[JCS2013]

Today we received our machine. I will post all my updates here as to how the machine is working in the daily grind.

MassThreads.com is a small to medium size screen printing, embroidery, vinyl and DTG business located in Webster, MA


We bought our Epson printer from Equipment Zone because we wanted the same support from a company that was providing both our DTG machine and Pretreater. We have been using the Pretreater they make and all has been good, no problems. Let's see how the printer does.

Here's a quick vid of us unloading the beast today. Stoked!

http://youtu.be/w08ADre80nY

 

[equipmentzone]

Today we received our machine. I will post all my updates here as to how the machine is working in the daily grind.

Http://MassThreads.com is a small to medium size screen printing, embroidery, vinyl and DTG business located in Webster, MA


We bought our Epson printer from Equipment Zone because we wanted the same support from a company that was providing both our DTG machine and Pretreater. We have been using the Pretreater they make and all has been good, no problems. Let's see how the printer does.

Here's a quick vid of us unloading the beast today. Stoked!

EPSON Surecolor F2000 - How To Receive - YouTube

All good. Our tech is scheduled to be up there Wednesday and get everything going for you.

_

 

[lazographics]

Today we received our machine. I will post all my updates here as to how the machine is working in the daily grind.

Http://MassThreads.com is a small to medium size screen printing, embroidery, vinyl and DTG business located in Webster, MA


We bought our Epson printer from Equipment Zone because we wanted the same support from a company that was providing both our DTG machine and Pretreater. We have been using the Pretreater they make and all has been good, no problems. Let's see how the printer does.

Here's a quick vid of us unloading the beast today. Stoked!

http://youtu.be/w08ADre80nY

Haha! Nice video editing. Best of luck to you with your new Epson. Your in good hands with EZ.

 

[jgabby]

Your journal is a great idea, good luck with your new toy !

 

[Lisa-marie]

What a great idea! Love the journal notion, wish I had done that when we purchased our Anajet! Best of luck!

 

[JCS2013]

Well, I finally had a chance to take a look at the packing list on my printer. I was shipped a "DEMO UNIT".

Do any of you dealers know the difference between model SCF2000WE vs. SCF2000DEMO ?

I don't want to jump to conclusions. Stay tuned.

 

[allamerican-aeoon]

Well, I finally had a chance to take a look at the packing list on my printer. I was shipped a "DEMO UNIT".

Do any of you dealers know the difference between model SCF2000WE vs. SCF2000DEMO ?

I don't want to jump to conclusions. Stay tuned.

Stay awake until 2AM? Lol. It must be really bothered you.
I am 99% sure Equipmentzone told you yours is Demo unit or written on invoice says "Demo". Has to be a Miscommunication.
They are same machine. Nothing different.
Epson Demo Rule.
Demo unit should not sell right away. Wait or demoing(shows) 4-6 months and usually sold at lower price(Epson allow us to do so because we pay less than Stock).
Chance is very slim but if yours was used as demoing and have been used at shows but Equipmentzone did not tell you about this. You have all the right to receive compensation IMO.
If it is new but it is Demo. Equipmentzone violated Epson Guide line and maybe charged you unfair price(?).
What's the Ser#? (On outside of box)
Check box. Fresh box or re sealed Taped back? Inside vinyl new?
You can tell easily used or new.
Best luck!
Cheers! Inks are on me always.

 

[JCS2013]

http://massthreads.com

Epson is out of printers, so the Epson Rep called me to confirm Harry and Equipment Zone worked hard to get me a printer NOW so I didn't have to wait for the next batch. They were able to send me a DEMO unit that was straight from the Epson distribution Hub in Plainfield, IN.

All is well.

Now, I am thankful to EZ for sending out their tech Ray, who has been a great person to have in our shop. He has set up our printer and gotten us up and running within just a couple hours.

