# T-jet 1 pro's and con's of white printing?



## TimeTrackersTees (Sep 5, 2007)

We have a T-jet 1. the old red machine. It has been a love hate relationship with this machine. We have finally built our business up and have it running good. We are working with a few groups who would love to be able to print on dark shirts. I'm looking at probably 50 shirts that would most likely be sold if we do the upgrade right now. Reading the forum I'm seeing a lot of bad press about the white printing system. 

We currently do not use fastrip. We got fastrip 8.5 some time ago but it never came close to two passes strait from photoship so we left it in the box. 

Will switching to fast ink 3 (we use 1 now!) and CMYK for light shirts still allow us the color matching and range we get now?

How much extra machine maintenance is involved with the white ink.

Someone finally told us about using a humidifier in our shop and amazingly we haven't had nearly any problems since. It's only taken a couple years and 4 print heads!

At any rate I have a stable machine that puts out a good product. I'm not in a hurry to mess that up. Yet I'm getting people left and right who only want dark shirts. I feel like I'm turning a lot of business away.

Also how many passes am I likely to need? We use two now on everything. With the rip can I get the same quality with one pass? Is two passes of white and one of CMYK going to cover anything I come up with on black shirts or are we looking at 4 passes total?

Any guidance you could give me on converting to white would be great. Thanks!


----------



## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

It can be done. Do your research on the proper maintenance. It is the key. Buy the new bulk ink system and exhaust fan from equipment zone. It makes a tremendous difference. Realize the shorter life span of the head. Keep extra parts on hand. Head, encoder strip, capping station etc...

You also need to realize that the learning curve is large. You will mess up a lot of shirts. Also realize that the ink will cost you quite a bit more for dark shirts.

good luck


----------



## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

With the new white inks coming out from Dupoint I think this would be an ideal time to upgrade! Problems are going to occur, almost all my issues are related someway to white ink.


----------



## csquared (Sep 8, 2006)

I don't think you would need to do any more maintenance except for shaking the white ink every day and if I do not print with white for a couple of days or even a week I will need to re-prime the cartridge and and draw fresh ink through the lines. 
It sounds like you have a good thing going with your machine now and I don't think I would switch a thing.


----------



## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

csquared said:


> I don't think you would need to do any more maintenance except for shaking the white ink every day


I disagree. I believe more maintenance is required on my white ink machines, than my 7 color machines. Could just be me.


----------



## TimeTrackersTees (Sep 5, 2007)

don't get me started on print heads. I can change one in under 30 minutes now! Is the problem with print heads related to ink drying and thus clogging or does the white "wear it out"?

We have finally gotten this machine working reliably with the humidifier so like I said I'm not in a huge rush to add more frustration. We are in AZ so the lack of humidity and excess heat were the problems. 

Here are my big questions:

So the question seems to be can you do light and dark shirts from the same machine reliably and with high quality? 

Am I going to need to keep my 7 color bulk system and switch back and forth to get good quality light shirts?

Does using the Rip eliminate any passes to get the same quality shirt? They say with the rip one pass is enough on light or under based shirts. I have some doubts.


----------



## printerguy (Dec 26, 2006)

On any inkjet printer heat and humidity conditions play a very important role in machine performance. You want to keep your printer in a clean dust-free room at a temperature between 68 to 85 degrees and humidity between 40% to 80%. Lack of humidity will very definitely lead to problems with ink drying and clogging. Your using a humidifier now in dry Arizona should help you greatly. 

You can do light and dark shirts with your Red T-Jet. it has the same print assembly as the later model T-Jet2. You don't have to switch back and forth to do light shirts. It takes a very keen eye to see much difference between printing in CYMK only and 7 colors. The FastRip program will also allow you to print faster. And yes, with the right bulk ink system installed you will be able to print one pass on colors with great results.


----------



## TimeTrackersTees (Sep 5, 2007)

printerguy said:


> On any inkjet printer heat and humidity conditions play a very important role in machine performance. You want to keep your printer in a clean dust-free room at a temperature between 68 to 85 degrees and humidity between 40% to 80%. Lack of humidity will very definitely lead to problems with ink drying and clogging. Your using a humidifier now in dry Arizona should help you greatly.
> 
> You can do light and dark shirts with your Red T-Jet. it has the same print assembly as the later model T-Jet2. You don't have to switch back and forth to do light shirts. It takes a very keen eye to see much difference between printing in CYMK only and 7 colors. The FastRip program will also allow you to print faster. And yes, with the right bulk ink system installed you will be able to print one pass on colors with great results.


Great information. Thank you.


----------



## TimeTrackersTees (Sep 5, 2007)

So we went and checked it out yesterday. Man was I less than excited. The RIP shirt Quality is nothing to what you get with two passes outside of the rip.

Dark shirts were cool. I'm note sure it has any advantage over screen printing. Except we have no screen printing equipment so it would require a full shop setup plus space to make that happen. 

I think we will keep our 7 ink system and offer budget white one pass printing with the rip, photo quality two pass light shirts and then dark shirts being the final and most expensive offering.


----------



## printerguy (Dec 26, 2006)

Just curious where you went to check it out.


----------



## TimeTrackersTees (Sep 5, 2007)

Us Screen. We are about 5 miles away.


----------

