 We just got a direct-to-film printer from Amazon and we're going to show you how to set it up and what it can do right now What is up a welcome back? Do you like to do a builder to make it so do we and we have a new video each week this week? I got a brand new toy We got a brand new toy. This is a direct-to-film printer DTF printer Now it didn't take as much convincing as it did the glow forge But way more convincing than it is for the 3d printer I still can't convince her that I need a 3d printer Yeah, if you guys were on our live on Tuesday We had a whole conversation about why Garrett does and does not need a 3d printer I can't I can't give her a product that the 3d printer needs to make So if you have any suggestions on how to get me a 3d printer, leave me a comment down below Yeah, even if you have a 3d printer and you print something cool Comment if you don't have a 3d printer, but you wish you had one because you could print something cool Leave that down below too because so far all he's got is a comb and maybe some and the Cap to the toothbrush like a travel cap Not worth it. It's not worth it But that's not what we're here for today here today We're gonna talk about our DTF printer, and this is our little heater that comes with it Why did we get a DTF printer? Well, we love sublimation. We've done a lot of sublimation videos I think sublimation is super cool super cool The problem with sublimation is having the proper materials with that high poly content It's got to be polyester. It's got to be poly acrylic. Yes, or you have to pre-treat it with some kind of poly something I mean, it looks really cool on the t-shirts, but I sometimes I've had some ideas to do some cool things like With other materials like gene material and stuff like that. That's truly a hundred percent cotton I can't use the sublimation printer for that, but you can use a DTF printer I also want to and most the biggest thing that I want to do is to be able to Sublimate on wood and we've tried that a bunch of times some cool images on some MDF Yes, and make that stuff pop. We've done a couple of videos You can go back and see some previous videos where we use laminate sheets and we did some Sublimation on the laminate sheets. We use poly acrylic spray. Yes, and we tried to sublimate on that But none of them gave me the results. I was really looking for something with those bright bright colors So we did a little research and we found this DTF printer. What is a direct-to-film printing? So DTF printing is a relatively new technology It's only been around for about two years But the great thing about this is it's it's kind of like direct-to-garnet printing if you've seen that except now You can print directly to a film and then that film can be applied to so many different types of materials It can be applied to t-shirts. It can be applied to wood It can be applied to metals lots of different things. So that's a very exciting the DTF film once it's applied Once the ink has been applied to a shirt It's got a lot of stretch ability and flexibility It prints the image face down on the film and then it comes back in with some white to give it a background And then you put some adhesive on the back Melt that stuff and then it will apply to anything Including black t-shirts because it has that white backer. It'll go right to dark colored materials a black cotton t-shirt No pre-treatment. Oh a hat. I was thinking about doing some stuff on your hat shoes Oh shoes, are you doing some cool little like tennis shoes? Yeah So we've got a lot of great ideas and we're really excited about this and then through our research We found that in many cases the DTF printing is cheaper faster more affordable Easier easier. I mean think of the images that I can do that I wouldn't be able to do in vinyl or something like that or screen printing Yes screen for so it's it's definitely easier than screen printing unless you've got that set up set and ready to go So for kind of this Mid-level crafter that we are this DTF printer. I think it's going to Kind of revolutionize some of the things that we're doing especially we do a lot stuff to a whole other level That's what he's been saying that for a month We really want to try this on the the MDF so that we could do some cool things with our door rounds We want to take them to the next level So we're really excited and we thought Well, we thought we would show you the whole setup of this process So we've we've done a little research. We've watched lots of videos. Most of them are by the manufacturer So there aren't any kind of Good explanatory videos. Yeah, how would some normal person get into this? Yeah, if you were a DIYer and you were looking to do something with DTF printing Let us tell you about it show you how to set up this printer and let's do a first print print and What press print and press let's try our first print and press So we found a DTF printer on amazon that cost about $2,800. It came with the printer It's a modified epson L1800 printer It came with the oven that melts the glue on the back and it came with the ink And the transfer sheets. Oh and it came with a hundred transfer sheets That's right the film the only thing we needed to pick up was the DTF transfer adhesive It's just a bag of powder Setting up the printer was pretty simple after I uncrated it I simply put the ink waste container in the back. It was just two screws and then a little plastic cup Then I had to put some ink tray for drippings underneath the printer But I couldn't really figure out where it went. So I just put it somewhere under there. If it leaks, I'll move it I plugged it in. I powered on the back power switch I let it do its little thing and then I hit the front power switch And then I let it do its thing. I guess it's doing all the