Direct to Garment printing? Anyone using one?

[Velocity]

I have been curious about how well it works and if its worth the price of the machines? We keep seeing them at the trade shows but I want to know from someone that already took the leap.

Any hints on longevity verses screenprinting?

Pro's, Con's?

Thanks,

[i45signs]

i have the brother and love it......its pricy......if you have the capital i say get it. i stock appx 400 t shirts all the time to turn orders quickly.....
no complaints here.....ink is a little pricy...800.00 to refill

[Velocity]

How many tshirts can you do on a single ink run? One cartridge or multiple cartridges?
How is the durability of the inks on the shirts?

[i45signs]

Well Brother Says The Ink Cost Averages 1.00 A Shirt Single Sided. That Being True You Could Print 800 Shirts Per Total Refil Of Ink. 4 Cartreidges 200 Ml Ea....
I Have Had No Complaints From Customers About Fading. I Would Guess About 35 Washings Until It Really Starts To Fade......

[Graphix Plus Ink]

I have a Brother too and have owned a T-jet(hated it). The brother is limited but a sure bet. A kornit would be I deal if it didn't cost so much.

[cjracer11]

how long does it take to print a shirt? I saw one in action at the NDM indy show...pretty neat. Also you have to heat press the shirt afterwards to set the ink. how long does that take?

[Mikew]

We also have a Brother and love it! My wife did 46 shirts, full coverage, full size (14"x16") in an hour. That included the heat pressing as well. She was flying and I being the wise husband stayed out of the way!!
It's a great machine and has helped raise our bottom line greatly.
We just got some coasters today and printed on them as well. So we will be adding those to the product line!

[glyph-signs]

What model is your brother printer? How much initial investment?

[binki]

we have a dtg kiosk. printing on light colors is pretty easy. the white ink can be problematic but once you do enough of them it is pretty easy to do. the cost of the white ink in the barrier. $3/$5 to print a shirt for ink costs are a little high.

[Replicator]

AirArtGirl uses a T-Jet II . . . Fast, Prints White, Awesome shirts !

[Fine Line Darrel]

Graphfix plus.....why did you hate the T-Jet? Out of all the ones I've looked at.....I thought that was the one to buy?? love to hear why you didn't like it ....and what do you like about the Brother??

Fine Line Darrel :Canada 2:

[3dsignco]

Wev'e had ourT-Jet2 for a year now this month..

At First I was ready to through the thing out the window as it was getting me so Pissed off.(Missed prints/Registration/Clogged heads Etc.)
But once we got use to it.. Primarily Keeping it Clean it works very well for us. A few issues if you let sit for more then a few days so we leave it on all the time and it does an automatic cleaning every 8 hours.

We run on average about 100 to 150 shirts a week through it so parts do wear out. I just got in the Habit now of keeping an extra Head, Pump and capping station on hand now at all times and just keeping in mind that its just the cost of maintence and I cost them out over 1000 Shirts.
(I have only had to replace the head once so far so I am getting alot more then that per head)
Which adds about .34 cents per shirt. The lowest we will do a shirt for is $12 on an Order over 50.
Single shirts start at $45 for image on Back and $8 extra for the pocket Etc.
I dont mess with different pricing for White vs Dark shirts as after the count for the last year it worked itself out pretty even.

Now after a year of this I have seen a pretty good amount added to the Bottom Line.
The printer is what it is. It will never replace Screen printing but for those Short to medium runs it's a decent Machine.. My wife keeps looking at the dual Machine but I am going to pay this one off first before I go out and buy another one.

[Mikew]

Bill, what do you get for doing one white t-shirt with a full color graphic?
We have a Brother GT-541 and for one shirt with full color (up to 14"x16" max) with one placement we charge $13.77. I can't imagine anyone in our market paying $45 for a single T-shirt.

[Graphix Plus Ink]

Fine line , I Choose the T-jet at first for the obvious reasons of wanting to print white. After owning the T-jet I realized US Screen likes to disguise the maintenance issues with the T-jet as "a learning curve"... I found that I had to become a T-jet mechanic in some sorts to put it lightly. They go out of their way to assist I will vouch for but the machine has major issue in which I belive is due to it being a custom piece of machinary. I still believe it has the best print quaility as far as photo details are concerned but it has just way to many issues. Let me put it to you like this, I own a brother now for about 1 year and have literally only one issue and it was my fault. The issue was solved within 20min tops. Now ask any T-jetter the same and If he agrees then they need a lie detector test. I have printed about 5000 shirts and have only ruin 2 and that was due to lint on the printhead, which I cleaned off (5min) and done. The T-jet2 was just way to much BS for what you paid and the resale value was horrible.

