[Pictish]

Greetings from Scotland.

I have just purchased my first Epson F2000 after being made redundant after 30 years in the Print Industry. Trained as a Screen Printer in the early 80's so I've seen many changes in the Industry.

Very Impressed with my Epson, I've had it 4 days now and would very much appreciate any tips from experienced users on trouble free usage.

How do you approach your working day with it?

Do you leave it on all the time, like the installer has advised me to do? So that it cleans every 6 hours?

Would really like to connect with users to share the highs and lows

Cheers

Pete

 

[locnar]

Welcome Pete, I too am a fairly new Epson f2k owner and enjoy learning all the tricks and tips to using the printer to its full potential.

I leave my Epson on all the time, think that is what is recommended by Epson as it has it's own power-save features and needs to cycle the ink every timed interval to keep it from gumming up basically. I try to do the daily maintenance on it, tube cleaning but let that slide from time to time. I have printed more than 200 shirts so far and have been thoroughly impressed with the quality of prints and only experienced a few bad prints due to user error on my part.

Quick background: I started off with god awful transfers, then upgraded to self-weeding laser transfers, initially beautiful results but washability sucks. Now I'm at the Epson F2k and think I have found the sweet-spot so to speak. Full creative ability and control with quality results for my clients/customer expectations.

Wish you much success in your endeavors and feel free to share your experiences as well.

 

[Pictish]

Welcome Pete, I too am a fairly new Epson f2k owner and enjoy learning all the tricks and tips to using the printer to its full potential.

I leave my Epson on all the time, think that is what is recommended by Epson as it has it's own power-save features and needs to cycle the ink every timed interval to keep it from gumming up basically. I try to do the daily maintenance on it, tube cleaning but let that slide from time to time. I have printed more than 200 shirts so far and have been thoroughly impressed with the quality of prints and only experienced a few bad prints due to user error on my part.

Quick background: I started off with god awful transfers, then upgraded to self-weeding laser transfers, initially beautiful results but washability sucks. Now I'm at the Epson F2k and think I have found the sweet-spot so to speak. Full creative ability and control with quality results for my clients/customer expectations.

Wish you much success in your endeavors and feel free to share your experiences as well.

Hi there ... thanks for your reply. I have embraced the cleaning routine as I have operated a Mimaki UJF Solvent printer and seen first hand the problems that can arise from blocked nozzles and so on.

Excited to get on and start work with it, still at the experiment phase. The 4 hours I had with the Installer went far too quick. Garment Creator seems to have many different functions available to it ... that need exploring.

Cheers

 

[gatorGRAFIX]

Epson does NOT recommend that you leave your F2000 on all of the time. That is a unique feature that helps make the F2000 a very user friendly machine. Not sure what your installer is thinking really.

Unlike most "wet capping" DTG's that must remain on all of the time and need to constantly "spit" your precious white ink (money down the drain) to keep the ink circulating all of the time (even the new Brother GTX has this system) the F2000 has a head that parks itself in an airtight head cap that keeps it away from the outside air when it is powered off. My F2000 is turned off after every days usage.

This is why is so important that you do a head cap clean after every day of printing. Don't be lazy here. Get that head cap nice and clean and don't forget your quick tube washing (printer set to eco mode in the settings menu) and spit filter clean too. Your installer should have set you up for this BTW.

Epson claims (and I've seen it) that you can leave your F2000 turned off and untouched for up to 2 weeks and it will respond to a few light cleans and be ready for printing.

 

[Pictish]

Epson does NOT recommend that you leave your F2000 on all of the time. That is a unique feature that helps make the F2000 a very user friendly machine. Not sure what your installer is thinking really.

Unlike most "wet capping" DTG's that must remain on all of the time and need to constantly "spit" your precious white ink (money down the drain) to keep the ink circulating all of the time (even the new Brother GTX has this system) the F2000 has a head that parks itself in an airtight head cap that keeps it away from the outside air when it is powered off. My F2000 is turned off after every days usage.

This is why is so important that you do a head cap clean after every day of printing. Don't be lazy here. Get that head cap nice and clean and don't forget your quick tube washing (printer set to eco mode in the settings menu) and spit filter clean too. Your installer should have set you up for this BTW.

Epson claims (and I've seen it) that you can leave your F2000 turned off and untouched for up to 2 weeks and it will respond to a few light cleans and be ready for printing.

I was very definitely told NOT to switch off my Epson. Something I did take him up on but he said it needed to do the 6 hourly clean/flush. I'd be very happy not to leave it on, especially if the head parks itself in an airtight cap. This info is like gold to a newbie, I'm very grateful for your help.

Like I said I have experience with good house keeping with machines, even more so now as its my money now.

