[RatherDashing]

I'm a teacher with (for the first and probably last time) a decent budget to spend on machines for my classroom. We make all the shirts this year, and are using a Roland GX-24 to cut and then heat press. I'm looking for full color now, as I have been bitten by the bug. What machine should I get for color prints? I was looking at a Roland BN-20, but after reading about all the weekly maintenance on an eco-solvent printer, and the fact that I cannot leave it alone for the summer, is making me think twice. Is dye sublimation the way to go? Do I need a machine that can print and cut, or does it need to cut at all? Any advice is welcome.

 

[Amw]

I'm a teacher with (for the first and probably last time) a decent budget to spend on machines for my classroom. We make all the shirts this year, and are using a Roland GX-24 to cut and then heat press. I'm looking for full color now, as I have been bitten by the bug. What machine should I get for color prints? I was looking at a Roland BN-20, but after reading about all the weekly maintenance on an eco-solvent printer, and the fact that I cannot leave it alone for the summer, is making me think twice. Is dye sublimation the way to go? Do I need a machine that can print and cut, or does it need to cut at all? Any advice is welcome.

The only type of printer that will work for you, that can sit for long periods of time unused (summer break) is a laser printer.
(I am not a big fan of the prints from laser though)

Dye sub printers and eco solvent printers need to be maintained on a daily/weekly basis. I know the sawgrass printers can sit longer then epsons...but I dont think sitting the whole summer is going to work well.

Why not just order in the prints from a wholesale printer and then you can press them. But this means you wont have to maintain the printer(s) during the summer.
If you are going to go with a eco solvent printer, skip the BN 20 and go to at least a 30" printer. You will have more material options as well as it will print MUCH faster. Yes you want a printer cutter...you will want to contour cut your prints. You can do this with a standalone plotter but for mostly doing shirts printer/cutter is they way to go.

 

[RatherDashing]

I know of a colleague that uses a Sawgrass, so I'll have to ask her what she does with it over the summer. I want the ability to print on demand, so using a wholesaler doesn't work for me. And unfortunately, if I don't use the money, it goes away.

 

[splathead]

What's your budget?

 

[RatherDashing]

What's your budget?

It's very fluid at the moment, but if I ask for anything under $10k, I'm pretty sure I can get it. Above that, I need to defend it a little more, but I think it'd top out at the $15k mark.

 

[splathead]

Dye sub only works on white/very light 100% polyester.

A desktop dye sub printer is small enough you could take home during the summer, if allowed by the school. Although with that kind of budget you could get a large format printer.

Have you looked into a direct to garment inkjet printer? Your budget would work (barely )and they print on cotton and cotton blends.

There is still the issue of needing to use it regularly and it's not small enough to take home for the summer.

 

[RatherDashing]

I didn't think there were any DTG printers worth the money in my range.

 

[api]

I'm a teacher with (for the first and probably last time) a decent budget to spend on machines for my classroom. We make all the shirts this year, and are using a Roland GX-24 to cut and then heat press. I'm looking for full color now, as I have been bitten by the bug. What machine should I get for color prints? I was looking at a Roland BN-20, but after reading about all the weekly maintenance on an eco-solvent printer, and the fact that I cannot leave it alone for the summer, is making me think twice. Is dye sublimation the way to go? Do I need a machine that can print and cut, or does it need to cut at all? Any advice is welcome.

My suggestions:

1.) Stay away from the white ink! You will have lots of issues with it (even if you do regular maintenance).

2.) If you want to use (light colored) cotton shirts, buy a CMYK only DTG printer. (Brother, Epson. etc.)

3.) If you prefer using (light colored) polyester shirts, buy a CMYK dye-sublimation printer (preferably wide format) like EPSON F6200.

4.) If you want to use various materials (cotton, blend, poly, etc.) buy an Eco-Solvent printer/cutter, like Roland VersaCAMM VS-300i. This is much better (faster, wider) than the BN-20. By the way we have a large Roland VS-640 and it starts and cleans itself automatically every day. (Survives the summer.) I think the VS-300i does the same auto-cleaning procedure but I am not sure. With Eco-Solvent you can print/cut HeatSoft heat transfer material.

 

[Signature Series]

The last thing, in my opinion, you want to mess with giving your situation is dye sub. It is one of the more difficult decorating methods to truly master. We do wide format cut and sew in dye sublimation but also have the need for a smaller eco solvent print cut and decided on the BN-20 five years ago. During that time we have had ZERO failures all the while replacing (2) dye sub printers during that same time. Furthermore we have not been great at ongoing maintenance on the BN-20 whereas the dye sub printer we do not miss a week in doing some general maintenance. With that said it is my understanding that the white ink version can give you the same headaches as dye sub printers with print head clogging, etc. Last on the BN-20 as long as you have it powered up you should be good as they do micro head flushes on-going. If I was looking at doing shirts, etc at school I would surely go with a BN-20 versus dye sub. If you go up to a 30" version just make sure you also look at what a heat press goes for to handle that size. Once you get into 30" range you are getting into some real serious $$$ when it comes to heat presses.