Blue machine printers

[Croft]

Its time to upgrade , looking for a 10 colour M&R . We currently have a 6 col. Sportsman that has been awesome and is over 2mil prints.

My question is new Cobra or Sportsman EX.  There is a pretty big price difference between the 2 and not sure if there is that much difference. Was initially interested in the Cobra when
I read that it was digital compatible but that's only on the 12/14 colour options which I'm not interested in.
Does anyone have exp. with the 2 presses ?

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

Whats the price difference currently?

We've got a sportsman 10c and a G3 16c. I like how the heads come down on the G3 much more than the entire table up on the Sportsman.  Allows you to setup multiple jobs without worrying about leaving the screens in, etc.

That being said, the G3 you have to use the toggles to index the machine, where as the sportsman you can just grab the press and throw it to free index it wherever you want. I think they fixed that on the cobra...so it should be the best of both worlds.

Independent off contact sounds like a selling point...but in reality we always change all of the heads to suit the garments printed.

...saying that... if the price difference is 10k...I'd probably stick with the sportsman...as ours has 5mil prints...no issues. Solid workhorse. It can print faster than we'd want to load all day...so speed isn't an issue.

Not sure if the micros are any better...but we are so used to the standard micros I don't think it would save us any time...since we have triloc anyway.

[Nation03]

From what I saw I think its around a 10k difference. IMO it would be worth it to go with the Cobra. From the videos I saw it basically looks like an even more robust Sportsman with flat indexing. Seems worth it to me. Having separate off contact adjustments for each print head would be awesome and the newer style micros look wayyy better, but I know the way CTS is these days a lot of shops could care less about the micros lol. I'm upgrading to an 8 color press within the next couple of years and I'd like to get the Cobra but since I'll most likely have space and power restraints, a Sportsman or Diamondback E is more realistic.

[chubsetc]

I went from an 8 color DiamondbackXL to a 10 color Cobra in September.  We love the features and hands down would take the flat indexing press over the up/down index all day.  We love the individual off-contact as sometimes we do change it and go with a bit more OC for the base on a hoodie.  Having the screens up out of the way on heads that are not printing does allow for multiple jobs being setup without the worry of transferring unwanted ink onto a garment.  The micros are much nicer than what I had on the Dback.  We took more of a drastic jump from the Dback than you would from a Sportsman but if you have the means to upgrade to the Cobra I don’t think you will be disappointed.  Many of the features of the G3 without the big price gap. 

[Admiral]

Cobra is worth it, faster, thinner arms (great for long sleeve printing), no up down so your lasers are always on point.  I haven't heard any complaints about the reg, it is just different though.  If we had a 12-16 color Cobra I would know more about how much better it likely is.  Also there is less deflection, those arms are built better.  Perhaps they upgraded the arms on other presses too though.

Our 6C Sportsman is pretty good, we like it but could go faster on it.  Our 10C Sportsman is slower than the 6C but a noticeable amount and a quartz time of 2 secs on the 10C is equal to 4 sec on a Gauntlet 3 (meaning your production is hit).

Only Cobras for me here on out.  We will keep our Gauntlet IIIs too but I will likely replace at least the 10C Sportsman with a Cobra within 3 years, even though it's 2 years old.

[Rockers]

I went from an 8 color DiamondbackXL to a 10 color Cobra in September.  We love the features and hands down would take the flat indexing press over the up/down index all day.  We love the individual off-contact as sometimes we do change it and go with a bit more OC for the base on a hoodie.  Having the screens up out of the way on heads that are not printing does allow for multiple jobs being setup without the worry of transferring unwanted ink onto a garment.  The micros are much nicer than what I had on the Dback.  We took more of a drastic jump from the Dback than you would from a Sportsman but if you have the means to upgrade to the Cobra I don’t think you will be disappointed.  Many of the features of the G3 without the big price gap.

That`s my thought too. After the disappointment with our Diamondback, center shaft shows already some damage after 8 years, I would not go again for a press that needs to lift the print table up and down. Well the Diamondback has been sold and we are getting a ROQ Next 14/10 in early March.
I think the Cobra would be a good choice.