My Initial Review:
THIS PRINTER IS AMAZING. It's without question the most beautiful and quietest machine I've personally viewed. I love its simplicity. I also really like the Garment Creator A LOT! Super simple and easy to use. I used Cadlink and never liked it and I like this so much more regardless of the RIP capabilities of Cadlink. We'll see if my prints suffer any from not having a "RIP". We ran some samples briefly today. Photos on White tees were great. Ran a couple of customer designs on black tees and was satisfied. I have been slammed here at our shop with screen printing orders, so I didn't get to test too much though, so I will keep you guys updated on things as I use the machine. Bottom Line, so far so good. Daily maintenance is a freaking breeze. I like the platens adjustability and versatility in different size platens. All very cool to look at and easy to use. The user interface/LCD/Buttons are great and super simple to follow as well.

I didn't have any amazing art printed today because of time constraints, but here are some examples of what I tested on the printer.

 

[lazographics]

Epson is out of printers, so the Epson Rep called me to confirm Harry and Equipment Zone worked hard to get me a printer NOW so I didn't have to wait for the next batch. They were able to send me a DEMO unit that was straight from the Epson distribution Hub in Plainfield, IN.

All is well.

Now, I am thankful to EZ for sending out their tech Ray, who has been a great person to have in our shop. He has set up our printer and gotten us up and running within just a couple hou

Good to see you got things resolved and are happy. Great samples!

 

[allamerican-aeoon]

Epson has no more printers? Already?
Wondering when next batch will arrive.
CadLink vs GC
You lift GC's hand. Can we hear any feed back? Why?
Wasn't there any ink saving?
Speed?
Final touch feeling?
Profiled? Other than Black? If so how many?
White ink layer print photo comparison?
Cheers! Inks are on me always.

 

[JCS2013]

Epson has no more printers? Already?
Wondering when next batch will arrive.
CadLink vs GC
You lift GC's hand. Can we hear any feed back? Why?
Wasn't there any ink saving?
Speed?
Final touch feeling?
Profiled? Other than Black? If so how many?
White ink layer print photo comparison?
Cheers! Inks are on me always.

Custom T Shirt Printing Worcester Webster 01570 Auburn Putnam Custom T Shirt Tees tshirts shirts Printing, Embroidery, Apparel Screen Printing, Silkscreen, Direct To Garment Printing DTG

Full Disclosure: I should say that I only used Cadlink for the VelociJet XL over the last couple months. There were a bunch of options and things that could be used to tweak the way the graphic was printed. However, within a very short time yesterday using the Garment Creator I found that it was extremely fast, simple, and BEAUTIFUL. From a pure newbie user perspective(non technical) I found myself manuervering around Garment Creator with ease and enjoyment. Now does that mean my opinion holds a ton of weight when it comes to the technical capabilities? Probably not. Just because Garment Creator looks and feels like a new BMW vs the look and feel of Cadlink(a clunky 1997 Lincoln Town Car) doesn't mean its better. BUT IT SURE FEELS LIKE IT.

I will say this, I never even tried to learn Cadlink's complete capabilities cause it seemed daunting. In a day now by myself I have completely dialed in Garment Creator to perform as I see fit. Also the ability to pick and choose what colors to print manually or change the colors you see to print different color is super helpful. Knocking out colors you don't wish to print is a breeze. Being able to save your jobs and the layout of the shirt and all specs for future use is another great feature.

CLOUD 9 is how I feel about it. I haven't ruined any shirts yet. Not the case with my last setup.

Answers:

The Epson F2000 I have has not laid down a super OPAQUE white yet. I still need to play with the settings. It looks good, just not perfect. The VelociJet I had before was super opaque. I also think I may have not been using enough pretreat the last couple of days, but I will say I know its still not as opaque based on the same settings I had for the VelociJet XL.

No comparison photos, but I will take some photos of just the white layer on a job I do sometime soon.

Final Touch is just as good as I had before. I do notice when I use more pretreat the feeling of the print is a tad, tad more rough feeling than the smaller amount of pretreat. This obviously only pertains to prints with white underbase. White shirts are completely no hand feel. Regardless, extremely acceptable either way.

