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signmike

What would you use for t-shirts?

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I'm looking at cobra CISS printers. 

Trying to figure out the differences between pigment, dye, and sublimation....i.e. what is best for me to do the most with.

 

I know sublimation can't do 100% cotton and is iffy on blends.

What about pigment and dye? What's best for transfers? 

 

I'd also like to be able to do gaiters and coozies and the like....but appears that only sublimation will do those (at least the gaiters) effectively?

 

 

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You can do more products with sublimation inks....But for shirts you can only do 100%polyester....I've done a couple 50/50 shirts and once washed they have a faded look to them.....which printer are you looking at? Most epson printers run pigment ink from the factory and they work well on tshirt transfers from Jet pro.....I choose sublimation mainly because I could print on much broader substrates

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Macon nailed it on the head. For shirts you are much more limited with Sublimation. High polyester % (85% minimum) and best done on white if possible. If you have a business that offers nick-knacks you can do all sorts of cool stuff with the sublimation but for shirts it's not so much. 

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looking at the options from Cobra Ink (namely NOT the ones that have the rear-feed as I have terrible luck with misfeeds on those historically).

Pigment will be the choice.

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OK.

 

So, what's your choice between a SG 400 or 800 versus a cobra CISS sublimation package, assuming:

-infrequent use (a couple times a week, for now)

-cost for cartridge replacement on the SG400/800 is high (No definitive info that I've seen regarding how far the ink goes in those...i.e. per-print cost)

-capability of 13x19 (but my press is only 15x15 for now)

 

the Cobra CISS sub packages at the high end cost the same as the SG400, but the ones I'm looking at cost less. Not sure if I can justify the cost of the SG800 yet.

I can use HTV for the stuff the sublimation can't do. 

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I'll give you my $0.02

 

I have had a CISS tank set-up on a WF30 (8.5"x 11" machine) then switched to a large format and tried out the carts. The tanks were nice because you can see how full they are but the printer still thought it was running out and would kill a page when that happened. Maybe they have improved this with some of the new tank set-ups but I doubt it because I think that part of the process is inside the printer. So with the 7610 and 7620 machines I went to the carts. They require being lifted out and reinstalled when they show being out and you do spend more time messing around with them but I have had a little better luck avoiding clogs (still have them though) I think better because the printing motion keeps the ink stirred up a little bit where the tanks just hang there and the pigment wants to settle a little. Richard @ CobraInk syas the new tanks use a better tube that helps resist clogs better so I don't know but I only paid $200 for the 7610 and can toss it if I need to because of clogged heads and move my carts over to a new machine so that's my thoughts on the carts vs the tanks. My sublimation printer clogged up due to lack of use even trying to run a cleaning print every other day it still clogged the black and I have not been able to get it cleaned out so I have quit trying to sublimate at this point. If I get a big enough job I'll go buy another one and put my carts in it and be back in business but the demand is too low to mess with it. 

 

Buy the wide format if you can afford it. You are way too limited with a letter sized print. You can get away with a double press with JPSS if you have to (same as vinyl) if your design ends up larger than your press. You'll have to cold peel but it works in a pinch. Rarely are designs bigger than a 15" press although I have them from time ti time usually in vinyl. 

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looking at the options from Cobra Ink (namely NOT the ones that have the rear-feed as I have terrible luck with misfeeds on those historically).

Pigment will be the choice.

 

Rear feeds are best for dye-sub as you need to keep your paper stored away from humidity, so putting a stack into an internal paper drawer is only useful if you're going to be printing that whole stack right away - most dye-sub jobs I do are one-offs, so being able to drop in a single sheet of paper in the back is a major convenience.

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I don't know what it is with me and rear feed but we don't get along. The papers always feed crooked, print off, and it just goes to hell from there. I saw the epson 1430 but already saw reviews where that was a problem for several folks.

 

I'm liking the SG400 price point and it can do 8.5"x14", but also seeing the benefit to the larger print on  the SG800, which also seems more production ready....maybe worth the investment as resale is definitely there, too. And the sublijet HD inks have very good reviews. 

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To me sawgrass is a ripoff. Inks cost to much. I use a epson 7510 and don't print sub that much but only had 1 clog in 2yrs but i do print my postage labels so that helps.and i use cartridges

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To me sawgrass is a ripoff. Inks cost to much. I use a epson 7510 and don't print sub that much but only had 1 clog in 2yrs but i do print my postage labels so that helps.and i use cartridges

how does the postage look with sublimation ink?  with the duller off color look when printed I would think sublimation ink wouldn't work that well but obviously you must like it.   I have heard of people setting up the pigment inks for jpss and 3g opaque and that would work fine for postage or any other printing

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The WF7110 from Cobra, with the sublimation CISS installed has been awesome for us!  I have the same setup in pigment, and have struggled to find uses.  We are still messing with the transfers, works great on a white shirt - dark colors have been the bane of my existence.  I would highly recommend Cobra - Richard and his staff have been amazing to work with.  Sublimation is a rabbit hole however - so many things to play with.

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Ended up with the SG400 for many reasons, but a big one is, we don't use it daily...so a CISS system wasn't going to work so well. the HD inks are very, very nice (pricey? yes, but I'm building the cost into my product)

 

Picked up a WF7610 for transfers. Needing to dial that one in because i'm just not seeing the vibrance in color on the transfer paper that illustrator is showing.

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Ended up with the SG400 for many reasons, but a big one is, we don't use it daily...so a CISS system wasn't going to work so well. the HD inks are very, very nice (pricey? yes, but I'm building the cost into my product)

 

Picked up a WF7610 for transfers. Needing to dial that one in because i'm just not seeing the vibrance in color on the transfer paper that illustrator is showing.

your not going to see it cause the monitor will not show it. you have to print a rgb swatch list to see it. conde has a swatch list for reveal rgb paper with rgb codes. check it out.

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