[chubsetc]

So many things to cover but like Admiral said, the pallet arms on the Cobra are way more sturdy than the Sportsman system which is the same as the Diamondback.  Virtually no pallet deflection or side to side movement.  If you put a bit too much side pressure while TriLocking before you could feel the pallet moving side to side.  Not with the Cobra arms.  Laser positions not moving as the pallets raise has been awesome, just another thing not to have to think about.  The machine is also incredibly quiet.  I didn’t think the lack of sound would make a difference with the fans from 2 Chili D’s and the HotHead fans running but the lack of noise from the press is very noticeable (but again I came from air heads so your experience may not be exactly the same).  The other thing to note is all 10 color Cobras and above have the head support stands.  I thought this was going to annoy me but they really stabilize the press. I originally thought they would get in the way of accessing the screens but at this point they are not even the slightest bother.

[Croft]

So many things to cover but like Admiral said, the pallet arms on the Cobra are way more sturdy than the Sportsman system which is the same as the Diamondback.  Virtually no pallet deflection or side to side movement.  If you put a bit too much side pressure while TriLocking before you could feel the pallet moving side to side.  Not with the Cobra arms.  Laser positions not moving as the pallets raise has been awesome, just another thing not to have to think about.  The machine is also incredibly quiet.  I didn’t think the lack of sound would make a difference with the fans from 2 Chili D’s and the HotHead fans running but the lack of noise from the press is very noticeable (but again I came from air heads so your experience may not be exactly the same).  The other thing to note is all 10 color Cobras and above have the head support stands.  I thought this was going to annoy me but they really stabilize the press. I originally thought they would get in the way of accessing the screens but at this point they are not even the slightest bother.

for the thinner pallet arms , can you still use older M&R pallets or is the base different? I'm also really looking for 1 without the support arms < I thought only the 12-14 col. had the supports?

[Admiral]

It uses the same pallets, that isn't changed, the pallet arms are thinner, the level adjustment is different and shirts don't get caught on bolts underneath.

We did some thing long sleeve printing recently and it is much better to do on the Cobra than a Sportsman.

[chubsetc]

Pallets are the same like Admiral said, so no issue there.  I was definitely disappointed initially that the press had the head supports but it’s really been no issue.  I would take all the bonus features with head supports any day over not having those features.  At the end of the day if you’re happy with the Sportsman you know exactly what you are getting and you save a little coin, but if you’d like some of the other features  I would not let the head supports stop you.

[Nation03]

I went from an 8 color DiamondbackXL to a 10 color Cobra in September.  We love the features and hands down would take the flat indexing press over the up/down index all day.  We love the individual off-contact as sometimes we do change it and go with a bit more OC for the base on a hoodie.  Having the screens up out of the way on heads that are not printing does allow for multiple jobs being setup without the worry of transferring unwanted ink onto a garment.  The micros are much nicer than what I had on the Dback.  We took more of a drastic jump from the Dback than you would from a Sportsman but if you have the means to upgrade to the Cobra I don’t think you will be disappointed.  Many of the features of the G3 without the big price gap.

That`s my thought too. After the disappointment with our Diamondback, center shaft shows already some damage after 8 years, I would not go again for a press that needs to lift the print table up and down. Well the Diamondback has been sold and we are getting a ROQ Next 14/10 in early March.
I think the Cobra would be a good choice.

How often were you applying grease to the center shaft? My tech said don't go by what the manual says and to apply grease once a week regardless of volume to ensure a longer life. I think the manual has it on there as once a month or every 3 months.

[cbjamel]

I went from an 8 color DiamondbackXL to a 10 color Cobra in September.  We love the features and hands down would take the flat indexing press over the up/down index all day.  We love the individual off-contact as sometimes we do change it and go with a bit more OC for the base on a hoodie.  Having the screens up out of the way on heads that are not printing does allow for multiple jobs being setup without the worry of transferring unwanted ink onto a garment.  The micros are much nicer than what I had on the Dback.  We took more of a drastic jump from the Dback than you would from a Sportsman but if you have the means to upgrade to the Cobra I don’t think you will be disappointed.  Many of the features of the G3 without the big price gap.

That`s my thought too. After the disappointment with our Diamondback, center shaft shows already some damage after 8 years, I would not go again for a press that needs to lift the print table up and down. Well the Diamondback has been sold and we are getting a ROQ Next 14/10 in early March.
I think the Cobra would be a good choice.

How often were you applying grease to the center shaft? My tech said don't go by what the manual says and to apply grease once a week regardless of volume to ensure a longer life. I think the manual has it on there as once a month or every 3 months.

personally more the better. can't hurt can it?

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[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

A bad center shaft ruins a press. Grease often.