The generic 'maintenance issue' is a cop-out. The training barely covered any of that if at all.

I agree will the amount that is $pent this shouldn't be as large as it is.

 

I would like to invite any of the nay-sayers here to come spend a week in our tech support department and take calls (average tech takes 20-40 calls a day) and listen to the problems and keep a tally (we do). You will see that the vast majority of issues are either training or maintenance related and also most are covered in detail in the manual. When I say training related, I mean the customer opted to not come to training. It is not a cop-out, it is a fact verified by thousands & thousands of tech support calls handled. I know it is not what folks want to hear, but, I'd rather tell the truth than sugar coat it.

Now, the upside, we use this information to continue to improve our training and streamline our tech support. Often times you will see updates to procedures on the DTG Forums.

Happy Printing & Happy Independance Day (or Colonial Upheaval Day to the Brits in the crowd) to everyone!

 

Don Don Don, The one MAJOR thing your not mentioning is the FACT that with the uncomfortable $$$ increases comes a very welcomed piece of mind which by far sooths the pain in the pocket.

I would prefer to pay more but have piece of mind, NOT pay less and have to rip out pieces of my mind.

 

Let me also say this. I learned more from spending one hour with Justin Walker (another fan of direct garment printing) than I did in a 'day' of training with our vendor. Justin is just down the street from us and he does some great stuff with garment printing. I learned a lot about color management and how to get great prints from him. At the time, I thought the DTG Kiosk was the best machine for the money and I still think it was and probably is.

I just think that for $11K the thing should work better than it has.

 

Binki,

Thanks for the post. I gotta ask - how much do you honestly feel that you have made with your DTG Kiosk and in how much time?

Thanks

 

Binki,

Thanks for the post. I gotta ask - how much do you honestly feel that you have made with your DTG Kiosk and in how much time?

Thanks

We have had it just over a year and have maybe made $1000-$2000 on it. We are working on developing some high-end products that we can sell in the $200-$400 range each. Once we have that going, I would expect we will pay for the machine pretty quick.

 

We have had it just over a year and have maybe made $1000-$2000 on it.

This explains some of your frustration. It sounds like your machine sets more than it is used, which will tend to increase your atrophy issues. I hope that the high dollar product takes of for you soon!

 

While I have been more specific in the past, I have learned from experience (been trained) not to mention specific vendors/manufactures who happen to spend advertising $$$ here.

I can tell you that it doesn't matter if the company advertises here or not, all posts are treated the same. Advertisers don't decide what content is posted here, our forum guidelines do. They apply to whether the company spends a dime or not, and we try to apply them fairly when we are notified of any posts that seem outside the guidelines.

Not sure what issue you're talking about specifically, but if you've had a problem you should be contacting me off board via email or Private Message so we can figure out what's going on.

Let's not get this helpful thread and feedback thrown off track by unhelpful personal attacks and flames.

Some posts may be edited if they get into personal attacks on another member, but I'm hoping that the main constructive parts of the posts can remain because as others have said, they are helpful. They will probably be more helpful and easier to find in a topic of their own (some posts may get spliced into a new topic centered around this secondary discussion)

The posts about DTG maintenance and customer expectations have been moved here: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t53505.html

Since this thread was originally about helping to solve a problem, I think it's best not to derail the thread into something else. Let's keep this topic about helping to solve that specific problem

The other discussion is also useful, and has been moved to its own topic: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t53505.html

If you have any questions about this, please contact me via email or Private Message.

 

I've been keeping an eye on this post because I experience some of the same thing as binki. I've only had my HM-1 for about 6 months and at times would like to throw it out the window. About a week and a half ago I went to print an order one evening and as it was printing the white got lighter and lighter until there wasn't any white printing. I stopped took the whole thing apart flushed the print head, cleaned the capping station and bottom of the print head. Started it back up and had excellent white. I went to bed thinking I'd be golden in the morining on the white ink issue. I got up and started to print and guess what, NO WHITE AGAIN! I don't know how much more maintenance I need to do given the fact that it was less than 10 hours in between cleaning and printing. This is very frustrating when given the cost of this printer. I understand the importance of maintenance, but this is extreme in any situation.

Mark

 

Mark,

At night do you put cleaning solution or anything in your capping station when you shut it down? I have noticed in the past, when I was first printing with my HM1 that I would also get this result sometimes. I started putting about 6 to 10 drops of cleaning solution in my capping station before shutting down and it completely cut out this problem for me. It hasnt happened since. If your not doing this, its something to think about. Also what is the humidity level of the area you have your machine? If the humidity gets to low, it can also cause this. Hope this helps

 

we noticed with the humidity level goes below 40% the ink cloggs up.

 

I believe gravity is the problem. I spoke to an owner and they said after raising the bulk ink past the height of their printer presto miraculously All white starvation issue went away. I believe the ink probably flows better going downward, especially the white being heavier (so to speak) than the regular ink. It could've been a fluke but I am just sharing information to help users any way I can.

 

The problem is finding the right height. Raise it too high above the print head and it will force the ink through the print head and you will get dripping or a siphon effect.

I raised my bottles about 2" above the print head and made a whole new holder. It seemed to work a little until I noticed the dripping. Good thing I caught it before I left for the night!

 

Raising bottles certainly does help. I think thats why they have that system on the Kornit and from what I can see, the new DTG printers in development. But raising it too much might also cause the ink to bleed from the printhead especially with some of the thinner inks. Guess people need to test and see what the best height is for their system.

 

The way they have done the hm1 the bottles raise themselves up as they empty so they are always at the same level, no matter how much ink is in the bottle. I have not had any problems with ink flow on my HM1 the way the bottles are set up, and I have had my machine just about a year now.

 

Sunnydays but do you print white or attempt to as much as others are or are you an occasional user? Cause printing a large orders with large file prints requiring white isn't the same as 3-6-12 pieces.

 

Will,

I absolutely print white and have been since I bought my machine. I have done orders as large as 200 with white underbase (not such a great idea to do such large orders on darks ) I have had absolutely no problems what so ever. My machine prints pretty much constantly, other than right now because I am getting ready to have surgery, so I emptied my inks this week. But since I have had my printer I have printed on an dark orders on a daily basis. I do local contract printing as well as printing for my website. I do believe that if you are running your machine on a consistant basis and doing good maintenance you should have no problems with white ink flow, or any of the colors for that matter with the HM1 the way they have the ink system built.

 

Why? If I do not get starvation half way thru any single print, I can print all day and not get it.

 

I totally agree Mark, I have not heard of anyone with the HM1 having any type of ink starvation issues due to the placement of the ink bottles.

 

HMMM? Interesting...It's funny how much one learns on these forums. Hey maybe it's the luck of the draw... poker face lol

 

Any updates on your damper free printing experience?

 

Binki,

Curious if you are still running the filters on your machine. Any long term result results you can share?

 

Ron,
also just read this old post. Be interested myself. said they bought them at a hobby shop. what would you use them for besides what we want?
Hope they get back to you
Olly

 

Rc fuel filters.

 

we now use the bottle system from Equipment Zone. After we got it the bags came out but we haven't switched.