CTS Wax - Taking the plunge

[Maxie]

Finally after many years of debating the pros and cons and mainly the financial side I am getting a Douthitt C30.
I booked a ticket to Detroit today and will fly over next week, go to the CTS seminar at MEG and then to Detroit to learn the ins and outs of the machine.
I don't have any service here so will have to be handy and rely on remote back up.
I am looking forward to not having to hassle with a Epson.
Get great screens, fast set up and not have to file film.
Quite exited about this purchase.

[Alex M]

Congrats! CTS is a life changer for sure!

[mk162]

You won't regret it.  We've been running ours for about 3 months and LOVE it.

[GKitson]

Maxie,

Looking forward to your visit.  You will need to bring the big bottle of aspirin, we are going pack your head with details at the CTS Workflow Workshop at MEG.

See you soon,

[T Shirt Farmer]

Once you go Wax you never go back, you made a very smart decision Maxie. After reading all  the heart aches from ink jet peps you will be smiling ear to ear. I own the other wax machine which is very similar and is truly plug and play, game changer for certain.

[GaryG]

I remember being at the Douthitt factory about 25 years ago. Neat place downtown. Try to hit a nice restaurant when in Detroit, or make them take you of course. There are some nice digs they will know of down by the water.

A company I worked for back then got one of those mammoth DMZ exposure units that you can walk into. 
Then it went for nothing when the company was auctioned off. 

Congrats !

[mk162]

I know I am dredging this topic up, but we run the Douthitt here and on a job that we've printed for the last 3-4 years the Douthitt held way more detail.

I have to go back into the file to eliminate a faint clipping area around a part of the art.  The previous inkjet DTS didn't hold that detail at all.  We are doing work that I previously don't think I would have attempted.  We are trying to keep Dan busy with our seps.

There are some quirks with the machine vs. inkjet, but i think it was money well spent around here.  Our screens haven't looked this good since forever.

[Doug S]

I know I am dredging this topic up, but we run the Douthitt here and on a job that we've printed for the last 3-4 years the Douthitt held way more detail.

I have to go back into the file to eliminate a faint clipping area around a part of the art.  The previous inkjet DTS didn't hold that detail at all.  We are doing work that I previously don't think I would have attempted.  We are trying to keep Dan busy with our seps.

There are some quirks with the machine vs. inkjet, but i think it was money well spent around here.  Our screens haven't looked this good since forever.

If you don't mind, can you share some of the quirks?  I was thinking when I can't repair the rocket launcher any longer, I was thinking of going to wax.  1 thing I was thinking of is do you have to worry about clogs as much as you do with ink?

[ericheartsu]

Weve been beta testing a wax unit for a month or so now, and it's frankly faster and holds a bit more detail than our i-image. The I-image is still fantastic though, especially with curves dialed in correctly.

[mk162]

I know I am dredging this topic up, but we run the Douthitt here and on a job that we've printed for the last 3-4 years the Douthitt held way more detail.

I have to go back into the file to eliminate a faint clipping area around a part of the art.  The previous inkjet DTS didn't hold that detail at all.  We are doing work that I previously don't think I would have attempted.  We are trying to keep Dan busy with our seps.

There are some quirks with the machine vs. inkjet, but i think it was money well spent around here.  Our screens haven't looked this good since forever.

If you don't mind, can you share some of the quirks?  I was thinking when I can't repair the rocket launcher any longer, I was thinking of going to wax.  1 thing I was thinking of is do you have to worry about clogs as much as you do with ink?

Nozzle clogs aren't bad.  And even with a single nozzle clog, you can get away with running the screen.  I am very impatient, so waiting 90 minutes for the printer to warm up is annoying.  Even from standby mode it's about 25 minutes.  The inkjets are nice because you can print almost immediately.

I have had some ink dripping issues(a couple times) and we have a vacuum leak that we can't quite trace.  It prevents us from printing for about 30 seconds while the vacuum builds back up.  Most of the time the issues are solved with a reboot of the system. 

I also don't like the actual software that send the designs to the printer.  It isn't as smooth as the RIP from M&R on the i-image.  That may have changed though.  I do like proofing the prints in their ink colors, especially since the names of the files get cut off, so sometimes on longer file names we rename them so you can see the pms color in the filename.

I will take all of these issues though over the inkjet.  Our screens are getting a much better exposure now since the wax is so dense.  We had problems before cutting through the ink and partially exposing the emulsion behind the ink.

[T Shirt Farmer]

[/quote]
, so waiting 90 minutes for the printer to warm up is annoying.  Even from standby mode it's about 25 minutes.
[/quote]

Are you Doughit? I am Exile which I have programed to auto warm up at 5am so when I get in @ 6 all i do is purge and I am good to go for the day.

[mk162]

, so waiting 90 minutes for the printer to warm up is annoying.  Even from standby mode it's about 25 minutes.
[/quote]

Are you Doughit? I am Exile which I have programed to auto warm up at 5am so when I get in @ 6 all i do is purge and I am good to go for the day.
[/quote]

I can do that, but we don't print everyday.  We try and group our screen runs into larger runs.  We only average 10-15 screens a day in setups.  We'll have one guy spend 1/2 a day in the screen room to run off all the screens we need for the next few days or even the week.

[T Shirt Farmer]

IMO these machines like to run, we warm up to temp and purge everyday even if we have nothing to image.

[jsheridan]

The biggest tip with the Douthit machines is to only add HALF a block of wax at a time.

We leave ours on and in standby from 4pm to 7am and over the weekend.

[mk162]

The biggest tip with the Douthit machines is to only add HALF a block of wax at a time.

We leave ours on and in standby from 4pm to 7am and over the weekend.

Why only half a block?