checks Then I ran a piece of plain paper through it just from the copier Then I ran a sheet of DTF film through it just to make sure those inner workings are pushing my paper through Next I filled all the little ink jugs. That was pretty easy I think peeling off the little safety top was the hardest part. I spilled the blue everywhere Once the ink was in I used some syringes and I just primed each of those little print heads Just getting that ink started Just pulling it through. I'm only sucking about two or three millimeters of ink into the syringe The first few I dumped back into the little tiny tubs But the next I squirted into the trash and I rinsed them out. Next I primed the ink waste I unscrewed the little cap, stuck the syringe in there, and I just started the the ink waste Installing the software is probably the hardest part because my window's virus protection kept thinking it was a trojan horse So I installed the software the first time to create the folder I went ahead and excluded that folder from my virus protection And I reinstalled it and it seemed to work fine. I then installed the drivers I connected the printer to open the software and use the software. I need a little dongle I needed a little dongle say that's five times fast That's what they call it That was the encryption key or the software key for the rip software Now the rip software you're not going to be able to build or make any graphics in the rip software All that really does is enable you to put white background to it and print color then white It's kind of like a hack for the epson printer And once I got that installed I loaded it in our graphic and I did a test print All right, we're ready for a test print. Let's see how this thing works Let's let's get it going We're going to print our logo and try to put our logo on a couple of things. It's pretty cool It came with a whole bag of film. Yeah, there's like a hundred sheets of film So you want to print on the dusty side. There's like a dusty side and a dull side One side has this like little powder on it. You can kind of scratch it off That's the print side. You want to print on that so we're going to put it in a printer And this printer it's face up dusty side up We've mirrored our image. We've duplicated our image And you can see that as it prints it's printing face down. That's why we mirrored the image And you can see that it lays the color down and then it comes in With the white print head and prints white over top of it kind of gives it that white background Once it was done printing we used that DTF Powder that adhesive powder we rolled it around on the We rolled it around on the wet ink for a little bit Make sure it was getting everywhere getting all those little nooks and crannies a nice even coat And then we gave it a gentle shake off And we put it in the oven that came with the whole kit And that went in there for about 200 degrees Fahrenheit This shows Celsius and we went for 200 seconds All printed I tried printing with two different color settings This is the graphics and text. This was photo So the photo looked like it gave it a little better white on the back But the graphics seem to turn out a lot better like a little more crisp You can see all the little hash marks in the make We're going to trim these up and then we're going to put them on some stuff So we're going to start with a black t-shirt. So I'm really excited About trying these black t-shirts, you know, we've done a lot of sublimation videos on how to do black t-shirts This cotton it is 100% cotton 100% cotton black t-shirt All right. So everything else is like your sublimation. You do want to lint roll this shirt Make sure there is no lint under there And then we're going to give it a quick pre-press The temperature is 325 320 320 quick press You know, let's say while you're doing it. Hey, what's coming off on the shirt? I don't know. We're gonna find out. You might have to lint roll it again. Yeah All right, something was on the something was on the easy press I don't know who would have done that Who's using who's using the easy press last? Left in a mess Relent rolled Still warm. We're gonna start with the one that we used the picture settings for the photograph All right, so I'm really gonna find out where my center is and just eyeball this thing. Yeah eyeball it That's how I would do it All right, does it look crooked? No, it looks good. If it's crooked. I'll just stand crooked We're so excited about this. We're gonna get ourselves a heat press All right 320 for 15 seconds It's medium pressure medium pressure. So I'm just gonna lean on it. Just gonna give it a little quick lean As opposed to standing on it. Yeah, I won't stand on it. I'll just lean on it Let me come around this way so you guys can see me Oh, is that it And then we get chance to chitchat No, I think it was just back up to oh, did you do it again? I think that was it. I hit it again Go go That's what makes it so quick and fast Was that it? Yeah, that was it. Now this is a cold peel. So we're gonna give this I was gonna shake the shirt Just gonna get it off that hot pad Give it a little shake and Let's shake it. I won't stir it All right, is that cold enough? No, it's not cold enough. Why don't we start? Why don't we set that right here? All right, let's set this over here to cool down now and we'll start the next one All right, let's try another shirt, but we'll try it with the The other graphic now the difference between these you can really see that this has a nice solid white backer And that one is much thinner a little bit translucent a little bit translucent So I want to see how they both work. Yeah a little trial and error for you We're gonna tell you what our lessons learned are here See what we figure out. So second shirt same as the first Got