Any one seen this? 11/19

[DCSP John]

I have a friend who is starting a home based DTG business.
He is ordering one of these machines.. Look at the price.

http://www.spectradtg.com/spectra-3000-dtg.html

Any one know about these machines? For the price it looks like a neat option,
allowing some to get in the door. But, in the long run, my guess is you get what you pay for.

Curious as to thoughts.

John

[sqslabs]

I don't know anything about that particular unit and am a bit out of the loop on the latest technology, but in my experience with DTG you usually do get what you pay for.  He could pick up a used GT-541 for less than that and they are built like tanks.  Only catch is that they don't print on darks, but I'd be nervous about white ink on a machine that cheap anyways. 

[Gilligan]

Yeah, white ink is the killer.

NOT this machine but my buddy had a purple machine and one day I walked in and said "you know you have white ink all over the floor right?"  He did not... That white ink sat there for months and then he moved shops.  I have never seen that DTG again.i think the white recirculating thing busted/exploded/gave way and just pumped ink all over the floor.

It was always a frustration.

If I had the space and market for it I would go Brother... Maybe look into that epson as well.

[mk162]

yeah, there is a reason epson isn't making theirs for $7k.

the best printers out there were designed to be DTG printers...period.

but he should try it and let us know how it works...

[Frog]

I wonder just how much needs to be done to something here to be able to label it as "assembled in the US"

[Gilligan]

Less and less I'm sure.

[bulldog]

Has anyone on the board ever used the M-Link? Would love to hear some real world feedback.

Otherwise...what is a good model DTG that will print on darks? Interested in quality over price, but less of a price tag than that Kornit. =)

[mk162]

I would go Epson or Brother in my opinion...you can buy several of those for the same cost as a Kornit to get the production numbers up.

[CSPGarrett]

I have owned a DTG shop in California now for 3 years and can provide a few insights.

1. As you know there are two main types of printers. Industrial based (made from the ground up usually with heads other than epson (brother, Kornit, the one lawson resold, and now epson's actual machine).  The other is converted epson (Bel, FreeJet, Neo, Spectra).  The big difference is their intended purpose and how well you can clean them.  The Brother for example is made to run in production settings (lower DPI) and is built like a tank.

2. Converted epson machines like the spectra can run great but you have to make sure they have the following. Good tech support, no matter what the machine will go down and when is the big question. It can be due to the operators negligence of not cleaning daily or because the actual epson unit reached the end of it's life cycle and needs to be reset.  Either way, that is the big one.  Second, you need to have easy access to the cleaning area (caping station) and other odds and ends, if not you will slowly degrade and gunk up the machine until you are selling it on t-shirtforums to an unlucky winner. Third, epson model. Depending on the machine you may be getting one that is an outdated model, this is good and bad. Sometimes you can find the parts you need like capping stations, encoders, dampners easy or sometimes you have to pay an arm and a leg. Many times the new epson version of the previous model fits exactly.

I run FreeJet machines and love them.  They are converted Epson machines but more built from the ground up (only the shaft, encoder, head, capping, and a few odds and ends are used).  The rest of the printer is not used and they have run like tanks (we have had issues! but we expected that and have got them resolved).  The spectra on the other hand is a "mounted" converted unit. I have heard good things from Anthony at DTG Printer Pats (great guy) but I really want to wait and see if anyone can actually run them for 2-3 years without replacing the full epson unit (you would pay someone such as Jay out of NJ who owns Spectra to take the full printer, cut the parts not needed out, and you would remount it yourself).  Many times machines like this get a lot of hype (such as firebird ink did and we found out the ink didn't hold up nearly as good as Dupont) but it will take time for the real issues if any to come out of the wood work.

I think the price is MUCH more reasonable for ROI than what we payed for ours back when, so with that said it can be worth the learning curve/investment for someone that can secure the business.  At the same time, they need to print everyday.  White ink isn't really an issue but it must be used (even printing a scrap tee everyday and scrapping it).    I will say this, the Spectra was built the right way as far as focus on the transport system, but can it stand up to 10-12 shirts per hour, 8-10 hours a day, 6 days a week without issues.

[Sparkie]

Here is my experience as I picked up my Spectra 3000 yesterday.

The price is very attractive, and from what I've read on TSF and AF (the new ApparelForums), support is fantastic, (although apparently rarely required).

