New Sublimation System

[JoppaMill]

Hello all. My Bus. Partner and I are looking at buying a sublimation system today on Cyber Monday.  We have kicked around a few options, but are leaning towards EpsonSC-T3270 and a Geo Knight press.  We would be using it for T-Shirts and Realtor signs.   Any thoughts or wisdom would be highly appreciated over the course of the day.

Thx,
Matt

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

We aren't too excited about it any more for shirts. We do them, but its tough for us to charge enough to make money.YMMV.  (We do still make a lot of mugs)

How would you even do real estate signs with dye sub?

Anyhow, we've been through several desktop printers and they have all been a pain. Inkjets manufacturers (Epson, I'm lookin' at YOU!) seemingly only make the printers so they can sell the ink. And, they barely even notice us and our needs. So you'll probably have to go with Sawgrass or Cobra for inks and those desktop printers will always fussing about non OEM carts in one way or the other.

It's a racket.

It looks like you like to buy good equipment from what I've already seen on your posts. (very wise, if you are able.) I think I'd suggest you call Coastal or Conde and get a read on what printers they recommend (and support) for your sublimation gig. They may have an inside track on trouble-free printers....'Cause I sure don't. You might be able to make a high end printer pay for itself over a reasonable period, but we never could.

We upgraded to an air heat press a couple of years ago. I'm not interested in manual heat presses anymore. The repeatability of 60psi, 335°, for 17 seconds (or whatever) beats "medium to heavy pressure" whatever that means. If you have a seasoned staff, well... Okay. But at our zoo, we never know from day to day, who is going to be running the Heat Press. It depends on who can multi-task while embroidering. I just like having numbers on a chart. It might even be someone who mostly sells, but those hard PSI numbers reduce misprints for us.

[Ross_S]

Not sure why you would use it for signs.

[JoppaMill]

Thx. Just called Cobra. We are going to go that route due to the small upfront cost. I'll let you know how things go over the next couple of weeks.


As for the signs. I can purchase pre-treated poly coated aluminum signs. We have a large realtor base and wanted to offer them high quality "For Sale" signs with their pictures on it.

[Frog]

Thx. Just called Cobra. We are going to go that route due to the small upfront cost. I'll let you know how things go over the next couple of weeks.


As for the signs. I can purchase pre-treated poly coated aluminum signs. We have a large realtor base and wanted to offer them high quality "For Sale" signs with their pictures on it.

I have to wonder how the sublimation inks stand up to the sun. Reds were always an issue when I did flat stock screen printing.

[JoppaMill]

I have to wonder how the sublimation inks stand up to the sun. Reds were always an issue when I did flat stock screen printing.

Hopefully I'll have some real life data  by spring time.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

+1 on the reds being the biggest problem with screenprinting signs. However, I hand lettered some with One Shot Red and the screenprinted ones held up better. Always used Nazdar 9700 series if I remember correctly.

So JoppaMill, what size of dye sub pictures for the real estate signs will you be using? 

I have an Epson 7110 for 13x19 dye sub papers, and I HATE that it is always whining about non OEM carts. Is that what you are getting? I use Cobra inks in it, NOoooo problem...but I wouldn't even consider buying another due to the above.

You know, I want Epson to charge what they need to charge for the printers, and make them stop belly aching about ink. It's like building an airplane and cutting 100 bucks off, but making them only burn YOUR fuel.

STOP. THIS. EPSON.

If you do this...and figure it out, keep me in mind. I'd sure like to fix mine.

I feel one of my fingers stiffening (yes, THAT one....) just typing Epson more than once in a post. I had an 1100 that was a champ in that regard, but alas, it has given up the ghost.

[JoppaMill]

So the system we got uses the Epson 1430 and the Cobra inks. I'm comfortable with the 1430 because we use it for film positives. But this kills the Realtor sign route. We are just going to play around with some socks and shoulder to shoulder tee presses to get our feet wet. I'm ready to play mad scientist for a couple of weeks. Hope to post some pics by next week.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

You got my juices flowing, and I learned yesterday there are Chip Resetters STILL available (InkOwl has them apparently though Cobra didn't last I checked with Richard) that might solve the whiney OEM cart issue.

My understanding was that congress made them illegal somehow. Maybe I dreamed it. 

I use a 1400 for my films (mostly) and both of those particular units have been stellar. The carts I got from Cobra for them do play nice with the printer. So maybe you'll be fine.

Fingers crossed.....