What machine to buy between 8-10k?

One thing that was not covered is the need for a separate space to do the pretreating for white ink printing. When thinking about any home-based printing, you need to think about the space you have and what can be done in that space. Pretreating shirts is not recommended for doing it in the same space as the printer unless you have an automatic pretreater ($4,000 to $8,000 additional price tag). So if you are going to want to print white ink and are going to manually pretreat garments (which can be done, but requires a fairly large learning curve), you need to have a completely separate space in your house (preferably in the garage) that can get a little messy. Pretreating shirts will typically have an overspray and make the surrounding area sticky. Also, pretreat fluid is not recommended around young children. No pretreating is required when just printing CMYK inks (i.e. light garments).

Just something else to consider when looking at what printer and ink setup to look at. Best wishes,

Mark

robyn said:

If you were buying a DTG and wanted to keep the cost between 8-10k...which would you pick?

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Along with all the good info you've already gotten here I'd add you need the customers, orders, business to justify not only the expense but the continual cost associated with owning and running any DTG printer.....that said, DTG machines like to print not sit, the longer one sits the more likely your gonna' have problems with the ink delivery system and print quality.

To answer your question in my mind there are only a couple choices at your price point, being a new comer to the process I would not consider a used machine there are lots of threads here on TSF of people buying a used machine and their trials getting it back up and running with no knowledge of the machine, it's really a uphill battle unless you can see it print before you buy and have a helping hand in training/maintenance.

A refurb machine from either Equipment Zone or SWF East would be my recommendation, either should hit your price point, have a warranty, and should include training & tech support which are just as important as the machine itself. IMHO

The only other advice I could give you is to read, read, read here on TSF about the different machines and people using them, their troubles and triumphs it would give a true picture of real world usage not the hype a salesman will tell you.

Here's a couple threads to get you going.

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t45383.html

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t41520.html

One last recommendation, when your ready to purchase come back here tell us what you've found, and ask for opinions, tells us what the salesman is telling you and ask questions on the purchase before you buy.

Hope this helps.