Fast T-Jet/T-Jet2 direct to garment printing

royce

I don't know if this belongs in the "Screen Printing" discussion section.

As I said in my previous post, I do embroidery and heat transfers. I'm thinking of getting a Fast T-Jet2 (the small one). Before T-Jet2 it was just T-Jet. The difference between the two is that with T-Jet2, you can print on dark colored shirts as supposed to just the light colored shirts with T-Jet. This is really what got me very interested. But it's also very, very expensive! I'm seriously considering buying, but do you guys think it's durable? I mean my printer at home seems to have problems here and there from time to time. Maybe it's the same with direct to garment printers? I know with manual/automatic screen printing presses they can last a lifetime. Any input? Thanks again.

Marc

I don't have either T-Jet or T-Jet2, however I've demoed both of them several times at different trade shows. I must admit I wanted one right away after each demo LOL. You're right they are pretty expensive, but it is an investment. It's not like you're throwing your money away buying a widescreen plasma HDTV. I'm sure you'll start to get your money back pretty quickly if you play your cards right.

My first impression of T-Jet2 was "wow it actually prints on black." It's pretty amazing. As far as it being durable, to me, it seems pretty solidly built. Checkout other direct-to-garment printing equipment manufacturers like Kornit, Flexi-Jet, Mimaki, and Brother. I'm sure there are more companies out there, the ones I listed are just what popped in my mind.

GREEKCLOTHING

well i'm on my second. t-jet2 had the first a month (counting the week wait for a box to be shiped over-night). second has been grand but there testy and can eat profit. it's basicly an epson 2200 with bad software. there is a minium of three detailed steps to print using two programs fastARTIST, fastRIP. whites and light color tees are a sinch add a white under base and you can make your jaw drop. true colors red blue yellow can be tough on black, odd dark, and heather/sport/ash grey along with now and again discoloration from pretreatment. support is iffy though (i think most of them don't like me . due to t-jet2-1) i seem to allways get the 25 min wait when calling followed up with "well i'm not sure?" "can't say i have heard that" ect... i've printed sofar around 3000 shirts with it with like 20% loss in shirts. but the margin covers the cost. at least that's what the boss says. with one pushing it or doing repeats you can pump off 30 left chest in an hour one pass color only 20-24 with underbase pass boost the dpi and size of image and you can get to as slow as a 6x6 print at 12 per hour (that day sucked 135 toats with 20 toast). any hoo printed on canvas toats with success , tees, cotton thongs , bella tees. and sooo ok well it is a car payment a month or 16000 down. ink aint cheap eather i think it's like 400 for a liter of white ink. i can say to get one but if you got alot of time need a new noise in the shop then hey.

marcus
www.Greekclothing.com

TahoeTomahawk

GREEKCLOTHING,
I am also considering the Fast T-Jet2. Can you give us some examples of the 20% loss of shirts? Did the clothing get twisted, or did something go wrong with the print heads?
Also, have you had any problems with the Ink Heads clogging?

Thanks!

Robbin

TahoeTomahawk, I had the same problem as GREEKCLOTHING in late March until very recently with the high spoilage rate. I did everything I could and so did the the T-Jet tech support. I cleaned everything! Still the problem persisted. What was weird was that I never had this sort of problem before so I was at a loss as what the hell was going on. Finally, I received an email from T-Jet support recently with the solution! It turns out they sent a bad batch of white ink (at no fault of their own because they contract the manufacturing of their ink). Nobody at tech support could pinpoint the problem before because bad ink has never been an issue with anyone before so the problem went under the radar until a lot more people complained and a common thing was determined. I guess I felt a bit concerned that they don't do enough extensive testing with their ink, but now that they had a problem like this, they assured me/T-Jet owners that steps would be put in place to prevent such a problem from happening again in the future.

I had two liters of bad white ink, and for my headache, they sent four liters of good white ink, new bulk system, and cleaning fluid. I'm very happy with how they resolved the problem

inkrob

weve got a tjet 2 and have been working with it for a couple of months before putting it into a mall type enviroment and have come to the solution that buying heat transfers is the better solution and using the t jet for other projects...the machine simply isnt that reliable nor is the software...i really wouldnt recommend it unless they get better technology or software...problems with banding in the print, software poblems like freezing and locking up color changes or starting a new print with a 1/4 of the last print. and the bed never sits level, the head cleaning motor broke the first month and got replaced twice...support is good but it seems like we know more about the machine than they do, we use a acrylic lazer daily and some of the software is similar so that helped in the whole start up, we werent completely in the dark...well hope that answers some questions.

royce

Thank you all for sharing your experiences!

LipChip

I can't help you with your questions on the Fast-T Jet, however if you have any questions on the DTG Digital machines, email me.

__________________
David L. Vernon
Lip Chip Solutions, Inc.
www.LipChip.com
818-363-8132

sambil12

Hello everyone:

I DO NOT RECOMMEND this machine to anyone.

I had the T-Jet2 since March, I feel mislead by the shows and presentations.
For starters, this machine is overrated, and too expensive for what you get. When you see it at the trade shows you want to get one right away, but the problems start after a couple of weeks of use. PRINT QUALITY: they say the prints last 40 washes or so, this might be true, the problem is that the T-shirt looks like it has been washed 40 times right after the very first wash. PRINT HEAD: This machine is nothing but an EPSON 2200 modified to fit a drawer containing the t-shirt, but all components are still the same, the print head was designed to print over paper with very small amounts of ink, the software that comes w/this machine makes the printer shoot more ink, therefore the print head breaks down often, very often. I haven’t print 1000 t-shirts yet and I have replaced it twice, at $310 each; this is not covered under any warranty. Changing this print head is a BIG ORDEAL, is clearly not meant to be changed. I am a computer technician and I have a very hard time doing it, I can’t imagine and employee performing this task (unless you have computer technicians working as screen printers in your shop). There is a daily maintenance routine that you must perform after using this machine (nonone tells you this before buying), this involves wiping encoder strip with alcohol, adding a drop of Windex to holding pad and even replacing ink bulk system, if you are not going to use the machine for more than two days, there is a different routine for this. I met Scott F. at a trade show recently and he had NO ANSWERS to any of my questions, other than “I‘ll look into it”…they come with some upgrades and fixes for some problems once in a while but you have to pay for them. And I do not have more space here to explain the ink cost and a bunch of other things…But I will be glad to answer anything at .

BOJAN

Hi guys
I won’t to buy digital garment printer. After everything I read I’m little confused about this. Can somebody tell me what is better T-jet1 or 2…..or maybe something different?
I won’t to open a store for printing t-shirts in my country. We don’t have this kind of printers there. I’m from Toronto and I can’t find distributor here to see the printer…
Thanks