Do you start your day's printing with a Nozzle check? Clean if needed then print. At the end of the day do your cleaning and tube wash?

 

[gatorGRAFIX]

Well your installer is wrong on this one.

He is kind of right about the F2000 doing a mandatory cleaning and ink circulation after 6 hours but he is a bit off about the reason why it does this.

The F2000 does this after 6 hours of actual printing, not when it is sitting there idle so your printer will NOT do the 6 hour head cleaning that he has told you about at all. It will just sit there and every once in a while you'll hear it wind up a little to move some ink around.

Your F2000 has a count down timer (from 6 hours) on the right right side of your Epson's LCD screen while you are printing to give you a heads up when that actual mandatory head cleaning is going to happen so there are no surprises when it does.

In my shop here is what I do every print day.

1. Power up the F2000 and let it circulate the ink.

2.) I always do a light head clean on both white's and then do a nozzle check.

3.) If I need to do an additional light clean I will, doing a nozzle check after each one until my F2000 is good to go.

 

[Pictish]

Well your installer is wrong on this one.

He is kind of right about the F2000 doing a mandatory cleaning and ink circulation after 6 hours but he is a bit off about the reason why it does this.

The F2000 does this after 6 hours of actual printing, not when it is sitting there idle so your printer will NOT do the 6 hour head cleaning that he has told you about at all. It will just sit there and every once in a while you'll hear it wind up a little to move some ink around.

Your F2000 has a count down timer (from 6 hours) on the right right side of your Epson's LCD screen while you are printing to give you a heads up when that actual mandatory head cleaning is going to happen so there are no surprises when it does.

In my shop here is what I do every print day.

1. Power up the F2000 and let it circulate the ink.

2.) I always do a light head clean on both white's and then do a nozzle check.

3.) If I need to do an additional light clean I will, doing a nozzle check after each one until my F2000 is good to go.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, means a lot to me. The F2000 was installed a week ago and I had 4 hours training on it. Felt wrong to leave it on so I'm glad I don't have too.

Cheers

 

[equipmentzone]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, means a lot to me. The F2000 was installed a week ago and I had 4 hours training on it. Felt wrong to leave it on so I'm glad I don't have too.

Cheers

Reminder that you should make sure to have the humidity level in the space you keep the printer in at 40% to 50%. 24/7.

You can have it at a higher humidity level. The problems happen at too low a humidity lever. All direct to garment printers use water based inks. If the humidity level is too low it causes the inks to dry out which can cause issues.

If you don't have one, pick up a humidity gauge to keep track. Digital ones are extremely cheap. And invest in a large evaporative type humidifier.

_

 

[Pictish]

Reminder that you should make sure to have the humidity level in the space you keep the printer in at 40% to 50%. 24/7.

You can have it at a higher humidity level. The problems happen at too low a humidity lever. All direct to garment printers use water based inks. If the humidity level is too low it causes the inks to dry out which can cause issues.

If you don't have one, pick up a humidity gauge to keep track. Digital ones are extremely cheap. And invest in a large evaporative type humidifier.

_

I am based in Scotland .. not something I have had to think about but will invest in a gauge .. to be safe.

Thanks for your help .. means a lot

 

[equipmentzone]

I am based in Scotland .. not something I have had to think about but will invest in a gauge .. to be safe.

Thanks for your help .. means a lot

We have customers in Miami, Florida where it is normally about 90% humidity outside. However, because their facilities are air conditioned it can sometimes lower the humidity levels inside to 25%. The point is that what the humidity level outside is does not necessarily mean it is the same inside.

We know it can get cold in Scotland winter time so you will have a heater working inside. Winter in most areas is the worse time for good humidity levels since the heating systems will tend to dry out the inside air. Only real way of knowing is using a humidity gauge.
_

 

[Pictish]

We have customers in Miami, Florida where it is normally about 90% humidity outside. However, because their facilities are air conditioned it can sometimes lower the humidity levels inside to 25%. The point is that what the humidity level outside is does not necessarily mean it is the same inside.

We know it can get cold in Scotland winter time so you will have a heater working inside. Winter in most areas is the worse time for good humidity levels since the heating systems will tend to dry out the inside air. Only real way of knowing is using a humidity gauge.
_

I've bought a pack of 4 for £6 from an online auction site. Will keep you posted.

Thanks again

 

[equipmentzone]

I've bought a pack of 4 for £6 from an online auction site. Will keep you posted.

Thanks again

Can't go wrong at that price.

_

 

[Pictish]

Having let the humidity monitors do there thing for a few weeks I can say that I'm sitting at a min of 39 ... but mostly I'm mid to high 40's.

Cheers