If you were going to get a new piece of equipment, what would it be?

[im_mcguire]

Beyond the press, what would you all be looking into.  We are looking to reinvest a small amount back into our company ( about $10k) and was just seeing where you all would spend...

Maybe a used DTG, or vinyl printer...

Or another used single head embroidery machine.

Just trying to see what some options would be that I am not thinking of currently...

[blue moon]

we went with a DTG. digital is coming and you can start getting ready for it now rather than being blindsided later. Would do it again, no question about it.

pierre

[im_mcguire]

we went with a DTG. digital is coming and you can start getting ready for it now rather than being blindsided later. Would do it again, no question about it.

pierre

What brand did you get for your shop?

[ericheartsu]

we went with a DTG. digital is coming and you can start getting ready for it now rather than being blindsided later. Would do it again, no question about it.

pierre

Do you find you're doing less and less process prints with the DTG in house?

[mimosatexas]

if you go with a DTG, i would strongly suggest against buying used.  They are fickle and support is invaluable when they act up.  We run an epson f2100 and for the most part are very happy.  We are doing hundreds of prints a week on ours.  For DTG, also remember that you will need to invest in the pretreat setup and heat presses, etc.  The ink is also expensive compared to screenprinting inks, so make sure you account for that in your pricing and add those costs into your initial setup (think something around $500 to $1000 in ink to start with.

[tonypep]

DTS but may not in the budget. However...combined with a trilock or similar setup the ROI is very quick. That said, employees need to step up to new technology. Not always easy. Hard to break some habits! Think of set ups without hammers and endless test prints. Not saying that that how it is there but I see it a lot.
tp

[3Deep]

Dryer and vinyl cutter, every time I come close to ordering one or the other something else comes up, our old dryer just can't keep up went we get into the heavy load season which is just about here.

[blue moon]

we went with a DTG. digital is coming and you can start getting ready for it now rather than being blindsided later. Would do it again, no question about it.

pierre

What brand did you get for your shop?

we went with a re-certified Belquette MOD1 as it was a great deal. For learning about the DTG and the systems it was a great choice. It is not happy if it sits more then few days, so it is imperative to run it few times per week. I have to say that the support has been spectacular. We are creating problems by letting it (and the pretreater) sit for weeks on and they are helping like we are their best customer ever. To make matters worse, we are not buying the ink from them and I think part of the problems is related to that too. no questions asked, they just help and make it happen. I would not hesitate to get another one (are actually thinking about it), but the learning curve is soooooooo steep, it might make sense to get something that is not using the EPSON heads to start with (units with proper DTG heads have recirculating and some other options built in that will save a lot of headache).

pierre

[blue moon]

we went with a DTG. digital is coming and you can start getting ready for it now rather than being blindsided later. Would do it again, no question about it.

pierre

Do you find you're doing less and less process prints with the DTG in house?

We are just getting comfortable with using it more and have decided against printing process for less than 200 or so shirts. 144, which is our most common order for full color prints will now go on DTG. The time it takes to separate, burn screens and sample is not worth the money. It can tie up the press for hours and create scheduling issues. The hope is that even if we don't make any money on those orders at least we will not be losing any.
Ask me in 6 months how we are doing. though. . .

pierre

[mimosatexas]

I could see doing jobs up to that volume if you aren't doing much DTG otherwise, but jobs like that would tie up a single DTG for way too long for us.  I would want at least two for consistent volume like that.  The issue with buying the epson mods (like the belquette) is they ALL have significant issues without massive amounts of maintenance labor.  That alone is the primary reason we went with the actual epson dtg.  Maintenance so far on that unit has been minimal.

Pierre is right though, ideally you want to be using a machine with a head built for DTG, but unless you buy a brother (ink cost issues), you are looking at $50k+ for the entry level models.

[mk162]

I could see doing jobs up to that volume if you aren't doing much DTG otherwise, but jobs like that would tie up a single DTG for way too long for us.  I would want at least two for consistent volume like that.  The issue with buying the epson mods (like the belquette) is they ALL have significant issues without massive amounts of maintenance labor.  That alone is the primary reason we went with the actual epson dtg.  Maintenance so far on that unit has been minimal.

Pierre is right though, ideally you want to be using a machine with a head built for DTG, but unless you buy a brother (ink cost issues), you are looking at $50k+ for the entry level models.

The newer Brother is getting better in this regard.  The previous models were really not great at all.  We use aftermarket ink on the GT3, CMYK only no whites.  It helps.

The newest version of the Brother looks nice.  I still think if we jumped back into white ink I would look long and hard at the M&R M-link.  I kinda stopped keeping up with the different printers out there.

[Frog]

Enough discussion on the current  "State of the DTG" to deserve it's own thread, but not really helping mcquire invest his $10,000 equipment money.
Mcquire, perhaps run down what you already have going.

[GraphicDisorder]

We added a laser to our shop in 2017, love it. But that would go for more than 10k for a good one.

[mk162]

$10k wouldn't go far in the DTG world anyway...

A laser is pretty freaking cool.  That glowforge is pretty neat, but it has a lot of drawbacks.

Brandt, what brand/model did you get?

[zanegun08]

Get a Stampinator, at about $5500, leaves you with $4500 for a vinyl cutter or another piece of equipment.

Stamping the base of your prints gives much better quality prints overall, much better than a flattening screen, and you can stamp / cure in 1 head so you don't need to go flash and flattening screen taking up two heads.  Doesn't burn garments, and gives a great base to print colors on.