BIG3

Yes tried that. It wants me to load an A4 sheet in the sheet feeder. If I hit proceed with roll film loaded it wants to eject the roll film. ughhh! If loading film was not such a pain I would just deal with it. Once it is in and going no problem but getting it straight is sometimes a headache. I could not find a roll adapter for p800 so I had to rig one up from an old 4800 roll adapter. There must be a program out there that the DTG guys are using right? or do they not do nozzle checks? LOL! I have a printer adjustment utility program for the p600 that will let me do a nozzle check on that printer with roll film loaded but it feeds a ton of film even when I have the sheet size set to 12.95 x 6 inches. I got the program on this forum in the downloads section but did not see one for p800.

Is there a way to do a nozzle check on an epson p-800 when you have roll media loaded. Do I need a utility program? If so any recommendations?

I have seen this. Too hot on the cure. Lower the temp and go longer on the time. You can see bubbles on the other side right? If you get out a high powered loupe you will see actual tearing of the ink.

In the screen printing world we would know if our plastisol transfer was cured properly if we could peel it of the backer in one piece easily. I just tested the one I did for 5min @290 hover and it comes off in clumps. I took your suggestion and flipped the heat press platen over and did some testing and it looks like 255f at 3 min works good for me. Any hotter and I get burn marks or bubbles on areas that have black ink. I will be building an enclosure for it and exhausting the vapor, It is getting out much more moisture out this way. Wash test was good and had no problems. Going to do a few more tests and see how it goes. Thanks again for being a huge help in steering me in the right direction. DTF is awesome and is going to be a big game changer for us if we get it right! So grateful for people like you that are willing to share information and help!

We do see some steam but we have 50% humidity in our shop right now. We do a pre-press on the shirt but the transfers are sitting back there too so maybe they are absorbing moisture? I just grabbed a transfer that has been sitting in the back for a few days and rubbed the glue side of it and there is some sort of liquid or oil on it. I don't see that on a freshly cured film. I just printed a fresh transfer and cut it in half and cured the other half of it again ... for a total of 10 min @290f. I will press them together and do a wash test and see if I get a similar result. I will leave another one out overnight do some more testing tomorrow and see if the humidity has anything to do with it. Thanks for the input!

Still trying to dial my curing process. I have tested at temps ranging from 260 to 350 deg F for 2-5 min. We settled at 290f for 5 min using a 16x20 heat press hovering at 1/4 inch above film. I get just a little bit of powder grit on the back but it is mostly smooth and has that rubber feeling. At this time and temp I get a good press at 330f for 15 sec. Warm peel after about 12 seconds. Pressure is at about 70 psi (7 on stahls press). Everything looks good but sometimes we get complaints about imprints sticking to themselves on shirts when they are washed. We have just seen it on the white ink mainly but we are trying to figure out what causes this. We have been able to wash shirts and have seen this sticking together problem, but most of the time it will separate from itself and be just fine. If it goes through a tumble dryer like that we have seen it stick together and destroy the imprint ... just not every time. We have some shirts that have gone through 20+ washes and look just fine. We buy ink, film and powder from DTFSuperstore.com (not the kodak or USA ink)

Just curious when you cure your prints (powder melt) so you still feel a little grit on the back of the transfer or is it smoother with more of a rubbery feel? I am curing at 350 deg for 2 min on a heat press that is hovered using silicone squares in corners to keep platen close and level. At that temp/time I get the smoother finish than when I cured at 320 for 2 min. I am wondering because I am getting some ink crock (ink will rub off) on larger, heavier ink load prints. If I run it through my conveyor dryer after I press it on the shirt it fixes the problem (thank goodness!) I am going to try a longer cure time on the heat press and see if that helps but just curious to see what others are doing. Johnson4 thanks for your comments on ink load ... I may be using too much white on my prints.

I also use WhiteRip 7 on my p600 and p800. The lines you see might be able to be fixed by adjusting the feed to %98 percent on your media options -> Driver Options (under quality tab then click on button with [OOO]). I use different compensations for sheet and roll feed. There are also "Fade" or feathering options there too that will help If you are printing gradients then "best" will help a lot! Slows down the print though... I was getting slight dark banding with a good nozzle check and adjusted mine to 101.4% and it cleared it right up. Your banding is white so your printer is advancing too much and would need something less than 100%.