Sublimation Roll Paper for epson 9890 for Metal?

[brinked]

Hey guys.  First time poster but I have lurked these forums over the months while I researched equipment for my metal photo lab.

I am currently using condes multi purpose roll sublimation paper for my epson 9890.  The paper works fine, I just do not want to give conde my business any more.  I hear texprint paper is not made for rigid surfaces as it shrinks during pressing.

I ordered JP paper from johnson but its $10 more which I do not mind paying.  But does anyone know any other roll paper for my needs?

[dgberg]

Coastal Business
Johnson Plastics
Best Blanks

[mcpix]

I'm working on the same thing. Do you mind saying what press you ended up buying? Are you trying to tap the local market or going for online sales? Thanks!

[brinked]

Thank you Dan.  Those are the exact 3 companies I reached out to.  Besblanks is a no, coastal will get back to me and I ordered the JP paper from Johnson.

[brinked]

Hi mcpix.  I ended up getting the Maxi Press Air 64x44.  I could not be happier.  Aaron over at George Knight is really wonderful and I really recommend his company to anyone looking at investing in serious heat press equipment.  When you spend that type of money, you want to know that the company stands behind what they sell and thats the feeling I get with Aaron.

I am just getting started as a few months ago, but I am giving away metal prints and people are lining up to make orders.

I also am having a metal company make my own sublimation aluminum with a white gloss coating and the prints turn out very comparable to the chromaluxe but I am able to charge much less because of the savings (despite having to buy in major bulk).  I also do the chromaluxe but I am not getting as many sales due to the significant price difference between the metals.

[dgberg]

How bout the quality of the coating from your new supplier?
I have been a little disappointed with the bumps on the Chromaluxe white gloss.
Averages about one big one on every sheet. It just doesn't feel right having to give the disclaimer about defects from the manufacturer but I guess it beats having to do replacements.

I have been thinking about a 9890 for dye sub to replace my 4880. The price is very good at around $3100 and I can take the K3 inks and use them on my 9900 another $450 value.
Are you using the JTeck inks?

[brinked]

Dan I have had only 2 times where there were very small bumps in the coating, not really bumps but more like tiny holes.  I sublimated to them anyway and they disappeared and I could not find them when I pressed the image into them so I shipped them and even made a point of telling the customer to finely inspect the item.  All was well.

I think if you look hard enough you will find imperfections with every aluminum sheet.  I think that because of the price of chromaluxe, there should be better quality control being done because its very expensive.

What I like about my metal also is its a softer coating so I have experienced 0 chipping on the edges.

Now mind you, when comparing a chromaluxe print to my print you do notice a slight difference.  Chromaluxe when done right gives you the best print on metal and there is no denying that.  The colors are just extremely vivid and gives you the closest match to your digital photo.

My metal looks great, and everyone who sees it in person is very impressed.  But I am talking about the every day person and not a professional photographer (have not got that far into the industry yet).

Here is a video comparing the same print onto the chromaluxe and the other is on my metal which I call "imagine metal"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vgRrooaQCw

I still stock the chromaluxe because I know there will be demand for it especially from professional photographers, but when given the choice at almost 40% off the chromaluxe version, everyone decides to go with my proprietary metal and have had only happy and repeat buyers.

[brinked]

To answer your other question, I am using sawgrass pro photo inks closed system.

[brinked]

Sorry to reply again, but I just looked up J-teck inks and you just opened up my entire world.  I had no idea there were alternatives to sawgrass.  I knew there were others that were around, but didnt trust them with quality issues.

This entire J-teck thing I will need to explore and research further.  Can you tell me how J-Teck compares to sawgrass pro photo?  I always wanted to do litres but I was pushed by my sales rep at conde to only used closed system sawgrass pro photo inks and anything else would give inferior quality.

[dgberg]

Have not used them yet but am also in the research mode.
Cost is not everything but at $160 or so for 1000 ml's it blows SG out of the water.
Anything to get out from under Sawgrass!!
I am still a Conde guy but it is hog wash what they are telling you.

Coastal is a JTeck dealer and speaks very highly of the inkset.
Epson and JTeck I believe are the only 2 companies that have a contract with SG to market wide format dye sub inks. JTeck and Epson both make their own ink they just had to sign on and pay up to SG because they own the patent.
It applies only to 44" and larger wide format printers.
Sawgrass dye sub inks patent expires in Sept. of 2014.

My holdup with going to the 9890 is not the inks it is the cost of the Maxxi press.
Just got a new 25sp from Aaron and the only issue to date is it is just too small.

