Th TJet s based on Epson 2200 which is no longer produced and TJet went bankrupt in around 2007 or 2008. In spite of vendors saying sufficient parts available I would not buy. I had a T Jet. It is hard to learn pretreatment with out a booth. It s temp/humidity sensitive, do not pretreat in the same room with the pretreatment. Ths machine is maintence intensive...every day! NOTE Ths is just MY opinion and MY experience. Read the threads on the forum about this printer
To T-Jet or not to T-Jet that is the question.
Hi All,
I am relatively new to the industry and my new part time t-shirt business is starting to get busy. I live in Ireland and am soon to have a website. I am using vinyl at the moment with a Graphtec FC8000-60 cutter. but man the weeding is KILLING me, it's so time consuming so i ask you...should i get a small loan and buy a FAST T-Jet 2?? or what is the next step? Harry sent me out some info and i am really excited about getting a T-Jet......but i read a lot of threads on people not being happy about something or other and i REALLY wanna hear i will not be wasting my money. so anybody with any thoughts on this?
Thanks
I am relatively new to the industry and my new part time t-shirt business is starting to get busy. I live in Ireland and am soon to have a website. I am using vinyl at the moment with a Graphtec FC8000-60 cutter. but man the weeding is KILLING me, it's so time consuming so i ask you...should i get a small loan and buy a FAST T-Jet 2?? or what is the next step? Harry sent me out some info and i am really excited about getting a T-Jet......but i read a lot of threads on people not being happy about something or other and i REALLY wanna hear i will not be wasting my money. so anybody with any thoughts on this?
Thanks
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
We have purchased one and are just waiting for it to ship. We have plenty of time and knew it would be quite maintenance heavy so we are just waiting to find out.
EZ is a little late on shipping it to us (about 3 weeks behind) but It should be here this week (fingers crossed).
We will have to let you know when we get it. I haven't heard a lot of negative about the refurbished ones from equipment zone but I guess we will definitely be finding out soon.
EZ is a little late on shipping it to us (about 3 weeks behind) but It should be here this week (fingers crossed).
We will have to let you know when we get it. I haven't heard a lot of negative about the refurbished ones from equipment zone but I guess we will definitely be finding out soon.
Sorry Charles for not being clearer i am talking about the Fast T-Jet 2 from equipment zone, definitely not out of business and for that good 'ol price i'd have to get a pretreat booth as well (no point in doing things by half).
Thanks Ryan, that info would be great, I intend to make up my mind this week or next, I think my mind is made up already cause the loan was approved but i don't want herself to say "I told you to do research on that yoke before spendin all your money!!".
Thanks Ryan, that info would be great, I intend to make up my mind this week or next, I think my mind is made up already cause the loan was approved but i don't want herself to say "I told you to do research on that yoke before spendin all your money!!".
From a techs view...the T-jet T2 is one of the easiest, and affordable machines to repair and put into long term storage. I personally have worked on every brand machine out there except for the Kornit. The T-2 is the only machine that I know of that has the ink cartridges sitting on top of the print head. Because of this you can put the cleaning cartridges right on the print head, do a couple of head cleanings and its ready to sit.
Also, because the T-2 is one of the earlier models without all the epson sensors, it is a very rugged machine that is perfect for traveling. I would go with a T-2 or similar DTG Kiosk for a good starter machine. Then add a pro machine based on the epson 4880 or 7880 later on for the larger print area.
The pretreating can be done with a wagner spayer. Its does take some time to master consistent results...but 90% of all direct to garment printer owners are using this method...so it can't be that difficult. You can also purchase an automatic pretreater, like the viper, or speedtreater from EZ. It makes the job easy and consistent.
Also, because the T-2 is one of the earlier models without all the epson sensors, it is a very rugged machine that is perfect for traveling. I would go with a T-2 or similar DTG Kiosk for a good starter machine. Then add a pro machine based on the epson 4880 or 7880 later on for the larger print area.
The pretreating can be done with a wagner spayer. Its does take some time to master consistent results...but 90% of all direct to garment printer owners are using this method...so it can't be that difficult. You can also purchase an automatic pretreater, like the viper, or speedtreater from EZ. It makes the job easy and consistent.
I never said EZ was out of business...just T Jet is done. EZ sells refurb units I think..they do not manufacture T jets. EZ is a quality company
You are absolutely right about not pretreating in the same room as the printer. Also...for the same reason, you should not have sceenprinting in the same room as a DTG printer. Also...keep screenprinting and pretreating away from embroidery machines.
EZ has a good speed treater (and by good, That is what I have read on the forum here) I almost bought one but I will have to wait since I bought the printer and couldn't afford both.
And from what I can tell, the ink isn't on top of the head on the refurbished ones from EZ. As a matter of fact, I ordered mine with the bagged ink system instead of the bulk bottled ink system. They have a tray on the side of the machine that the bags sit on. I am not sure about the bottles though, I would assume that they sit on the same tray. So, they don't take cartridges.
Maybe they took cartridges before they were refurbished?
And from what I can tell, the ink isn't on top of the head on the refurbished ones from EZ. As a matter of fact, I ordered mine with the bagged ink system instead of the bulk bottled ink system. They have a tray on the side of the machine that the bags sit on. I am not sure about the bottles though, I would assume that they sit on the same tray. So, they don't take cartridges.
Maybe they took cartridges before they were refurbished?
you should have an interesting experience
Hi...let me clarify the point of ink cartridges right on the print head. The original Epson design has the ink cartridges right on top of the head. So the bulk bottle system just feeds into the cartridges, via a tube. So you can snap out the ink cartridges and plug in another set of cartridges with cleaning solution in them.
But, I think you are right about the bag system...they take out the cartridges and put in dampers to deliver the ink to the head.
