starting some dtg research

[blue moon]

quality and washability of your image is directly related to your pretreatment. If you put a little bit more on one side than the other, the image will look different. Repeatability and consistency of the pretreatment deposit is crucial to successful DTG operation. If you are spending money on a DTG find the money for a proper pretreatment solution or wait to get both. Buying one without the other is only good for RnD.

There are pretreatments for light color and dark color garments. Get both!

pierre

[mimosatexas]

There are basically 3 pretreatments: lights, darks, poly. The light pretreat doesn't react well with the white ink so it can't be used to print with white, it is just designed to improve detail, vibrance, and washab okklity on lights when printing cmyk. The dark pretreat is for printing with white, but it will often stain lights, but not always. We really don't use the poly pretreatment so I can't speak on that.

[Fleetee]

really appreciate the quality feedback guys

[Fleetee]

hey guys, i see that people use conveyor dryers or sometimes even a flash instead of a heat press. i have both because i am a screen printer. does that mean i wont be needing a heat press at all? or is it absolutely necessary to have a heat press either for before or after the pretreatment process or for the final cure?

[Gilligan]

Heat press is helpful in matting down the fibers before printing (like a roller squeegee)... also, in general, it's nice to have a heat press around the shop really.

It's a great bandaid that you often need as a screen printer.

[mk162]

I would say it's a must for pretreating darks. 

[GraphicDisorder]

You will need a heat press and IMO the Shultz (spelling) pretreat machine was a must as well, just made it very easy to repeat pretreat for us.

[Fleetee]

You will need a heat press and IMO the Shultz (spelling) pretreat machine was a must as well, just made it very easy to repeat pretreat for us.

Yea im getting a lot of consistent reviews/recommendations on the schulze pretreatment machine

[Fleetee]

looks like im going to go with omniprint 330 tx. does anyone have this dtg printer?

[mimosatexas]

Can't speak to that printer, but when it comes to heat press vs conveyor: DTG inks will require a very, very long dwell time from everything I have read, like 2 or 3 times what discharge would require (think 5 to 8 minutes in the chamber).  We have 4 heat presses to handle our printer output, all in a line, 2 or so feet apart.  Cure time is around 2 minutes per garment.  We can out cure our print output easily...

[Fleetee]

Can't speak to that printer, but when it comes to heat press vs conveyor: DTG inks will require a very, very long dwell time from everything I have read, like 2 or 3 times what discharge would require (think 5 to 8 minutes in the chamber).  We have 4 heat presses to handle our printer output, all in a line, 2 or so feet apart.  Cure time is around 2 minutes per garment.  We can out cure our print output easily...

Yea, I think a heat press may be necessary for heat pressing the pretreatment down before printing on dtg. Without the heat press, the fibers don't get push down for a vibrate print.

[Fleetee]

think I gotta do more research before ordering. try to look up reviews on the omniprint and all the reviews that i come across look pretty staged and fake. all of them have that fake vibe/language to it like you see on commercials and all of the reviewers only have 1 review making it suspicious... also it is suspicious that the inks are either equal to or more than half the ink cost of other companies. there has to be a reason, things arent cheap for no reason.

whats your guys' thought on this? how did you find the confidence in the dtg printer you guys ended up buying. i dont know who to trust lol

[Frog]

Have you been to an industry show where you can see a variety of equipment to better compare head to head?

[ericheartsu]

Who is using the omniprint? And is anyone using the pretreat they make too?

[merchmonster]

think I gotta do more research before ordering. try to look up reviews on the omniprint and all the reviews that i come across look pretty staged and fake. all of them have that fake vibe/language to it like you see on commercials and all of the reviewers only have 1 review making it suspicious... also it is suspicious that the inks are either equal to or more than half the ink cost of other companies. there has to be a reason, things arent cheap for no reason.

whats your guys' thought on this? how did you find the confidence in the dtg printer you guys ended up buying. i dont know who to trust lol

there are 3 common options
kornit - expensive
brother gtx - faster economy option nice prints
epson f2100 - slow economy, good warranty

everything else... can't vouch for it, wouldn't touch it.