[brinked]

I am seeing sawgrass liters for $10 more, am I missing something as far as price goes?  http://www.inksandbeyond.com/sawgrass-sublim-cyan-1-liter/

I kind of figured what conde was telling me was a load of bull.  But I spent over $25k in equipment and supplies from them I was not going to ignore their advice, then if something goes wrong they say "see you should have listened to us".

I always do my own research, but I was really depending on conde holding my hand which it turned out I was wrong with that.

If you want my opinion, do whatever you can to get the maxi press air.  Finance it, take a loan against your house, do whatever you can to get it. People want BIG prints.  Anybody can make a smaller print.  If you want to separate yourself in this and any business, you need to offer what people want and where the money is at.  The money is in larger prints.  I am so happy with the Maxi Press air I have 0 regrets.  I was considering the manual and boy am I glad I splurged on the air version.

Did you check out my video comparing the chromaluxe to my metal?  What are your thoughts?

Thanks

Will

[dgberg]

I was comparing to the IQ sublijet carts for the 9890 that are $185 for 350ml.
If you can use the SubliM refillable inks then $160 per liter is as good as it gets.

I know all about selling big prints that is my business. (Canvas)
I purchased the smaller printer and press to get my feet wet and see how it goes.
It's the 20k plus that has me on hold at least for now.

Pretty hard to tell from the YouTube pictures but looks pretty good to me!

Looks like you are in south east Fl.
If you would not mind having a visitor some time I would love to see your press.
I am still flying a corporate airplane and the owner lives down the road from you in Palm Beach Gardens.
I get down their about twice a month.

[brinked]

yeah no problem.  I have a townhouse in palm beach gardens.  Its only a 5 minute drive from me.  I know how much I wish I could have seen it in person before committing to purchasing it.  I was about to buy the manual when Aaron talked me out of it.

Sure it is $20,000.00 But if you get the right kind of business and it sounds like you already have customers, you can make a return on that investment in just a few months.  If it were much cheaper then that would mean a lot more people would buy it and would be more competition.

I can proudly say that I own the same equipment that the other big labs have in case anyone is ever on the fence with doing business with me.

[tastar]

Re. Sublimation paper for metal

You need a high release paper like:

JetCol or

True Pix

Tony

[mcpix]

This is good info for me too. I'm like Dan in that I'm limited in how big I can go (15x19). One of my concerns is that the majority of the demand might be for the larger sizes. I've been wondering if it's a "go big or go home" type of business. Sounds like that's the case. I had a chance to pick up a like new 7890 really cheap ($1200), but I decided that I should probably just wait and go for a 9890.

I've been researching used presses, but the old Maxi-Presses only went up to 30x40 or 40x60. Because you can't press out to the edge, you're limited to the next smaller size of print (i.e. 24x36 on a 30x40 press).

Other than giving your arms a break, what's the advantage of the air press?

[brinked]

mcpix if you're doing metal you want the pneumatic.  The reason for this is it gives even pressure the entire platen.  With the manual you will not get the even pressure.  This is fine for shirts but it probably will not cut it for metal.

Also, chromaluxe requires heavy pressure.  You will need to tweak and mess around with the manual to achive perfect prints, and then switching around to different settings will be a huge pain.

I played around with a small manual press and pressing metal was a nightmare.  I will never press metal with a manual press ever again.

[brinked]

Also doing small sizes is fine if your business is online.  Larger sizes are expensive to ship because you have to ship them freight.

If your business is mostly local, I think its best to have the ability to do as big of a print as you possibly can.

I see some companies who do larger than what the maxi press is capable of but they put that they combine 2 panels together.  This is something I have yet to try but I find it interesting.  You can easily combine two large metal panels together using an aluminum strip and VHB tape.  The seem probably would not be noticeable from a few feets distance.  This all sounds great in theory, but who knows.  I think I will try it with a few 16 x 20's

[mcpix]

Thanks for the feedback. So maybe I can get some business with 16x20 and smaller. I'm not quite ready to spend $20,000 on a big press.

[brinked]

Keep in mind you also need to install a 220 line if you do not already have one.  That cost me $2k.  Then the operating cost adds to your electric bill (mine went up by more than $150/month).

It certainly is an investment though.  Probably want to finance it if you can.

[mcpix]

 

Also doing small sizes is fine if your business is online.  Larger sizes are expensive to ship because you have to ship them freight.

If your business is mostly local, I think its best to have the ability to do as big of a print as you possibly can.

I'm still trying to decide what size of press to buy. What are your most popular sizes?