raymanjazz
Basic
Hi,can any1 tell me if I should buy a thermal transfer machine from e-bay,they come from China/Hong Kong but ive heard they dont always heat up enough to do the job,thanx,Ray.:icon_confused:
Hectograph Machines
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stretchnuts
Basic
I just use a flatbed scanner and a 24 pin dot matrix printer (Oki Microline 395), its a hell of a lot cleaner than a thermal printer/hectograph. Its a lot cheaper too.
robbo25
Basic
I got a dot matrix printer think it's hp or canon when I bought it of the other guy who was a tattoois t he never had the hard drive disc for it so when I went home searched for it on the sites didn't have had it now for about 4yrs just sitting in the cupboard lol but it did work at his when he showed me and was nice clear stencil but just never been able to use it. And as for them China things been tempted but wouldn't risk the waste of money or time. How do you get the fax machine to produce a stencil?
i bought a thermal printer from Dave (bought as not working, spares or repair)... messed about with it a bit and got it to work, so i thought great....3 weeks later, 2 good stencils and about a dozen wasted sheets of spirit brand! it decided to pack up again, tried to fix it again, but this time no joy,just wouldnt print the middle of the stencil no matter what i tried, so its now being used as a door stop lol..... im looking at a dot matrix printer and have found an up to date/semi modern one that will run on my o/s, question is, am i right in saying you can remove the ink ribbon all together as its not required? im sure im right, but just wanted to clarify as the one im looking at needs it replacing
if your rubbish at tracing your the last person that needs one if you cant trace how you going to tattoo
robbo25
Basic
Yeah you can remove them. He never used one just feed the paper through would love to get hold of hard drive would make life easier. He also said it must be white background and just out line and like grey shade or background stuff will just blot it out
cool,might invest then..... i dont mind doing stencils by hand, but i get busy very often with running my buisness, and helping the missus with hers.... i could do with saving a bit of time....one of these days i might get a day off lol
robbo25
Basic
Why not saves time. Print straight off or scan it then print
I made a guide a couple of years ago regarding using a cheap 30 quid fax machine to copy stencils which worked a treat but now its insisting I change the ink ribbon... But I chucked it away like an idiot... So I can't get it to think its been replaced! Hmm could buy a new ribbon and report back.... The guide might still be on here
robbo25
Basic
How do you get it to print out what you want though?
robbo25
Basic
Hmmm may have to get one
I have read somewhere that you can take the ribbon out and put tape over the sensor and it thinks you still have a ribbon in it. No ribbon is needed at all.
Just and FYI. I have used thermal fax machines and they work but are a pain in the ass to get perfect the first time around. I also have one of the China thermal machines and it works pretty good. I do think that this is great for lettering and such but I mainly just do them by hand anymore. You get practice and muscle memory from drawing the stencil by hand, so it is like you have already done it before when you tattoo it. Dot matrix are supposed to be the best for stencil making though.
But... for the person who cannot trace a line, you should be doing them by hand. How do you tattoo at all if you cannot trace a line? This is essentially what tattooing is.
This is an interesting discussion ==> I did a bit of research and was astonished how may industries still use dot matrix printers .. you even get new modles wth USB 2.0 .. but they are not cheap (half of a thermal copier but still ...)
I do geometrical stuff so the investment would be worth it, printing directly out of my inkscape
I do geometrical stuff so the investment would be worth it, printing directly out of my inkscape
stretchnuts
Basic
If you post the make and model number of the printer and what operating system your running I'll post a link to the driver for you, it shouldn"t be hard to find.
Download GIMP 2 (LINK GIMP - Downloads) photo editor, open or import image you want to make the stencil of, then go to tool bar at top and select ARTISTIC then PHOTOCOPY and save and rename image(You can adjust darkness of image before you save it). Then send to printer, its pretty simple.
ive tried removing the tape from the sensor switch to makle out if fitted a new one etc but jsut cant get it to accept it... ill have another bash later might have to rotate the winders aswell....
just read up on the net that i have to insert a "plug and print" memory card which comes with each ink roll refill.... the only time it works without one of these cards is with the test cartridge... so its scrap basically!
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