After meeting with Jay, (Spectra CEO/owner) yesterday for pick up and training, I am very impressed with what the team at Sectra are doing.  They also have a few other projects they are working on that sound pretty exciting.

The one thing that was stated to me clear as a bell was MAINTENANCE! This is true for any DTG printer so nothing new there. Jay does however have a few tips and tricks for all Spectra users that will help keep those pesky ink clogs from slamming production to a halt.

Jay was going to train me on my actual machine, but he decided it was safer to keep my printer a virgin. He was concerned the cold weather and the long drive back to Ohio may not be in our best interest. I also have to finish my dedicated DTG room in my basement. I wasn't expecting to have my printer in my hands until next week, so I'm a bit behind in my construction. Keeping the ink out of the printer during that down time will prevent ink clog problems when I fire it up for the first time.

Jay comes across as an intelligent guy who tells it like it is. If he doesn't think DTG is for you, he'll tell you to go out and do more research until you are more familiar with what it takes to run a DTG printer successfully. The last thing he wants is to have an unqualified user having problem after problem with their DTG experience. Protecting the Spectra name is high on Jay's priority list. To me, it seems as though Jay is in the DTG printer market more to help educate users on proper DTG printing rather than just making a sale.

I'll post some pictures in a week or two when I'm up and running with my Spectra.

Also, visit ISS Atlantic City March 13 -15 2015 if you want to see the Spectra 3000 in action.

[CSPGarrett]

I think any DTG Machine maker just getting in such as Jay with a new machine has seen the downfall of just selling (Easy T Printer).

It looks to be a purpose built machine, also many other machines such as Neo and Freejet have been overpriced in the last few years and that is why you see more aggressive pricing from those brands, it is still a relatively new sector of the industry.

I suggest looking at Anthony from DTG Printer Parts for your ink if you can, we have never had an issue and ships same day. He can do Priority mail to you so it gets their fast, at the same time I am assuming Jay has a distribution out of Jersey.

How will you be pre-treating?

[Frog]

My biggest concern with any newbie basing an entire business on a single machine, is the obvious, doo-doo occurs. What is your "Plan B"?

The problems with Fast T-Jets were not insurmountable, but I think that Scott sold to a market that believed the "Earn money in your spare room printing custom T-shirts" hype and those who failed tended to be non-mechanical types who had put all of their eggs into one basket.


 

[tpitman]

One of the "baits" used by the manufacturers, especially with the white ink ones, was showing motorcycle or car show style tees with some spectacular graphic. Scott always had a bunch of those hanging in his booth. How many of us are printing those types of shirts in small enough quantities to warrant a DTG vs screenprinting the graphic? As for the "virgins" who thought that it was an easy, push-button way to get into the t-shirt biz, most likely had neither the photoshop chops to create those styles, nor the customers demanding it.
I do work for two companies, one of which had a T-Jet, the other which has a Brother.(white shirts only) .I'd be surprised if the T-Jet printed more than a couple dozen shirts before they let it go for a song and with much cursing of it. The Brother gets used, but almost not enough to warrant having the thing in the house. They've got the money to keep it, but with the exception of the detail it can hold, many of the designs are a bit dull. Part of the problem there is that what should be spot color jobs almost always look better screenprinted with Pantone or any pure spot color compared to CMYK mixes.

[Dottonedan]

M-Link has a nice feature for white-ink. it eliminated the separation and settling by  circulating white ink through the entire ink delivery system as well as printheads every so often when you're not printing. whites, lights, darks and blacks,  (14" x 20.5") pallet and imprint area of up to (13" x 19"). What I like, is the RIP keeps awesome consistency between white shirts and black prints with the same art.

Print time is somewhere between 15 sec. and 45 sec. on white tees and 2-3 min on black tees. Notably a little longer on darks using white ink due to the large print area. I've seen this machine run. You can actually leave this for a few days with white ink in the lines, come back and start printing again with no issues. I wouldn't assume tho, that you can leave it for a week or a month and just start right into production without doing nozzle checks and some auto cleans tho, but it's a pretty sweet system. Nothing Epson about this one If I remember. I know they are a not Epson heads. I believe they are our same Rico Heads that the ST and STE uses. It was designed to address some of the more common issues with DTG and to be a long term tank of a machine.

I think they just started selling them and officially out at one of the more recent shows. So I don't know that too many people would have one already to provide actual usage feedback this soon. You should contact M&R, - Rich or Alex Mammoser who can maybe provide you with some names of shops that have one already.