Speed is great compared to what I am used to. Press blue button and go. I would say my dark shirts with underbase are usually done before my last shirt is being cured, so less than 3 minutes. I'll confirm next job.

Minor Annoyances: The startup of the machine and the circulation of the white ink takes a few minutes before you can do anything. However, I haven't had to do a head cleaning at all. I always had to do a head cleaning each day with the VelociJet, so maybe its a wash on time, but it feels longer.

Overall quality in print with this printer vs. the Velocijet? Well, I cannot say that I ever printed actual pictures on the Velocijet, but the clipart prints are about the same between the two. The one picture I printed using the F2000 was excellent.

Best Parts so far: I love how simple the LCD interface is on the Epson F2000. I love how clean and beautiful the printer is. I love how easy it is to adjust the height on the platen. I love how easy it is to switch platen sizes. I love how extremely easy it is to take care of this machine and the daily maintence it requires. I love how quiet it is, and I love how durable the machine seems to be. Did I mention how beautiful it is?

Lastly, I literally hugged my machine last night. It was weird, but I think we bonded.

 

[JeridHill]

To get a bright white you would need to do a level 3 white with your white ink density at about 20%. If your shirt was a high quality ring spun and your pretreating was good, you would need to increase your white to 100% ink density and print at a level 2 white.

A level 3 white is two passes of white but would be equivalent to a 1440x1440 single pass white with a RIP.

After you choose all the settings, you can save them as preset.

 

[allamerican-aeoon]

Great and Thank You.
You should be a Writer than Printer, lol.
RIP should be easy to use as GC.
RIP's one of main purposes are make a life easier and save INKs.
I am sure there will be another reports will come up soon.
AA could not send out any RIPs because FEX lost package. Lol.
All AAEpsonFamily(8) are screaming on my ear every day.
Cheers! Now time to make MONEY! Serious ONE.

 

[JCS2013]

Today I attempted installing my sleeve platen and all went well until Garment Creator didnt "see" the platen. I have the ability to choose 16x20, 14x16 or 10x12(I think), but not the sleeve platen.

I guess I need to call down to EZ Monday.

Quick note: The height ring must be manually removed and about 5 screws must be un-installed which is easy, yet a little tedious if you're in a rush just to do a sleeve. Either way, not too big of a deal considering you get to DTG a sleeve, another badass feature.

Jerid, I will play with the settings, but yes, I am pretreating correctly and at different levels just to make sure, so I hope your advice works to get better opaqueness. I hope I won't need a RIP darnit.

 

[JCS2013]

I talked with Alex @ EZ today. He called to help me figure out why the Garment Creator software wasn't pulling up the sleeve platen. I booted the computer up and opened the program only to find the option now available. Not sure why the option wasn't listed before. Oh well. Thanks anyway Alex!

Note about initial ink usage:
Once the initial ink was used to bleed the tubes and get the printer setup my F2000 did say it was running low on white. However, I have printed at least 30 dark garments with good coverage since then. Alex told me today that I'll know when the printer cannot perform any longer. He also mentioned the printer may tell me there is not enough ink to perform the initial ink circulation at the beginning of the power up , but once the circulation has taken place to put the low ink cartridge back into the system so I can use all the ink possible.

No issues or fires yet. Happy.

 

[equipmentzone]

I talked with Alex @ EZ today. He called to help me figure out why the Garment Creator software wasn't pulling up the sleeve platen. I booted the computer up and opened the program only to find the option now available. Not sure why the option wasn't listed before. Oh well. Thanks anyway Alex!

Note about initial ink usage:
Once the initial ink was used to bleed the tubes and get the printer setup my F2000 did say it was running low on white. However, I have printed at least 30 dark garments with good coverage since then. Alex told me today that I'll know when the printer cannot perform any longer. He also mentioned the printer may tell me there is not enough ink to perform the initial ink circulation at the beginning of the power up , but once the circulation has taken place to put the low ink cartridge back into the system so I can use all the ink possible.

No issues or fires yet. Happy.

