Mlink in the building.

[bulldog]

No way that should look like that even before washing.

[Racer Tees]

Do you know what they printed it on? Curious?

Gildan 2000 - Charcoal

Did you wash those?

No.  This is how they looked 24 hours after printing.

[cbjamel]

What machine?
Shane

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Racer Tees]

GT-341.  No idea what they are using for pre-treat but it was an auto pre-treat machine.

[cbjamel]

Thanks,
Shane

[bulldog]

I can't believe they gave that to you. Also, what is going on under the bottom text in the photo?

[mk162]

First, Gildans suck with DTG.  They are working on it and most ink companies are working on better pretreats as well.

The problem with Gildans is you need more pretreat to make them work, more pretreat means burns.  That ain't washin out either.

I avoid them mostly.  Some pretreats out there work better on them, but they are still dicey.

[GraphicDisorder]

We haven't noticed a problem on Gildans other than Charocal but we are still infants. What is your favorite garment for DTG right now?

[bulldog]

First, Gildans suck with DTG.  They are working on it and most ink companies are working on better pretreats as well.

The problem with Gildans is you need more pretreat to make them work, more pretreat means burns.  That ain't washin out either.

I avoid them mostly.  Some pretreats out there work better on them, but they are still dicey.

I will say the ones Brandt has been able to pull off on the 5000s have looked MUCH better than I thought they would.

[GraphicDisorder]

You mean G200.  We printed some beefy tee's on them today, terrible. Nano was good. Jerzees were good as well. 

[bulldog]

Sorry, was thinking 5000. I wonder how much difference there is between 5000 and 2000 for DTG.

I've gotten some nice prints on Anvil 780 and NL 3600. Going to try Tultex soon.

Those are the closest ringspun I've found to t-shirts and not fashion fit crap.

If I can get good prints on a 2000 or 5000 I'll be on cloud 9.

[GraphicDisorder]

Firing both up this am, have to do the tube cleaning on the Brother, I think this is either weekly or bi monthly I dont have my notes right in front of me but it is required today.  This process is easily around a hour to do. Very manual process as well on the Brother. Swapping between 2 carts and the ink cart as well as closing and opening a air tube.

The M&R needed 3 nozzle checks, its ready to print.

[GraphicDisorder]

So its now 10:26 here, we started firing these machines up at around 8:15. The M&R was ready in minutes. The Brother is still not ready. We have done the weekly tube cleaning on the Brother which took more like 1.5hrs with someone pretty much on top of the machine from start to finish and it requires switching carts in and out and closing air tubes and such.  Even after doing the tube cleaning, shaking the carts, several nozzle checks, 3-4 normal cleaning, and a powerful cleaning (all on the white heads) we still don't have clean nozzle check.  I gave up, I didn't have 2hrs for this today and I certainly do not have 2hrs for this weekly.

I am sure Brother and Nazdar will both see this and both want to contact me. Please don't today. My shop is so far behind I don't have a person or myself to give you to play troubleshooting today or even this week probably.  I was hoping to fire these both up and do a quick couple prints to compare some more. Not happening looks like. If I can find time ill do a new print on the M&R, maybe even on the Brother as well just to see if that clears it up.  But this took way too long in my opinion.

I am not mad, I am disappointed though. Nobody tells you BEFORE you buy it that you will spend 1-2hrs weekly just on a single maintenance. (forget the daily nozzle checks and so on the Brother).

See attached, this is a nozzle check and a 600dpi test print. These are AFTER the weekly maintenance was done and the several nozzle checks and powerful/normal cleanings.

[T Shirt Farmer]

I am not mad, I am disappointed though. Nobody tells you BEFORE you buy it that you will spend 1-2hrs weekly just on a single maintenance. (forget the daily nozzle checks and so on the Brother).

Ouch...good thing you do not have production to run on the Brother today.

[GraphicDisorder]

In the interest of fairness, I was not been present for the M&R's regular maintenance but my employees told me after the nozzle checks (which i was there for and took no time), that he'd be ready to print with it in just 2 more minutes of maintenance. Also the M&R stays on and circulates the white ink, so doesn't seem to require as much human management as far as the process of keeping the machine from drying up ink or keeping heads clean and all this flushing/tube/head cleaning and so on. Maybe after we start using the Brother to print shirts daily this will become easier. 

The issue right now is we've spent so much time being trained on each and testing on each we've  not printed a single shirt to sell on either.  It's a busy time for my shop.  We are having a record December, one of the top 4 months of our year (Dec is normally a slower month for us) and we were not prepared for the time required thus far. We are looking to hire again in the new year and that will free up someone to be involved on this daily regularly and we can start selling shirts off these things.