my separator sheet Just so the plastic doesn't stick to it just in case 320 15 seconds What's the medium pressure? Medium pressure Medium pressure I'm on my tiptoes Yes One that's it get out of here. Come on now All right, this is also a cool press Oh, you can see it's already doesn't pop like the other one. Hmm All right, we'll leave this to cool Give it a minute to cool Cool it down Now I have some MDF pieces. This is what we've been waiting for. Yeah, I want to see how it works on the MDF See how well lines up if I can line up something that I cut on the glow forge Was something that I printed on the DTF printer Let me make room because you're gonna need to set it over here To cool right All right The thing about MDF when you heat MDF it will warp So we want to heat this Are you gonna do it? You're not gonna do it upside down. You have high heat tape on it or something Yeah, that's how I heat tape it. Okay With MDF once you press it and heat it you want to put something heavy on it. So as it cools It cools flat and it doesn't cool warped Just gonna keep it in place while I flip it So he lined it up upside down Layed it on the film and now he's gonna flip the whole thing over after he's taped it Yeah, that worked well. All right, let's do it. We're gonna keep the same time Yep, 320 15 seconds and pressure Now, which one did you use the one the photo setting in the one with the more solid white backer? I cut two of them now Oh, okay, we can try both of them. Great. Let's do it Oh, that was it such a quick 15 seconds. I love it. Yeah, there is a quick 15 seconds Oh, this slate is heavy. Yeah Here, I'll put it back here. Huh All right, we're gonna let that dry I mean cool with the slate on it. Was that the photo one? Yeah, that was the photo one All right, this one's got some burnt edges I wonder if we'll be able to see the burnt edges Good test. Good. Good test Good test. Good test. Good test. Look at us There are so many settings So many color settings and percentages I haven't gotten all that figured out yet. See. All right. Let's see a moment of truth All right, we'll start with this corner Yeah, that's a pretty easy peel. Wow the colors are super bright It looks good Interesting Man, I like how that pops on its shirt. All right, let's do the other one This feels like those t-shirts I had that I would get at the beach when I was a kid. Oh, yeah See the white needs to be poppier. Yeah, hold them up. Yeah So this was the graphic and text This was the graphic and text you could see how sharp it looks But the white didn't pop. That's the photo It's the picture the photo settings. I like that white that white pops. Yeah, that's perfect But I can't see the lines Yeah, you can't see the lines as much as much as you can in this one Well, there's a drop shadow and I think the drop shadow is messing with the photo Oh, yeah, okay, so can we do photo with Can we do graphics and text and change the white setting to match the yeah, we can try that Okay, we're gonna try that. All right. These are cooler. Do you want to try them? We'll start with the photo one. You let this sit. Oh, yeah, it's pretty cool All right. All right. Next is the peel of the MDF. Wow, that came off real easy Oh, that looks so tight. Oh, oh, I just smeared it. Oh, it's still soft I gave it a little smudge. It needs to cool longer. Yeah, it needs to cool a little bit longer All right, don't rough it up right when it's fresh out of the bag. So it wasn't cool enough, but it looks great I mean it looks great. Let's do the other one then There's the MDF on the back This on the front. All right, again, that's the photo And this is the graphics and text I think they both look great. Let me see But again, you can see through it. Yeah, I like the white the white really pops What do you think pretty easy right pretty easy pretty affordable For the kind of results. I mean, I wish you guys could feel that that feels Pretty cool It's said nice and stretchy our next our next thing is I really like how this photo stuff works on the wood That's that's the whole purpose for me. That was the big the number one reason for getting this So it's to really see what it can do on the wood and it take our uh rounds to a whole other level You know, those things go like hot cakes now wait till they see what we got cooking for them right now Yeah, they got some new ideas and we're excited to try them out. So are you on the fence about getting a DTF printer? You're going to get a DTF printer. What do you think you're going to make with your DTF printer? You're going to stick the fabrics you're going to get a little adventurous and put it on other substrates Yeah, next week we're going to try some more materials. So come back and watch us next week where we'll try this On maybe a tumbler. I want to do a stainless steel tumbler. Yeah, maybe the slate Oh, yeah the slate on the slate and Some more wood we really are thinking about trying it on a piece of furniture Oh, yeah, I can't wait to try to do it on our furniture flip or something Yeah, a big thanks to all of our patrons. We love you guys. Thank you The list keeps growing and we love talking to you. We get to interact. I share some files. You share some info I love all the sharing that happens in our little community And Wait, don't forget to join us on Tuesdays for our live where we're usually Doing a test cut Tuesday And painting a new file testing a new file and painting a new file for a new door round Moving on the edge. All right now go. We are about out of time So if you're not going to join us for the patron after show We will see you Tuesday and then next Friday where we'll do it build it and make it again I'll balance one of these little guys Oh, hey, it's a lot drier now Now it's not smeary Yeah, better a lot better Ooh, tiny I'm out