Happy is good. Glad our support department was able to help. We have 2 Alex's here - Alex B and Alex O. Both Alex's have gotten to know the Epson software pretty well. Alex B was the one who you spoke to today. Good note on putting the low ink carts back. We want you using up as much of the ink as possible..

_

 

[JCS2013]

I just wrote a very long post, but it got deleted damnit. I'll sum it up./

1) The printer wouldn't clear a 9 shirt job when I asked it to, froze up, and I couldn't get it to turn off without directly unplugging from the back of the machine. Any ideas?

2) I tried printing pink on a white shirt and got red. I did have the color density up high, and I wonder if thats why?

3) I am not getting good white opaque white prints. I am not sure what setting I should really have for the white and I am getting mixed results. I am wondering if that is because I am not using Epson's pretreatment. I am using fast ink pretreatment #1 for darks.

It was a disappointing day. The first I've had.

 

[JeridHill]

1) The printer wouldn't clear a 9 shirt job when I asked it to, froze up, and I couldn't get it to turn off without directly unplugging from the back of the machine. Any ideas?

What state was it in? What did it say on the front panel? You can also run a printer status report. Take an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper and when facing the printer, place it on the right side of the platen's edge closest to you and set your platen height to P. Go to your menu and choose Printer Status > Print Status Sheet. On the bottom of the page, if there truly was an error, it should give you an error code to the last error.

2) I tried printing pink on a white shirt and got red. I did have the color density up high, and I wonder if thats why?

Most likely. When you turn the density up, it's going to lay down more ink, throwing your colors off. If you are trying to achieve colors that are more accurate, I wouldn't increase anything, just print as is. If you are trying to get more vibrancy, then increasing the density works well.

3) I am not getting good white opaque white prints. I am not sure what setting I should really have for the white and I am getting mixed results. I am wondering if that is because I am not using Epson's pretreatment. I am using fast ink pretreatment #1 for darks. It could also be in your settings. If you are printing a Level 2 white, increase your white underbase layer to 100. If you are doing a Level 3 white, increase your underbase layer to 30.

This is always a possibility. I've tested the Epson inkset with DuPont inks and I achieved better results with the Epson pretreatment. You may also want to do wash tests. If you are using something else other than Epson's pretreatment, your prints will most likely have different wash results.[/quote]

It was a disappointing day. The first I've had.

Sorry to hear, but today is another day!

 

[JCS2013]

What state was it in? What did it say on the front panel? You can also run a printer status report. Take an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper and when facing the printer, place it on the right side of the platen's edge closest to you and set your platen height to P. Go to your menu and choose Printer Status > Print Status Sheet. On the bottom of the page, if there truly was an error, it should give you an error code to the last error.



Most likely. When you turn the density up, it's going to lay down more ink, throwing your colors off. If you are trying to achieve colors that are more accurate, I wouldn't increase anything, just print as is. If you are trying to get more vibrancy, then increasing the density works well.



This is always a possibility. I've tested the Epson inkset with DuPont inks and I achieved better results with the Epson pretreatment. You may also want to do wash tests. If you are using something else other than Epson's pretreatment, your prints will most likely have different wash results.

Sorry to hear, but today is another day![/QUOTE]

The "state" was the printer was saying it was in the process of cancelling the job, but nothing happened and it was locked. Anyhow, maybe I wasn't patient enough, but I'm pretty sure I gave it like 10 mins.

I'll retry with the ink density lower for the pink, pretty sure that was the problem.

I cranked up my pretreat volume and also the density to 100 with 2 passes. I got an opaque white. I will just have to fine tune it on my end. Things sure got more expensive quick though by doing that.

Jerid, can you give me a quote on the Epson Pretreat? [email protected]

Thank you!

 

[allamerican-aeoon]

Pretreat quote is not necessary all are listed. All are selling at same price. Less shipping cost should be a your choice. Same PTs.
I think EZ is closest to you. And that's where you bought from isn't it? AA is second closest. Lol.
Cheers! Inks are on me always.