| Discussion, tips, pictures, reviews and peer to peer support for those do it yourselfers who are working on building their own DTG machine.
[DIY DTG] Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody 1Likes
February 17th, 2014
|
Feb 17, 2014 9:03:42 AM -
#106 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Aficionado
Member Since: Jun 2013
Posts: 291
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 7
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody  | Quote: |  | | |  |
Originally Posted by customtshirt |  | | | | | | | Remove Paper Error
I am in the process of doing a 200 t shirt run printing front and back with this DTG.
I found it was giving an erratic 'Remove Paper Error' and traced the error to a combination of sunlight and 'debris'
As I posted previously, my PE sensor is located so it reads a white strip on my long-board. I had paid alot of attention to the strip at page start so the black / white page start border was clearly defined. I hadn't paid any attention to the back edge of the board where the strip stops and it looks like I was just lucky that the PE sensor worked most of the time and was not permanently in error.
I found that sunlight coming through the window, combined with a bit of white cotton fluff/debris that was laying at the end of the 'white-strip' conspired to confuse the PE sensor and stop it from detecting a page end.
The answer was straight forward once I figured out what the problem was (which took a confusing frustrating couple hours). A bit of flat-black vinyl to create a definitive line/edge where I want the page to end for this board. Problem solved.
Actual production Process
At the end of a print, the machine spits the board out so it free-floats nicely on the rollers. The printer gives a Paper Out error at this point which I ignore as it's true. I then unload the printed t shirt which is easy to keep flat with this system and lay it straight on the heat press. I don't close the platen or put any silicon paper on it until I have loaded a fresh t shirt on the machine and sent the board back to the start position. Incidentally. All it takes is, a flick of the 8 pole switch. button depress the window switch and a gentle push on the board to get the back edge to touch/bite on the power-rollers. The start position I have found that works best for me is the sweet spot that the white strip achieves just behind the PE sensor before it disengages the Rear/Manual paper feed sensor which I have mounted just an about 4cm beyond. Flick the 8-pole switch and the printer then detects there is paper (because of the manual feed sensor being engaged) and it then automatically aligns the start position. By which time I am heat- pressing the t shirt that has just come off and I have hit 'go' on the computer for the next print.
By the way. I have adjusted my RIP settings to 760 x 360 with 130% ink 125% CMYK+CMYK Uni-Directional. I am getting the fastest-sharpest print speed out of the machine with that setting and very good ink saturation with resolution that's as good as the t shirt-material itself seems able to handle, with the advantage that the inks don't stay wet for too long which keeps the edges tight an no creep.
One of the reasons I immediately take the t shirt off the machine when printed and simply lay it on the heat press is I have found the heat that accumulates in the lower platen as you use the heat press, is enough to just flash dry the inks very quickly and keeps the print lovely and crisp during the proper curing. I have my press set for 175 C and am curing for 2 minutes. Obviously with the smaller prints, it does mean I have to batch the work a bit as the printer overtakes the heat press easily. I have another heat press I will set-up at some point if I really need to keep pace with the DTG. Don't want to plug a second heat-press in at the moment as I'm already ripping all the power I can out my workshop, what with the airconditioning running full blast, and various other machines switched on and or working simultaneously.
Edit:-
Nice shortcut on button pushing. Set the RIP to do a few copies. Printer starts printing on its own as soon as a fresh t shirt gets to the start position. Nice... | |  | |  | | Hi Ronnie, what RIP you are using? did you know the ICC Profile of AcroRIP? |
| | Sponsored Links
| Advertisement
| |
February 17th, 2014
|
Feb 17, 2014 9:15:27 AM -
#107 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Fan Thread Starter
You can call me: Ronnie
Member Since: Sep 2008 Location: East Anglia
Posts: 75
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 18
Thanked 20 Times in 13 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody AcroRip 8.
No I am not using an ICC Profile. It has not been necessary thus far. Mind you, I am mainly running AcroRip with EPS files I generate with my normal signage software and generally get away with just tweaking Acrorips control of colour quantities plus light/dark/contrast. |
| |
February 17th, 2014
|
Feb 17, 2014 9:32:14 AM -
#108 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Aficionado
Member Since: Jun 2013
Posts: 291
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 7
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody |
| |
February 18th, 2014
|
Feb 18, 2014 2:48:42 AM -
#109 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Fan Thread Starter
You can call me: Ronnie
Member Since: Sep 2008 Location: East Anglia
Posts: 75
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 18
Thanked 20 Times in 13 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody What????
