Sawgrass discontinues some Epson 3000 carts

From:	Engravin' Dave (DATAKES)	3 Feb 2007
To:	LaZerDude (C_BURKE)	14 of 18

5944.14 In reply to 5944.12

Chuck,

My reference to Sawgrass "mud" was to their early forumlation (SubliJet). They never offered to make it right when I inquired, hence I went a different way.

From:	Stunt Engraver (DGL)	3 Feb 2007
To:	LaZerDude (C_BURKE)	15 of 18

5944.15 In reply to 5944.12

Chuck,

Can you tell that those of us who have been involved with sublimation long enough to have used and seen (high quality) inexpensive ink disappear from the landscape, remain a little bitter? :-)

You bring up a good point, in that, the Epson 3000 (although the original workhorse) has been supplanted by newer technology.

That, more than the price of ink, is probably the primary reason for the discontinuance of the extended 3000 cartridges.

I agree with LJ, that despite the price of ink, the ink jet sublimation process is still the best tool for some jobs and that's why I'm still a fan of the process.

David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri
DGL Engraving
Port Hueneme, CA

EDITED: 3 Feb 2007 by DGL

From:	LaZerDude (C_BURKE)	3 Feb 2007
To:	Stunt Engraver (DGL)	16 of 18

5944.16 In reply to 5944.15
quote: I agree with LJ, that despite the price of ink, the ink jet sublimation process is still the best tool for some jobs and that's why I'm still a fan of the process. With my limited experience, I have to agree, but I think the key is to get the jobs that you can price high enough or have a high enough perceived value that you can justify the cost of the inks. With that said, it seems that the per piece cost of ink and paper is still minimal....again, in my admittedly "limited" experience. Spoken by someone still trying to launch. :-(

From:	JHayes55	3 Feb 2007
To:	ALL	17 of 18

5944.17 In reply to 5944.16
An interesting discussion for me. We have had an Epson 3000 for about 6 years. All in all it has been a pretty good machine for us. When we first purchased it we used Sawgrass - after much trouble with clogging and most of the ink going for repeated cleaning we decided to go change to Artanium ink, since that time we have had much better success. Knowing that this 3000 is getting some age we are making plans for the next step. I have toyed some with using my OKI, special papers and OEM - have not sold myself on this process yet. I have also been doing some looking at using the sublimation toners in the OKI - I know that AL who visits here from time to time has it listed on this web site. Has anyone used his toners in an OKI? I need to give him a call or maybe find out if he plans on being a Las Vegas - would love to see some of his samples. The majority of our sublimation is trophy metal for inexpensive plaques or name badges - we do several mugs, christmas ornaments, and mouse pads during the holidays. From what I have read on AL's site (cannot think of the name right now and I am not at the shop computer where it's bookmarked) you can use the sub toners on all the same things we are currently doing.

From:	Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY)	3 Feb 2007
To:	ALL	18 of 18

5944.18

I knew Paul somewhat, (Artaniun), and Bob Smith, (Color Factory), very well. The most non-clogging ink was The Color Factory.

Where my objection to the Sawgrass pricing was that the ink cost $15 per liter, and was sold for $1000 per liter in bulk to customers. And the customers of Artanium and Color Factory were threatened with legal actions by Sawgrass.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.