Poll

How many have or will have a DTG press this year?

YES,  I have one.
7 (21.9%)
NO, I do not own one and will not be in the near future.
18 (56.3%)
I will be getting one soon. Maybe this year. It's in the plans.
2 (6.3%)
Had one before and no longer wish to go that route.
5 (15.6%)

Total Members Voted: 32

Author Topic: How many have or will have a DTG press this year?  (Read 8128 times)

Offline Homer

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Re: How many have or will have a DTG press this year?
« Reply #30 on: August 26, 2012, 09:24:51 PM »

Years ago I wondered about a machine with a detachable pallet that could have the white base screened & flashed, then have the colours printed DTG over top. I suspect we'll see it soon.


Or taking the other direction, and having a DTG "head" as a station on your press. The printer would move on tracks over the shirt rather than the shirt moving through the printer.


isn't that what the Kornit 933 is? I  have it in an old impressions mag. It looks like a giant flash unit. yeah, here it is,

...keep doing what you're doing, you'll only get what you've got...


Offline mk162

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Re: How many have or will have a DTG press this year?
« Reply #31 on: August 26, 2012, 09:45:59 PM »
Boy, I could talk DTG for days.

A quick background, we best tested a  GT-541 before it was a 541.  We were the first in GA and one of the first in the US to be running a DTG machine for production.  We had to log the dollar amount of sales and they would come in periodically and pull production numbers from the machine.  It was hella-cool.  I've attached a pic of the first machine, it was pretty dated, even then.  The cartridges were cardboard with a bladder on the inside.

We ran this from apr of 2002-jan of 2004.  We have since been running a 541 and to be honest, it just prints money.

It's a great machine.  We run a lot of family reunion stuff and a lot of baby stuff on it.  We'll do 50 shirts with a photo on them for a dead person no problem.  I can run about a shirt a minute, so a run like that would take about an hour.  No seps, no screens, no real training.  It's a great way to have an employee fill in when they aren't busy.

For the nay-sayers, I would really sit down and run the numbers.  You can get a good used 541 and try it out, sell it for what you paid for it and move on if you don't like it.  I would avoid Epson based printers.  They just aren't as good.

The Brother pays for itself about every 6 months.  The new pretreat for poly has been a godsend, now I can print wicking shirts and have them hold up really well to washings.

We will be adding a new Graffitee printer.  I don't know when, but it's coming. 

Offline alan802

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Re: How many have or will have a DTG press this year?
« Reply #32 on: August 27, 2012, 10:27:32 AM »
I think the 541 is a blessing for sure, but we couldn't really benefit all that much from a printer that only prints on lights.  We are at about 80% dark garments, 20% light as far as customer demand goes and screen printing on light garments is so easy and fast that doing small quantities isn't really a deal breaker. 

For example, not counting art or design prep (which is pretty quick with our artist), a 4 color job on light colored garments would take us 30-40 minutes from FPU to final test print.  The DTG shines in a few circumstances and no doubt some shops can make a lot of money with them, but we would not.
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Offline Nation03

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Re: How many have or will have a DTG press this year?
« Reply #33 on: August 27, 2012, 06:12:50 PM »
Boy, I could talk DTG for days.

A quick background, we best tested a  GT-541 before it was a 541.  We were the first in GA and one of the first in the US to be running a DTG machine for production.  We had to log the dollar amount of sales and they would come in periodically and pull production numbers from the machine.  It was hella-cool.  I've attached a pic of the first machine, it was pretty dated, even then.  The cartridges were cardboard with a bladder on the inside.

We ran this from apr of 2002-jan of 2004.  We have since been running a 541 and to be honest, it just prints money.

It's a great machine.  We run a lot of family reunion stuff and a lot of baby stuff on it.  We'll do 50 shirts with a photo on them for a dead person no problem.  I can run about a shirt a minute, so a run like that would take about an hour.  No seps, no screens, no real training.  It's a great way to have an employee fill in when they aren't busy.

For the nay-sayers, I would really sit down and run the numbers.  You can get a good used 541 and try it out, sell it for what you paid for it and move on if you don't like it.  I would avoid Epson based printers.  They just aren't as good.

The Brother pays for itself about every 6 months.  The new pretreat for poly has been a godsend, now I can print wicking shirts and have them hold up really well to washings.

We will be adding a new Graffitee printer.  I don't know when, but it's coming.

Definitely give us a review of the Graffitee when you get it.