[Tattitude]

I'm wanting to get Into sublimation printing mostly for printing shirts. The sales person told me I shouldnt go with the sawgrass due to the amount of ink cost and paper cost compared to the larger epson. If costs werent a factor I wpuld love the epson but afyer buying a matching press for that size of machine the cost are high upfront.

I want to do shirts but my volume is not at the level of printing 8 hrs per day nonstop. What is your opinion on the sawgrass machine if I were to use that as a start up system or should I just go big or go home.

 

[DenJohn]

I use the sg800 I love it buy the bypass tray you will be able to print on 13" wide paper... it's great for the 30-40 print runs. I was 2500 into mine for everything I bought the high capacity ink cartridges 100 sheets of 13x19 100 sheets of 11x17 and 100 sheets 8.5x11 they gave me 100 15oz mug sheets I also bought the bypass tray.. I had the sg400 after only being able to run just 8.5x11 I was glad I Upgraded..
If you are looking at doing full shirt prints then go for the Epson or if you are running a bunch of shirts 100-200 prints, I think they are around 7,700.. Boils down to how much can you afford, how much your going to print and how much room do you have? My printer sits on a desk, doesn't take up much room..

 

[SublimatorToo]

When you plan on doing shirts - properly - bigger printer, bigger transfer paper and bigger press is better.

It also gives you better flexibility for future projects which inevitably come along and definitely come along if you are equipped to handle them.

As for printers, the Sawgrass is a glorified Ricoh printer labeled as a Sawgrass machine. When my Ricoh using Sawgrass inks crapped out, I was left hanging in the breeze. Nobody wanted to know anything about the problem.

A new Richo/Sawgrass 800 would cost me $2,000 + $300 (Canadian prices) for the bypass tray which would accommodate Tabloid Extra (13" x 19") transfer paper. So I researched alternatives.

My replacement is an Epson WF-7610 which takes the Tabloid Extra paper right out of the box, using Cobra inks in refillable cartridges.

Printer cost was $150. At that rate, I can buy 15 printers for the cost of one Sawgrass with the bypass tray. Inks are considerably less expensive and give equal results although the gamut appears to be somewhat different.

The down side is that it is a bit slower than the Ricoh/Sawgrass 800 and Cobra's color profiles need a bit of testing until you figure them out.

Also, with an altered gamut, it may take a bit of testing to match previous work with Sawgrass inks to new work with the Cobra inks, such as when working color specific logos.

As for all that other junk that Sawgrass calls a benefit to paying through the nose for their stuff, I don't need it. If you standardize your procedures and make notes of what works and doesn't, there is no issue.