Someone, please talk to me....
I have been screen printing for 5 years now and had become completely burnt out so I decided to sell off my equipment and purchase all new DTG equipment. I thought this was going to simplify my life and at the same time be able to offer new products to my customers, so far I was wrong. I now have a Viper XP1000 pretreatment machine, Stahl's fusion press and a DTG M2 printer. I have been using it for almost a month now and I am beyond frustrated to the point of giving up. As of yesterday, I felt like I had made every technical mistake and learned my lessons the hard way. I came to the shop confident yesterday thinking that today's prints would be good, oh was I wrong. I feel like I am taking 1 step forward and 2 back every day. Is everyone else out there struggling like me? For the life of me, I can not get consistent prints or the quality I was expecting. Tech support is pathetic, to say the least, and never have a real answer only after you send an email and they decide to call you back. When I started I thought I would take some of the variables out of the equation by only offering Bella Canvas garments but still, it seems like every color has its own specific issues. I wish there was someone who has made it through the learning curve that I could pick up the phone and talk too! The DTG brand pretreatment I started with was staining every other color shirt and I am now using Firebird GTX which seems to have resolved that issue. The spray nozzle on the Viper was bad, unknowing to me for a while because I had no reference as to what the spray pattern should look but is now replaced and coating good. I am using a good pretreatment that's not staining garments. I am using high-quality Bella Canvas garments but still get crappy prints. Yesterday I was printing a simple 1 color red design on a dark grey shirt. The red looks great wet but once cured its dull and dingy. All my settings and curing processes are spot on with the DTG M2 company suggestions, I am lost. My orders are backed up and customers are growing impatient. A couple orders I have printed twice and they are still not right. My business has been very successful for years and now it's all falling apart....
