screen printing > Screen Making
Advice on Film Output Printer
alan802:
As many of you know, our 4800 is down and likely out till we can get someone to refurb/rebuild the printhead and all the associated parts to it. We consulted with an epson tech today and there is a guy in Houston that said he could fix it in an hour, but we got to send the printer to him and it's going to be $800 minimum. A brand new 4880 is $1900 so we are weighing our options. We are currently using the r1800 for film output but it has developed a splatter problem that with many hours of treatment and reading tips from everyone all over the world, it still splatters and I'm personally tired of dealing with it. It prints decent film, but the splatter does affect higher mesh counts and halftones a bit.
We are looking at getting a backup/new film output printer, maybe the epson 1400 or something like that. The 4800 will likely be our output device once it gets going again, but in the meantime, I want some advice on what others are using for film output. I'd like to keep it around the price range and print size of the 1900 since this will be used more as a backup and only full time for a few weeks right now. What is everyone using and what are the pros and cons of your current printer? Let me hear everything you guys know!
ZooCity:
1400 makes a great back-up printer, especially for the price. You can task it out as a proofing printer for the rest of the time when it's not on film duty. The stock Claira inks work great on Fixxons/Microjet film if you want an ink you can run to the store and buy. Get one with the replacement plan so you can just run it into staples or wherever and grab another one if it's down. I really like the peace of mind of having ours so I won't freak if something's amiss with the 4800.
As far as replacing the 4800 with another film outputter, I've been doing some diligence on this topic and honestly can't see much else out there in the world besides wide-format epsons and imagesetters. As cool as imagesetters are they are really, really gad damn expensive with scary high potential replacement parts costs and media costs. The combination makes them unattractive to me financially. You would need to be doing some critical, fine line work, probably on something other than T shirts on a regular basis to really justify it. I'm sure other will disagree here but that's what I'm getting out of it. For us we need at least 24" wide output now so I guess it'll be a 7700/7890. I like our 4800 a lot though, it's very reliable and easy to work on.
stitches4815:
We are using the 1400 with excellent results. It is a good printer.
Denis Kolar:
Epson 1100 could be worth a look at $129.
Not as many bells and whistles as 1400, but it works for me.
It took a few tries to get the best result, but since I got the right settings and after I bought the CIS from eBay, I do not have any issues with it.
I do not print as many seps as you guys, but it did not give any problems as of yet.
RICK STEFANICK:
I also use a epson R1800 for my higher end designs..but day in day out i use a xante screenwriter 4 with great results and no registration problems.. i think its due to using good film..
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