Also most people can print white ink now but the cost is outrageous and the margin of error is extremely high... Due your research and you'll see that nobody I out can truly say they have relatively no issues with their t-jet. If you buy a t-jet please make sure your ready to get the good with the ugly, I mean REAL ugly...


READ 3dsignco's post cause it is clear indication of the stuff you will have to do in order to keep printing. I myself don't have to do any of that and I'm up and printing literally after the machine has sat for sometimes 2 weeks. All I can say is not all machines are created equal. Also I don't know how the hell he's getting the price he's getting but to be more realistic most customers will expect you to compete with screenprinting no matter how great your machine is.

[Mikew]

Here are a couple of links to T-shirt forums that I visit.
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/
http://www.screenprintinguniversity.com/forums/index.php?c=0
There are many posts concerning the T-Jet.
We are very happy with our Brother. It's easy to talk people into getting white or light color shirts when they see that they can get full color graphics. In the 5 months that we've had it I can honestly say that we have lost no business because we can't print on darks.
If you are thinking of getting into DTG you have to do your homework and weigh all the factors.

[Velocity]

Anyone take a look at that Anajet? Will be attending the SGIA in a couple of days and hope to get some answers to some tough questions.

[DRPSignsNGrafix]

I have some shirts that were printed on a Brother at my local supplier. THey were printed a year ago, and they have faded a little but still look good. I'm going to be getting some more T-Shirts printed soon.

[Air Art Girl]

Have a T-jet2. Went to the class in Tempe to learn how to use and take care of it. I am an airbrusher and totally understand the need to have extra care when it comes to titanium white pigment. It is the thickest heaviest pigment there is. I wanted white and am willing to take the extra time to care for the machine. I did like the Brother when comparing the machines at the SGIA show but as stated, I get it with white. We are a very diverse shop and I do not print on it everyday. When not in use, I replace the ink cartridges with the cleaning cartridges and run them thru several times. It's been working great and looking forward to using the new FastInk3 inks as soon as I use up the 2's.

[3dsignco]

You would be suprised that very few people Balk at the $45 range for a single shirt.
The main reason I am at that price, was as to not do one offs.. Go to any Screen printer and see if they will do one shirt.
1 or 2 shirts is a custom Run. The time you get the file set up and then printed your into it for at least and hour. Our shop rate is $65 per hour so I am actually selling myself short by doing them at $45. Now if they truley want a custom shirt they will also incurr an Artwork fee which is billed out at $120 an hour. Granted No one has had us design a One off shirt but we have had many jobs that we do designs for for a multi run..
One thing that really surprised me is the Main reason I bought the machine was to be able to offer exsisting clients their logo on their shirts I really wasn't intending to try and start a new Market for just T-Shirt printing but it really has spun off into a division of its own. About 50 to 60% of all the tshirts we print now are for non sign clients and then they endup getting other Items at the same time like Mugs/Musepads/Ceramic tiles. (Which is another monster within itself)

[JPDTees]

We run a Flexi-Jet DTG. We have the option to use white ink, but have not used it yet. The Flexi-Jet, using R&H inks (which are being discontinued) gives us some awesome prints at 720x720 Dual CMYK.

We print on ALL light shirts. That can include tan and even military green. You just need to adjust your printed image to match the shirt colour (black ink only on Military Green).

For everything else we use cut vinyl or Colorprint II from our Versacamm.

Eric :Cool 2:

[Fine Line Darrel]

Graphix

Thank you for your in-depth reply.....when your shopping for equipment, all you ever get is the salesman spin. I did have them do a complete sample print (so that I could see it in action) and I was impressed. And I thought printing on black would be a big deal.....interesting to know that you guys with the Brother dont think your losing any sales..... Thanks again, I appreciate your input.....back to the drawing board?

Fine Line Darrel :Canada 2: