My First Time Printing Shirts with a DTG PRINTER!
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- čas přidán 17. 09. 2022
- Step by step we go through my very first time using the Polyprint Echo 2 direct to garment printer and Pretreater Pro
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Dude!
Do you print t shirts like that shadow of intent?
Hey Lee, Nice work you got going on over there. what is your shop set up? what are the equipments that get you such fine final tees and product?
A tip for the pretreat box…
Pretreat your shirts a day in advance and hang them to air dry. The next day, press them to remove remaining moisture. Or even conveyor dry them (they will have a different print).
When curing the pretreat we mostly like to dry them on the conveyor (very slow speed & lower temp than screen print), the box will not be there & the print will be more vibrant since you’re not smashing the ink down as when heat pressing.
We do a LOT of DTG and we've found that if you do multiple smaller-timed presses (with a few seconds in between), you dry the shirt without crystalizing the pre-treat. Details: Using medium pressure set to 350 degrees press the "box" area in 15 second intervals, flipping the curing sheet between each press. (Most tees take 4 presses to dry.) Finalize by pressing the tee under heavy pressure to prevent fibrillation. (edited)
What DTG you recommend per your experience?
I would also like to know
@@MrAlbertodelacruz We run Brother GTX Pros. The machine is incredible and produces the best prints I've seen without going the route of $100K+ units. The company sucks to work with and their backend ordering site has been down all year. Thankfully, 3rd party sellers are cheaper with official parts/supplier any way. I can't recommend the GTX Pro enough.
@@brantsarkela3189 @3Dimenziones Studios We run Brother GTX Pros. The machine is incredible and produces the best prints I've seen without going the route of $100K+ units. The company sucks to work with and their backend ordering site has been down all year. Thankfully, 3rd party sellers are cheaper with official parts/supplier any way. I can't recommend the GTX Pro enough.
I remember when i first found your channel and commented with tips on when you were experimenting with printing boxes…back then I had all the same equipment as you. Now I look forward to watching your videos for advise, keep kickin ass and helping all of us printers out!!!
O snap i finally got a notification from the channel. NEVER clicked so fast. I am excited to see this!!!
Good to be back!
Glad you're making vids again. I've learned a lot from these. Thanks.
Let’s GO!!!! Shop just keeps getting better can’t wait to see more!
Bless up Lee! You inspire me so much! Keep spreading this info.
Cool to hear that!
He's back with a banger of a video!
Let's Go!!! Been waiting for this for a while!
Good to see you making content again! DTG is one of those fascinating options in our space, that I’ve never been in love with it, but glad to hear it’s making strides in the right direction. I know you’re somebody who is particular about the details so it’s good to hear that it’s passing the “Lee test” haha. Looking forward to more of your videos in the future, keep up the great work!
Thanks dude! I used to hate DTG but I'm happy to say that it's made great progress since then. I'm already very impressed with this setup and I can see that growing once I really figure things out and perfect it all.
@@leestuart38 Yeah, same, I used t o hate DTG, def keep us posted on how it goes with the quality and functionality. I know our shop is looking to get into either DTF or DTG for for all the reasons you mentioned in the video. Not having control over quality and turn time is a hard set of handcuffs to deal with sometimes.
Awesome !! Your back…. Super rad the shops cranking some shit out
Nice work man!! Glad to see the notification you uploaded a new video!
that satisfying click when you stuck it in . awesome.. glad to see ya back at making some content with all the other stuff. cheers sir. lookin fwd to what you come up with.
were planning on getting this exact setup! thanks for the video!! very informative
If you do it use my link to get some free supplies! They're great machines for me so far
when I see you upload a video Im grateful man
Hell yea, good to see you back, Lee! 🤟🏽🤟🏽
Thanks man 🤘🏻
Happy to have you back 🎉
👊🏻👊🏻
Amazing Lee keep the DTG videos comming.
Lots more coming. Stoked to add this new dimension to the channel
@@leestuart38 I have a PolyPrint echo 2 also. I can't wait to follow your lead!!
DTG definitely has it's place, and I am very intrigued by it. Awesome video as always, informative, visually pleasing, all the good stuff.
It's impressed me big time so far
I have a Ricoh ri1000 DTG and Viper Maxx pretreatment. DTG adds so much value to my print shop. To avoid the DTG box as much as possible, I use light pressure and low temperature (285 degrees) when curing the pretreatment. The light pressure allows the pretreatment vapors/steam to escape from under the heat press. Also recommend opening a door or setting up ventilation so you're not breathing in those pretreatment vapors.
I've got a few new tricks and gadgets to try for the next one that should help minimize that box
@@leestuart38 As long as ya "press" as long ya´ll get the box - if ya proof me wrong, please, asap - thanks! :-)
(Try tunnel-drying if ya run screenprint-jobs simultaneously anyhow)
Use your tunnel dryer to cure your pretreat, then heat press the shirt prior to printing to matte down the fibers. Your heat press pad will retain moisture, making it longer to cure or not cure evenly. You can use the dryer to cure your DTF prints as well
Drying conditions for pre-treat are different than properly curing conditions for DTG. Don't recommend.
Your an absolute beast Lee, I love the content your an inspiration my friend keep it up
Thanks man
That's really cool. Can't wait to see what other things you can do with the DTG machines. Very cool. Glad to see your back. It's probably an interesting story of why you've been MIA for the last little bit. :)
Your equipment are amazing bro
🤘🤘
Dope video brother! Thank you
you are still our hero.
Awesome video! Glad to see your back ad reviewing exactly what we were waiting for. We bought this printer a couple of months back and we were excited to see your thought and videos on it! Definitely have learned a lot from running our business with it and it has felt a little lonely with so few quality videos and reviews on this printer( tbh DTG as a whole). The prints on this thing come out beautiful (like yours in the video) and it really does get the job done. One thing we will say is to DEEP clean the printer every night. Not just like the videos they provide, but a full cleaning to make the wiper, printhead, and capping station look almost brand new. The ink can dry very quickly and even the smallest missed spot can cause many issues.
We also noticed that Printhead Cleanings must be done every 10-15 prints (Polyprint never told us this), but when your doing a full production you will see the white start to fade after 10-15 prints. This was all brought up to us in a Facebook Group for Echo 2 Owners that we HIGHLY recommend. With the Polyprint HQ being in Greece it's hard to get ahold of them sometimes and this group has so many amazing people waiting to help (even a Polyprint Technician). We wish you the best and would love to share advice or help if you ever need it. Looking forward to more videos and updates!
p.s. We don't have the pretreatment machine yet and we can confirm that spray gun works for starting, but it is neither ideal nor cost effective in the long run. Working towards it :)
That's great advice, thanks! I already found out that not doing the nightly clean will cause a few problems so that's something I'll be covering in future videos for sure. I'm actually in that Polyprint Facebook group so maybe I'll see you in there!
Hey Carlos & LEE I’m in the market for either this printer or the GTX brother, it’s been a year since you posted this comment so I’m wondering how has it held up ? Would you still recommend it ?
@@Questrides GTX or Epson! Ive had my Polyprint Echo 2 down and completely unusable (AGAIN) for over 3 months. Biggest headache and not worth it. It does have a good print but never consistently.
Hope this helps.
Nice shop! NIce work! Nice vibe! Very motivating videos and inspiring. Thank You! :)
You truly inspire me i wish i could start gathering my equipments sooner😭😭
That north of 9 print is still one of my favorites. Mind blowing when you screen printed it.
Look at all the weight loss 💪🏼
Keep it up dude
Thanks man! 30lbs down 🤘🏻
@@leestuart38 hell yeah dude 🤙🏼
Hell yes!! I’ve been hanging for a new vid!
Finally 🙌🏻
That Logo.....💙💙💙
When I used to run DTG I would pretreat all the shirts a day before or all of them at the same time before printing which actually was more productive. The way I avoided the pretreat box to a min is to hover the heat press close to the shirt for about 1 min before pressing the pretreated shirts.
I'll give that a go. I have a few things to test for next time
After left the shirt for a day? Do we need to heatpress the shirt back before we print the shirt?
@@aimaniman5557 it's best to press it again for around 5 sec and then print.
@@crumptees i will try the tip bro, thanks a lot
Oh hey, Lee, lookin good, both you and Wheelie!
So glad you got this machine! I’ve had it for a year and I look forward to your reviews. Looks like you found the same issues we had! We had to figure most of it out by ourselves.
Looking for a print machine for small business, is DTG better than Heating press?
@@gyb6562 it’s a lot more expensive- but I like the quality more. And recently we have been using the dtf feature on my poly print (no pretreatment needed)
I ran a converted Epson P600 for a few years (out of my bedroom closet) and got some amazing prints off it. The only issue is that consumer print heads just arent meant for long-term DTG use. As for pretreatment, I find that firebird pretreatment was money for the application window and pre-treatment box post-press.
Note, the poyl proint is essectially a Epson P600 or P800 from what I understand.
Also, I'd suggest good ventilation or wearing a mask when pretreating. Looking at the MSDS, you don't want to breathe this stuff during the curing process.
You convinced me to buy the same setup. Let's see if you have the same issues I did ;). One thing... watch out for the pre-treater switching tanks. Always check which tank you're on. I made my first 10 prints with the CL tank selected, and found out that they switch it back to that every time you shut down. Big gotcha for me. Good luck, can't wait to see more videos on this topic.
Made that mistake already too haha
Oh snaps he's still alive!
Rad work bro... I just supported that effort and bought a shirt... keep rocking away bro... you inspire me always as a fellow influencer
Thanks a lot man!
Glad to see ya back. Im really curious how the maintenance and long term use is going to work out.
Maintenance is so easy with this machine, easiest in the field by far. Long term review will be interesting, I'm excited to see how it goes
Finally new vid ❤️
Good to see a notification from you again! Its been a while
Glad to see you're back with another cool video
That printer has some serious vibrancy. Nice colours. Im curious about fade after 20+washes.
Its the main reason why i stick with dtf, even though i agree with your comment about the feel, but its improving slowly.
Welcome back!
Lets go!
DTF is DTG essentially that's what people don't seem to know. It's the same inks and printing process, just swapping out pretreat for adhesive powder. So the longevity is the same
@@leestuart38 sorry man, i disagree. I've been doing dtf for almost 3 years now...the adhesive give a vinyl like feel but it increases the life of the ink. Im not claiming to be any expert, but that's what i found.
They are the same, yes, but different. dtf lasts longer because of the adhesive and the curing process.
Maybe you can try with your printer. Dtg vs dtf and see which one lasts longer at 20+ washes
So refreshing to see another video homie! What dtg equipment do you run for the printer and the pretreat? Good to have ya back man!
Everything is linked in the description to check it out. Thanks!
Legend has it if you get the lower heated platen power pack you can heat from the bottom and heat from the top with less heat to avoid the dtg box
I already have one on the way to test in a video haha
@@leestuart38 perfect can’t wait to see how it works keep grinding and going hard you have one of the best set ups I ever seen thanks for letting us in
Ok 3rd time hopefully a charm writing down a comment.
Love the vid man, good to see a new video.
Ordered the shirt will be rocking it when i'm back in the Netherlands,
couldn't risk let it be shipped to where i am in the states.
Thanks for picking one up man!
Lee we run dtg using Epson F3070’s and digital factory and we also have the same BBC dryer you have. We figured out that the BBC gets rid of the pretreat box use it ! not only does bbc eliminate the pretreat box it will speed up your pretreat time.
Definitely something I'm going to test but I don't want to rely on it because I want it turning out screen prints all day without having to reset and slow down for DTG stuff
Pretty slick. Regarding color matching. I wonder if you build a 4color white and overprint onto that if you could match your screen better vs overprinting on whatever base white ink PolyPrint uses. And or, calibrate your screen to match their white. idk. Either way, they came out fantastic. Need to get into printing on substrates that aren't paper. -_-
Welcome back . Bro! Looks like you’ve been working out .
Thanks! I have 😎
Sweet video and sweet Shadow of Intent shirt! Love those guys. Cheers!
Love shadow of intent 🤘🏻. Thanks man!
@@leestuart38 Absolutely my pleasure Lee! I work as a graphic designer in a silk screening/embroider/wide format... well Promo place and am in the process of taking over because the boss is retiring so your channel has been one of my go to channels for awhile. Greatly appreciate all the effort you put in. Thanks again Lee :)
Also., Lorna Shore fan?
I have the same setup. Make sure when not using the pre-treater you remove the nozzle heads. It will prevent crystallization in the head. Other than that it’s awesome machine.
Yup that's part of the daily maintenance routine
Nice video drop man!, Top quality content and beyond human work ethic!! keep them coming hopefully closer together LOL
There won't be as long of a break between videos anymore haha. Thanks!
Cool to see you doing DTG too. I recommend using a steamer to erase the box. It works most of the time and you get the wrinkles out.
It does help I tried it off camera, but not very time effective. I have some tricks to try next time
@@leestuart38 Cool! I'll be watching your approach to it! Yes it' svery time consuming. My process too is to let the heat press hover over a pretreated shirt for like a min then press. Each color is different though. Sport greys, reds, carolina blues, charcoal are all so specific. In Gildans. Good luck man, you got this!