But, I think you are right about the bag system...they take out the cartridges and put in dampers to deliver the ink to the head.
Thanks lads for the advice I'ma gonna go ahead and order it and see if Harry in EZ will do me some sort of deal, I'll keep ya posted
We do both DTG with a T-Jet 2 and we have a plotter cutter for vinyl. When printing white shirts, you are going to be very satisfied with the speed and low cost of the T-Jet. We love ours, even through some very challenging and expensive technical glitches, and it is cheaper than screen printing for small orders and some very large orders (700+) on white shirts. For colored shirts, the T-Jet is good too, but for a one color image, such as names and numbers on a shirt, or even some simple two and three color jobs, you may find vinyl is cheaper. Example, we just did an order where the vinyl cost was $1.73 per shirt, and about 5 min of labor, and with the spreadsheet from US Screen on ink cost, the T-Jet cost of ink would have been $4 per shirt and about 16 min of labor with print and pretreat. Other times the T-Jet or screen print is cheaper. Enjoy your new toy (and headache in one, but more a toy)!
G
I'd say that for as long as I've had mine, 4 + years, I've had fun with it. yes, it's temperamental and you need to use it. If you can keep it running all the time,it's been a good thing for us. One thing I decided to do tho, is not print darks. No white inks. Caused too much trouble. After that, we ran fine. You can do the white inks occasionally if you want to take the time with them.
Hi,We have purchased one and are just waiting for it to ship. We have plenty of time and knew it would be quite maintenance heavy so we are just waiting to find out.
EZ is a little late on shipping it to us (about 3 weeks behind) but It should be here this week (fingers crossed).
We will have to let you know when we get it. I haven't heard a lot of negative about the refurbished ones from equipment zone but I guess we will definitely be finding out soon.
How is the printer working for you? any complaints, issues, or regrets? I was thinking about to buy 2 of them but after researching i saw different complaints about service and techhelp..so are you satisfied is it worth your money..
ALL T-jets have proprietary boards in them. Since US Screen is out of business they are mostly unavailable (especially the much maligned T3-DO NOT BUY one of them). I know I am a former employee. Look for something without the special boards, like an easyTprinter-it is all Epson with no special boards. Even a used Blazer, if the Epson main board blows, you can't just put a stock main board from another printer in it-they were "flashed" in the ROM to become Blazers.
Michael-THE DTG Guy
Michael-THE DTG Guy
Don't buy the machine unless they can guarantee you main parts like the pump, wiper, and head for X amount of years depending on the purchase price. The machine is based off of the Epson 2200 which is discontinued so parts are unavailable.
Sorry that I did not reply to the thread sooner. We have been way too busy :/Hi,
How is the printer working for you? any complaints, issues, or regrets? I was thinking about to buy 2 of them but after researching i saw different complaints about service and techhelp..so are you satisfied is it worth your money..
We Love our fast tjet 2 but it does have a few issues. Our only beef with it is that it's slow. It was fantastic at first and now that we are so busy it isn't fast enough for us.
There seems to be a lot more maintenance on this printer than what I have heard about many of the others.
But, it has been a great printer and has made us quite a bit of money
We are UK based, like you we started with vinyl, which now due to the recession every man and his dog have a cutter, we then went onto laser printer transfer sheets, then sublimation.
We had issues with washout and I finally bit then bullet 3 years ago with Harry and bought a Tjet 2 ...
As everyone will tell you they most definitely are not plug and play, we wasted quite a number of T's which I put down to a training learning curve ...
I cant fault EZ support they have been most helpful even out of wty ...
The pre treatment is a doddle with a Wagner, however dont buy the import via EZ get a UK one off ebay, the transformer I got via EZ isnt very efficient energy wise, also a bit dangerous ive jumped around the room a few times ...
I would recommend doing a good deal with Harry re extra print boards and a spare one of everything eg, capping station, etc etc ...
I still have issues with mine stopping with solid lights on large white prints, but I will just put that down to the one I have ...
Moving over to the bagged ink system cured a lot of our early issues ...
I would recommend resolute dupont ink in the UK as importing became a pain and to be fair the price works out about the same with shipping & VAT etc ...
Ive recently looked at a few others, but what I do like about the Tjet is the deep draw, I do hoodies & jackets which I think I will struggle to do with some of the newer more shallow machines coming onto the market ...
Finally I would recomment ralawise who we now use to supply our garments & ink (resolute dupont) ...
If we could sort our white ink issue, I couldnt fault the machine ...
We had issues with washout and I finally bit then bullet 3 years ago with Harry and bought a Tjet 2 ...
As everyone will tell you they most definitely are not plug and play, we wasted quite a number of T's which I put down to a training learning curve ...
I cant fault EZ support they have been most helpful even out of wty ...
The pre treatment is a doddle with a Wagner, however dont buy the import via EZ get a UK one off ebay, the transformer I got via EZ isnt very efficient energy wise, also a bit dangerous ive jumped around the room a few times ...
I would recommend doing a good deal with Harry re extra print boards and a spare one of everything eg, capping station, etc etc ...
I still have issues with mine stopping with solid lights on large white prints, but I will just put that down to the one I have ...
Moving over to the bagged ink system cured a lot of our early issues ...
I would recommend resolute dupont ink in the UK as importing became a pain and to be fair the price works out about the same with shipping & VAT etc ...
Ive recently looked at a few others, but what I do like about the Tjet is the deep draw, I do hoodies & jackets which I think I will struggle to do with some of the newer more shallow machines coming onto the market ...
Finally I would recomment ralawise who we now use to supply our garments & ink (resolute dupont) ...
If we could sort our white ink issue, I couldnt fault the machine ...
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
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