. Others recommend using cleaning fluid to clear out the old ink and put the new ink in. Some companies will actually rent / lease the cleaning cartridges to you so you don't have to purchase them. This could save you some money. The final thing you will need to look at is which hybrid software you are going to use to make sure it prints only using the correct 4-channels of ink. Some hybrid softwares limit which inks you can use while others allow you to choose and give the more flexibility (i.e. print film positives). Take the advice above and speak with a distributor (Conde was mentioned above) and get their opinion.
See when you are running a hybrid system...you are running two different sets of CMYK inks. The 4800 cartridges have chips on them that are to be read by only those specific slots that they go into. The cartridges have tabs on the top of it that also prevent the cartridges from going into the other side. So, you need to get the CMYK inks into the correct cartridges that are chipped for the LcLmLkLlk channels (i.e. the right side of the printer).
The second reason is as far as I know, there is no hybrid software out there that has profiles for a 4-channel setup of Epson inks for the Epson 4800 printer. See, each printer has different profiles for the inks that are in printer and the media that it is going on (i.e. sublimation tiles, cotton t-shirts for heat transfers,...). For example, Sawgrass' hybrid system only allows you to use SubliJet IQ (sublimation) ink and ChromaBlast (light heat transfer only) inks - the inks that they manufacture. Alternatively, MultiRIP allows for either SubliJet IQ or ArTainium (sublimation) ink and ChromaBlast or MultINK (multiple purpose ink used for heat transfers and film positives). Using another type of ink for either set (i.e. TOG sublimation ink or Epson K3 inks) will mostly likely give you bad colors because the profiles don't match up. MultiRIP has not profiled the inks for Epson because of the cost of the inks versus inks specifically made for heat transfers (i.e. MultINK) that give a better quality product in the end for apparel decorators. I recommend to people to try and sell the Epson inks on eBay to cover some of the cost of the heat transfer inks.
I just looked at one conversion kit for the hydrid 4800 it was 1395.00. Thats alittle steep. I don't know what all was included in that it didn't have a description. I might just go get a cheep pigmented printer for now, I have an order this week for 100 hats and an 8 1/2x11 printer will do for now. Until I can figure this all out. Thanks Mark I knew it couldnt be that easy.
The conversion kit seems steep unless it contains the 4 cartridges if sublimation ink, the 4 cartridges of heat transfer inks and the cleaning cartridges.
What sublimation ink are you using? All you really need is 4 cleaning cartridges, 4 new cartridges for heat transfer inks and then the software. Depending on what ink sets you want to you use, here is your list:
Sawgrass Hybrid:
- 4 cartridges of SubliJet IQ inks ($149/cartridge)
- 4 cartridges of ChromaBlast inks ($110/cartridge)
- PowerDriver IQ
MultiRIP Hybrid:
- 4 cartridges of SubliJet IQ inks ($149/cartridge) or 4 cartridges of ArTainium inks ($137/cartridge)
- 4 cartridges of ChromaBlast inks ($110/cartridge) or 4 cartridges of MultINK inks ($50-$60/cartridge)
- MultiRIP Lite or Full versions (depending on if you need to film positive printing or not)
I would call a distributor and check out the pricing. The only negative with the R1800 is you need a bulk system for it to be cost effective. But, most people have problems keeping the bulk system flowing. So, just make sure that you run a print every day or two on it or get Printer Jockey software that allows you to flush a single channel of ink. That will save you wasting the ink lines that are not clogged when you run a head cleaning.
I'm using the artainium uv+ right now in the 4800. When I first purchased this system I didn't want to do the duel system because alot of things I read on here about chromablast leaving marks or lines after heating. But from what I can gather it does not matter what system, printer bulk or cartridge nothing is problem free. The only reason I'm thinking of the R1800 is the price and I figured I could use the cartridges it comes with until I can get the bulk ink set up. And my 4800 is running good and didn't want to start changing and relearning everything. Thanks for all your input, I will check around and not rule anything out. I did not know there was anything other than the chromablast you could use with the duel set up. Thanks Ann
need help with printer/ink problems 
Re: need help with printer/ink problems 