Dope video bro! I’m trying to make the switch now. These transfers aren’t cutting it anymore. 😎🙏🏽💯
The box is from the heat press. Try lowering your heat press settings to the lowest threshold of drying point and it should do the trick. Once you find the low point you can work your way back up till your happy that your getting enough heat to cure, but in many cases it just happens. I see the box even with DTF and transfer vinyl so rest assured its not your pretreat. It usually goes away even before the wash as garments get stacked and moved around a bit. Also side note, I have noticed quality of dye makes a difference. Long time viewer love the channel.
It is the pretreat in this case. I mentioned it in the video that I thought it could be the heat press marks which do go away, but the part that got sprayed stays until it's washed. I have some new stuff to try for the next one though
@@leestuart38 We use Firebird. Best we've found so far. You also need to find the bare minimum amount of pretreat that gives you the best ink coverage. Even a little extra pretreat makes it that much harder to get rid of the box. I would also suggest definitely using your conveyor dryer for speed and consistency, just make sure they come out at least a little damp to help flatten those fibers with the heat press. We are also diving into DTF and kind of pitting DTG against DTF. In my opinion, DTF has more pros over DTG then cons. I would rather create designs with more dead space for DTF and be able to press it onto any garment I can put on my heat press. DTG is so limited to the garments you can print on without having an exorbitant amount of different pretreat and print settings depending on material, color, and garment. With DTF being fairly new, I think there's a lot more room to improve ink (white especially) and powder that will help with the overall feel of the print. Pretreat is always going to hinder DTG printing, in my opinion
Good to see you, dude! I thought of you when TBDM announced the news a few days ago (or whenever the fuck it was. Time means nothing anymore).
I was so pumped for that!
I think that RIP is a version of KOTHARI, and it's super powerful! It's a heck of a RIP. Definitely the best. That's whats going to power your prints to its fullest.
It's actually Cadlink digital factory
Finally 💪🏾
Welcome back.
Thanks man 👊🏻
Welcome back! Looks like you spent all your time away in the gym.
I've put in a bit of work in there 💪🏻
GADDAMN DIDNT EVEN GET A FEW SECONDS IN THIS VIDEO IS CRISPY AS HELL ! BE BACK IN 24 MINUTES 30 SEC0NDS
Great vid as usual ! glad you back !
Thanks!
Lee when how do you feel about the conveyor dryer vs heat pressing to cure. I spoke to poly print once and they it works good and improves ink vibrancy. Also for the pre treat issue maybe pretreated shirt might work.
Awesome shirt! Is DTG the only way to go for true gradient prints on shirts?
My job also requires me to using Dtg machine, sometimes for certain apparel(tetracotton,polo,hoodies,microfiber cotton blend) I just avoiding heatpress machine cause it sometimes make final results a bit dull and dye migration, I'm just using hovering heatpress, conveyor dryer.
Dryer would definitely be the way to go. This is a good starting point
Great video Lee. Thank you for sharing. Quick question, what made you decide DTG over DTF?
The feel of dtf is a big reason, it's like a sticker. Printing directly to a shirt will always look and feel better
lmao good video bro it was funny
I was wondering when Lee would start playing with his drug money toys 😂
If the logo had the metallic look and it will look fire 🔥
hell yeah
ok bro so...Im a screen printer as well and I stick to it because it feel like its higher quality since it goes into the fabric. Does this feel like its high quality or mostly a part of the fabric?
Which is easier to maintain- dtf or dtg? I’m in the process of converting my Epson printer to dtf 😊
6 minutes a print is wild
after a few months of use it takes longer. there is allot of things that start happening once the print heads get used up. i have had to go with 20min a print at times. no joke
@@georgedjmatrix4229 that’s crazy, my GTX is like 2 minutes for a full a3 size design 🫥
This machine was never supposed to compete with the GTX in speed. The print quality is the same, but its $10k cheaper than a GTX so I'd say the extra time is a fair trade lol. Their new machine coming out will go head to head with a GTX. Hopefully I'll get to test it in a video.
Yeehaa a new vid. The outcome looks great. What’s your thoughts on hand feel and overall print quality compared to screen print?
Honestly the hand feel is incredible, almost identical to a wasterbased/hsa print. When it comes out of the wash. Very impressed
hello Lee, how is the Echo2 printer printing for you?
Good morning, what program or application do you use to make these edits?
About that USB key, you should try debugging and check connectivity ports.