I take it you are not in the printing trade... Of course your images are going to be different intensities/gamut/resolutions/etc depending on where they come from. The machine you print with is only part of the equation. There are countless different methods that print shops like mine use to generate and digitize and manipulate images. Whole huge subject.. Sounds like you need to start with the basics. Sort out your origination software. If you are using anything decent you will be able to export EPS files. You might however decide to work differently and use jpgs or pdfs or tiff etc... Whatever works for you. AcuRIP reads loads of formats. It's a good RIP. I just use EPS because it's convenient for me to remain consistent with my other print-systems. |
| |
February 18th, 2014
|
Feb 18, 2014 8:03:40 AM -
#110 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Aficionado
Member Since: Jun 2013
Posts: 291
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 7
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody |
| |
February 18th, 2014
|
Feb 18, 2014 8:12:48 AM -
#111 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Fan Thread Starter
You can call me: Ronnie
Member Since: Sep 2008 Location: East Anglia
Posts: 75
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 18
Thanked 20 Times in 13 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody |
| |
March 20th, 2014
|
Mar 20, 2014 6:00:50 AM -
#112 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Master
You can call me: Rudy
Member Since: Sep 2011 Location: USVI
Posts: 471
Mentioned: 5 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 9
Thanked 127 Times in 99 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody Hey Ronnie how’s the business going? I have come to realize that tshirt sales in the UK can be quite promising. Hope that conveyor belt is still doing wonders for you. |
| |
March 20th, 2014
|
Mar 20, 2014 6:46:15 AM -
#113 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Fan Thread Starter
You can call me: Ronnie
Member Since: Sep 2008 Location: East Anglia
Posts: 75
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 18
Thanked 20 Times in 13 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody  | Quote: |  | | |  |
Originally Posted by priest |  | | | | | | | Hey Ronnie how’s the business going? I have come to realize that tshirt sales in the UK can be quite promising. Hope that conveyor belt is still doing wonders for you. | |  | |  | | Thanks... Start of a new season so hopefully sales will be good this year.. Machine is fine. Probably churned out close to 1000 pieces with it now. Just got a couple orders today which will add 250 to that tally.
Done no mods, apart from putting a physical table stop on it which helps it align automatically, spot on every time. For example I let it hit a test t shirt 3 times with a fine-line drawing recently,,, because I was bored and thought it wouldn't do it. Darn Perfect glad I didn't bet!!
Still runs without the conveyor belt. Never gonna put that back on. The rollers work lovely.
Going to make yet another table for it as the one I was using for towels-printing isn't great height-wise and I have a new customer looking for towel printing. I've found an electric scissor-jack device used for protecting parking-bays (see ebay UK and search for parking barriers). Gonna make a lovely raising table out of that probably in the next week or so when I get round to buying one.
Apart from that,,, have invested in some other non-garment printing technologies,,,, which of course I tinkered with myself saving a few thousand pounds.. (I just can't help it!!)..
So alls good!!
Hope all is well with yourself and all you folk out there. Have a good year! |
| |
November 2nd, 2014
|
Nov 2, 2014 8:32:05 AM -
#114 (permalink)
| Forum Member Be nice, this is my first post :)
Member Since: Sep 2014
Posts: 1
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody Hi all, this is my first post so hopefully i'm posting in the right place. I bought an epson based printer from china acompany called brotherjet and unfortunately it turned out to be crap, and no help from them, usual stories i guess. i decided to tear it apart and rebuild it with my very limited knowledge of DTGS, i am now stuck with how to correctly connect it's micro limit switches to control the platen height adjustment motor and the forward/backward movement of the platen.
anyone with a fair grasp of how best i can go about it???, any help will be very highly appreciated, i'm at my wits' end. |
| |
November 2nd, 2014
|
Nov 2, 2014 1:06:06 PM -
#115 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Master
You can call me: Rudy
Member Since: Sep 2011 Location: USVI
Posts: 471
Mentioned: 5 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 9
Thanked 127 Times in 99 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody |
| |
November 26th, 2015
|
Nov 26, 2015 5:44:45 AM -
#116 (permalink)
| T-Shirt Lover T-Shirt Aficionado
You can call me: Skip
Member Since: Jan 2012
Posts: 178
Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Thanks: 3
Thanked 62 Times in 45 Posts
| Re: Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody Hey priest, Skip20 here agine.how that CNC table coming.
Just finished a 40/45 CNC table & CNC 4'X5' Plasma cutter.
Started a tare down of a 4880 for a UV printer for my business.
Getting a few errors because I didn't know to disable the sensors before hand.
Got pass the 00010033 , & now have the 00100034
It's in paper feed & not roller feed
Just finished reading this whole thread & though I would being it back alive.
Good reading but pictures are a million words.
Could find that elec. Scissor Jack on eBay.
Give up on the R2000 DTG printer. |
| |
This is a discussion about Epson Pro 4000 DTG - DIY tips anybody that was posted in the DIY DTG section of the forums.
Posting Rules
| | | | | |
Similar Threads | Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post | WANT TO BUY Epson 4000 | islandtees | TF Classifieds | 0 | October 10th, 2011 08:13 PM | FOR SALE Epson 4000 | irish | TF Classifieds | 1 | March 15th, 2011 01:02 PM | Epson 4000 RIP or No RIP? | flailmaster | Screen Printing Equipment | 2 | December 10th, 2010 02:14 PM | Epson Pro 4000 | stevendoyle | Screen Printing | 4 | September 9th, 2009 03:43 PM | epson 4000 | candimantint | Screen Printing Equipment | 8 | April 27th, 2009 02:21 PM | All times are GMT -8. The time now is 07:40 AM.
|