kcinnick

TGBE is really expensive... My pro 4880 is down because either the automatic sheet feeder sensor or motor went out... I don't need the feeder but you know the printer won't run without every single part being operational. My sensor and motor assembly arrive tomorrow. My 4900 went down tonight because the light cyan cart chip won't read... and my 9900 won't run because the left waste tank won't read... again, another part you don't need unless you are printing really wide AND borderless. I HOPE the 4880 is printing tomorrow... but the nozzle checks came out fine after pooling with the Epson cleaner. $19.95 delivered from Melco for 700ml is pretty cheap for a good cleaner.

How long between printing and powdering? Do you know your humidity? Lots of people have been having similar issues with humidity and it also happens when you don't let the ink dry before curing.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChaf0ywGcq3xhOAV28WVCZw This guy is pretty enthusiastic about refilling OEM carts.

Are you sure it is clogging and not a bad cartridge? Aftermarket carts are not reliable for the XP 15000 and most people are switching to refilling OEM carts. The drawback is they only hold 12-15mL of usable ink.

I would buy 11 if it was available...

XP15000 heads are relatively cheap so that would be good if they fit the et. I don't see the point in printing 720X720, that is what the Chinese machines do and they don't produce near the image a desktop can produce, I guess it would be OK for simple designs. I understand they do that for speed.

I'll time the printer when I get it up and running. I can't find anything on the ET 8550 print head, not even a replacement. As far as specs I don't see why it would be much different than the XP 15000 but the 8550 is listed as much faster and most reviews have the 15000 as a better quality photo printer.

Yeah but the guy wanted $250 for it with $500+ worth of 220mL extra carts with it. After I sell the carts it will at least be a free printer... I paid more for the 4900 but that was what I was looking for in the first place, a 4900 or 5000.

I know they are different... what is your point?

They are having really good results refilling the OEM carts for the XP15000. It is solving most of the issues people have with the XP15000. The drawback is that you only have about 15mL of useable capacity in the OEM cart if you get it 100% full and many people are only getting 12-13mL in them. I wanted a P5000 but I started looking hard and picked up a 4900 and 4880 for less than a 1/3 of what a P5000 cost. I will watch the Epson store and pick one up if they hit the refurb shop though.

Well, if I could just buy a few P800's that is what I would have done! I still watch the used markets for deals, like the P4880 printer I picked up, I wasn't looking for that printer but I think it will work out just fine. Hopefully they work out the chip situation and RIP software issues with the P900 so that becomes an option in the future. Out of the new printers you have the XP15000, the P5000 and the P6000 if you want carts, and well the P6000 needs expensive chips every ink change. The P5000 can be reset and the XP15000 has its drawbacks.

I am aware of the dubious development of acrorip but its huge advantage is no limits on printers. I already have 2 different types of printers and I fully plan to get a P5000. I don't mind paying for a new release of 11 but I wasn't about to pay full price for 10.5 with no upgrade path to 11. I am going to do the cadlink and ekprint demo's to try them out, I am just waiting on parts and accessories. Shipping stuff these days is so slow.

It is really short sited for acrorip to not offer an upgrade path from 10 to 11, it is a hard pill to swallow to pay $400 for software that is being replaced any day now.

I don't think it is that big of deal ganging a 13X19 sheet but man would that save some time on rolls. I wasn't planning on roll printing but you know, things change... If you want 10.3 or 10.5 for a stop gap the non us resellers have dongles for as little as $17.. maybe cheaper.

How is your 4880 going? I am converting one soon, waiting on my chip resetter to arrive. Did you need to build an output tray?

This is what is listed on the MSDS. TRIETHYLENE GLYCOL MONOBUTYL ETHER I think the glycerin/glycol is going to be enough for 99% of cleaning tasks. I picked up a Pro 4880 today for less than the cost of a XP 15000 so I will get to try it out soon enough. All colors print fine except black which has two white dots in the nozzle check. The waste tank is "full" so I can't do much until my chip resetter gets here.

That cartridge is water, glycerol, "organic compounds" and glycol ether. The organic compounds probably don't do jack, the glycerol and glycol ether are what cleans things up, well and the water. You need lots of water to dilute glycerol, that stuff is pretty thick. Lots of cleaners use glycerol, you can get it cheapest at tractor supply, it is one my list of things to pick up. I don't see a good source for the ether they use, but that is probably only needed in really bad cases. I plan to clean my printer if it is going to sit more than a day.

Theoretically ammonia, alcohols and ethers should all dissolve the inks used in DTF, what I don't want to do is mess up a print head with something that doesn't agree with it. I am sure I will find something.

I realize this forum is for DTG conversions now, I just never discovered it before I found out about realistic DTF printing. SO the question I still have is what are you using for a cleaner besides water! I do have to say using water as a daily clean up to keep things fresh does sound appealing. There are tons of things in the lab that get cleaned with nothing but water because soap is bad for them.

Wait, so you use just water for cleaning? I know people use water for capping but I thought everyone was using some sort of sort of cleaning solution for cleaning lines and running in cleaning carts. I know water cleans up these wet inks very easily. Seems the most common solutions used are diluted windex with ammonia and diluted ammonia sometimes with an alcohol or detergent added but honestly I have no idea what is best. As far as the "salt" they are using calcium salts in DTG. What did you try? I think it might be as simple as calcium carbonate but I have never messed with DTG. I MIGHT play with it after I get DTF rolling, I didn't realize you could convert an epson printer for DTG.

Please let us know what is in your cleaner! Capping solutions and cleaning solutions for carts is what I am looking into now. I have picked up windex with ammonia and ammonia to have on hand. I keep 91% ISA on hand for other uses so I always have that.

So these are water based inks so you will use water as your solvent. I don't know why ink would get thick in a sealed bottle stored properly in 6 months. I have used reagents that are less stable from the 90's recently... our lab was shipped mis labeled bottles and I had to do something that didn't necessarily need standardized reagents... and they worked like they should. Now I would never have used them for commerce and I didn't risk clogging a $XXX print head. My degree path is not as a chemist and not as a biologist but it does involve working in the lab with both of those disciplines. We have all the equipment to determine exactly what is in these inks but the lab frowns upon reverse engineering products... unless they want to reverse engineer something for use in the lab!

I have acro 10.5 on the way, waiting on my dongle... I am still waiting on some stuff from Aliexpress so it isn't a big deal I don't have it yet. I see some sellers saying 10.5 supports the P5000. I give it a month before I have one... but then I would want a shaker to go with it.

So what RIP where you looking at for the P5000. I know $1800 is a big chunk for a printer but the other options are $1k+ for less performance. What on earth do you do with all the channels! I just bought 2 more DK presses so the printer cost actually isn't even the main expense for me.

My only thought is that ink is cheaper than printheads. WAY cheaper.