It was an invalid key
Lee, thanks for the DTG setup and your progress. I have been told that humidity plays a big part in the printers output. Since you are getting great results what is your humidity in the shop?
It's usually about 40% humidity here so I'm kind of in the sweet spot
Been waiting for you to drop a vid on this as I picked one of these up round about the time you announced you had one ha!! Good to see you uploading again. Love the printer took a while getting used to making sure the underbase was always bright etc - one thing I noticed is that you dont use a baking/release sheet during any of your process when pressing ( unless I missed that ) is that something that you were told not to use and just press the ink wet?
Hope you like your machine, loving mine so far! My sheets are stuck to my heat press with magnets to speed things up 👍🏻
@@leestuart38 I bloody love the machine - can get so much detail and colour out of it! Dude you are a genius that’s literally game changing 😂 the simple hacks make the best!!
Awesome video dude. Interested to see the production costs vs screen printing.
I plan on covering that as well. I'm going to do a whole screen printing vs DTG series
@@leestuart38 nice really interested to see the series. Happy you are back with the videos. Missed the best printing content on CZcams.
There he is 😎
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
great vid is this CMYK or RGB print?
Nice prints Lee! I have the epson f2100 and it’s a breeze once you get the hang of it, we arranged our equipment about 4 times until we figured out how we wanted the work flow to go. Also, DTF turn out very durable and like you mention, it’s nice not to have to rely on shipping/min orders to provide DTF now that you have the new printer 🤙🏼
I'm already starting to get the hang of this DTG thing, it's pretty cool. I definitely need to refine some things but that's all part of the fun. Can't wait to try dtf with it next 🙌🏻
@@leestuart38 watching your vids inspired me to get into the garment field, we recognized the lack of local options and have a few friends that have businesses that sell merch so it was a no brained to jump into it! Love the videos tho man keep it up 🤙🏼🤙🏼
These companies need to spray within the outline of the designs for the pretreat that would be amazing
congrats once again B|
Thanks!
You can spray water on the pretreat box after your done curing the print and hover over it for 30-60 seconds. And pretreat box will go away a ton
I'll give that a try 👍🏻. Thanks
Interesting the Pretreat looks like a modified Shultz with a better screen. Print looked good. Try that other pretreat FireBird see if box Is gone. Best result dryer but that would make another video lol
I've got some stuff to test for next time 😎
What's the best printing technology to print face or picture of persons onto a T-shirt?
For the pretreatment box try hovering for 15 sec then press like at 300°F
I have that a try, didn't help. Hovering for a bit before pressing does help the curing side a lot though
I see, if you ever master it patent it jk. I work with image armor PT. Then press it medium high pressure. You hardly see the box. Someday gonna be as big you. Thank for you videos!
You should REALLY check out Image Armor Platinum!!!
Press, pretreat, hang for half hour, press for twice for 15 seconds (light to medium pressure) and you'll have no box.
can u update did u know how to get rid of box already ?
I’ve hard that if you steam the shirt when it is complete that the pretreat box goes away.
Nice detail, what’s the top colour look like super up close? Does it halftone the blends, or mix as it goes with no noticeable halftone dots? Curious if a guy could screen print overtop of DTG with plastisol. 🤔
The dots are too fine for the eye to see like with most inkjet printers. It's super clean looking, I'm impressed so far. There's a kit for this printer to do the opposite, screen print the underbase and DTG the top colors. I'm going to be giving that a try soon
Video was great as usual. Just ordered one of those shirts cuz they are fuckin cool!!! Keep it up.
Thanks so much dude!
a few months ago I order like 72 DTG white t shirts and when they got hit by the sun, my t shirts turn yellow all around the area where the pre treatment was spray on. I lost all my shirts.
Does the white is still vibrant after Few washes??🤩
If done right, yes. We're going to test that in a future video
@leestuart38 how’s the Pretreater Pro been doing after all this time? I’m thinking about getting one…
Than you so much for your videos!
I haven't had it set up for some time now since I needed space for my new embroidery machine, but it worked really well the entire time I used it
Sick man!!!! Do you do your own art work?
Yup 👍🏻. There's a video about how I made this design
The image quality for making those shirts is bad ass. How are they holding up in the wash?
DTG prints will last the life of the shirt for the most part, but they will lose vibrancy after about 50-75 washes
What brand of roll transfers do you prefer if you even use them??? The quality of the transfer paper I've found makes great images with excellent detail, but the shirts aren't lasting very well.
I stay away from transfers unless I absolutely need them. The quality isn't there