Full Version: Getting Out/Into Sublimation
From: Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY) [#26]
7 Jun 2005
To: Michael [#25] 8 Jun 2005
I started long ago with a 3000 and Sawgrass inks. Color correction was very good. The printer kept clogging and was replaced twice by Epson and repaired once by SG. After the repair I switched to Color Factory inks. I had to make the first set of color correction ICM's for accurate color. No clogs at all for years. Then CF went out of business.
I switched to TG. Rare clogs and very good color correction. Maybe the older models of 3000's are a bit different, but when following the installation instructions step by step, the correction was virtually perfect. I have seen complaints that the black was faintly greenish, but never had that my self. (Yes a greyscale does have color shift at points, but so do almost all inks for sublimation.)
I have always had good phone service from them on the rare times I needed to contact them. I am very surprised that the printer, (1280), purchased from them was not replaced even though it was out of warranty. That does feel wrong.
Did you ever send Paul an email about the problem? My experience with him is that he will do right by the customers.
From: Michael [#27]
8 Jun 2005
To: Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY) [#26] 8 Jun 2005
After several brands of ink over the past 4 years I'm back with Sawgrass. Their IQ ink seems to have resolved most of color problems, such as reddish blacks, off gamut greens, etc. they used to have. At least for the 3000.
Yes, I contacted Paul when I was having problems and he shunted me off to his minion in charge of after sale problems which is when I was told they were aware of problems with the Epson 3000 but weren't going to do anything about it.
In Pauls favor, he did refund purchase price.
From: logojohn [#28]
10 Jun 2005
To: ALL
Someone did a few small jobs here and there but I didn't really have time to try it and was not all that much in a hurry after some of the comments here. There have been some minor problems with clogging usually fixed by the cleaning utility. Someone found a message elsewhere that you had to use the regular inks for the cleaning for best results. Haven't tried it yet.
We had a (only 1 :'-( ) slow day last week and I played around with doing a color photo on a plaque and also on metal. I was very impressed with the quality and detail.
I plan to use it when people want photographs or must have a color logo on a brushed gold or silver plaque plate (maybe make an inset area directly in the wood) or directly on a unisub surface plaque.
Trying to get the exact settings to laser a photo takes way too much time. This took virtually no editing and came out beautiful.
Today it really helped get our ox out of the ditch. We had delivered a 4 color silk screen of 500 pieces of a 1.5" disc. The customer rejected them because there were gradients and many other shades of the same colors which didn't show up with that process.
Luckily ID Plates had enough white surface discs already made so we got them within an hour. The color and detail was very accurate, showing subtle variances of the shades and gradients. I am very picky but these looked very good to me. They all fit on about 20 letter size sheets and were delivered to the customer later in the day.
On a side note, I think the disks were out of the new material Stunt Engraver has been talking about. I liked the looks of the finished product better than the other stuff we had sheets of. It was a little bit glossy but also had a little matte look to it.
Sublimation is a great thing to have in your bag of tricks. I am not going to market it aggressively. I don't want to give people the idea to switch from standard laser badges or plaques we are already doing. But if they are asking for it, it is nice to be able to offer it. With the cost of inks and such, I can see charging the same as an engraved or lasered badge or plaque.
I am also not going to offer trinkets where you have to do artwork for one $5 item. I did see some tiles inset into wood boxes and other such gifts. Those seem to be worth a little aggravation.
It also has come in handy to do a small quantity of things for customers who buy large quantities of other things.
Is there a third option for "getting into or out of sublimation." Like getting into it (a little) when it is the best option for the task at hand . . . that is worth the trouble versus other options.