With all the recent stuff going down with printers and ink.

What is the best places to buy stuff for larger printing?

I was looking at the WF1100 to do the 13x19 prints.

Is the Ricoh better?

Best place to get the ink if I get a WF?

I was only a few weeks away from going to cobra before they backed down.

Also, do i need different oinks for shirts vs other sub products like tiles, clipboards and such?

Thanks.

Conde.com sells printers and ink. Epson WF1100's or ricohs.

Yeah, for $80/cartridge...

It depends how far you want to take it and how busy you are.   I have already said you could just sub out the sublimation papers that you need.  I know its a little PITA but if you aren't sure,   that would be a good way to test the waters to see if you will like it or if your items will even sell?  For small items such as tags etc you could gang many on one sheet of paper mugs you could get a couple to a page.  Then you have no issues trying to find ink, a buying another printer for the high temp ink and having any issues with clogging etc.

It really boils down to how much money do you have to spend, how much business, and lastly how into the whole thing are you...

So where should I go then?

I am learning that i need two different inks for vinyl decals and other sub work. this true?

If you want to do both then it is recommended to have one for pigment (vinyl) and one for dye-sub. Another member mentioned they used one and switched the inks but I feel you will just run into problems in the long run.

Right now there is not many places that people have tried to get the alternative dye sub ink. A few people are posting links but not aware of anyone that has tried to purchase and have results like we have with have Cobras Ink.

Quote from: midwaste on January 01, 2012, 11:18:50 PM

Quote from: Clawgfx on January 01, 2012, 11:10:13 PM

Conde.com sells printers and ink. Epson WF1100's or ricohs.

Yeah, for $80/cartridge...

At the moment there is not many places to turn for sub inks. ebay, china? if there are other sites selling dye-sub ink in the US they wont be around long if they continue. It's the nature of the beast unfortunately.

I've been very thankful for this forum and Richard for the low cost printer setup and inks but even at Conde's prices I can still make money well over the cost of ink. If my 1100 dies I plan on getting a ricoh myself

What is the basis of Sawgrass' claims against Cobra?  Are you saying that they are legitimate and will be used to take down any other US-based ink sellers?

I saw on ebay there are some bulk bottles of Artanium as well as generics, not terribly cheap, but MUCH cheaper than the cartridges from Conde.  I wish I could say that I would be able to jump right in and still profit on Conde carts, but there is a decent chance that this avenue will start slow and I dont want to waste the ink on cleaning cycles..

Their claim is that they invented sublimation inks and the process to make the ink in small format printers and have patents for such.

As a business they have every right to go after copy cats if they want to. 2 things will happen. They will pressure companies to stop selling their generic ink and they will do so as we have seen with a couple places already or the companies will continue to sell the ink and risk getting sued by them. Then it's up to the courts to decide at the risk of the small business owner over a big company.  

Check out the link on the Sawgrass page. They basically hold the patents for sublimation in small format inkjet printers. Can they stop third party all together? No but they will sure go after everyone that they can to protect their business You bet.  

http://www.sawgrassink.com/v.php?pg=180


And pitbuill to answer your questions I am not sure if anyone has purchased from DyeSub yet that I've seen. That kit should work fine with the 1100's

I'm not saying there saints either. I don't agree with what there doing. There are plenty of other markets that the 3rd party exists.  But if SG is going after folks which they clearly state they are then the small guys like Richard will get bullied into stopping, selling SG inks instead or risk getting sued. Even if SG doesn't have a leg to stand on court costs alone can ruin a small business and would be forced to shut down. Most wouldn't take that chance so they just stop selling the inks.

Sometimes that process is not in our best interest because of the higher prices or for folks just starting out as we have seen multiple times. This has caused a huge impact. Just about once or twice a week there is another thread asking where to get ink now.

I personally hope that Richard can start selling his products again and SG backs down but as of right now they have made it clear that they are not. It's only a matter of time before these others run into the same situation.

I use the Ricoh GX-7000 and SG inks. There are some issues with the ink. THere are several threads esp on tshirtforums were it appears that the ink has killed the printer.  Also I personally has two carts start leaking. SG replaced them pretty quickly w/o any real hassle.
Yea the ink is expensive. That sucks.  And hopefully when the patent and all is expired the prices will come down.
You can get ink from a 3rd party that is not SG ink but just like the cobra situation you could find yourself w/o a ink provider at some point.
Just something to consider when going outside the SG ink dynasty.

As for output the inks to me are great. Sweet images on hardgoods, shirts and what nots that I have printed.