Buying a uv dtf printer from China my journey

Buying a uv dtf printer from China my journey I have a small sign business & i plan to purchase a uv DTF printer direct from China,
Will it happen? Will jt arrive ? Will it work? How long will it work for?

10/01/2026

1 week to go till I get this amazing bit of kit.

Had to go in today, make some space. Tricky visualising if it will fit or not… did some drawings and got some dims confi...
29/12/2025

Had to go in today, make some space. Tricky visualising if it will fit or not… did some drawings and got some dims confirmed.. moved a few bits around.. it’s gonna be tight..

Well the last update was “will it be the Mutoh or Roland?” Well guess what It’s going to be neither, I’d like to intro...
13/12/2025

Well the last update was “will it be the Mutoh or Roland?” Well guess what

It’s going to be neither, I’d like to introduce you to my soon to be purchased “mimaki” !!
Now I’m going to have all 3 major brands in my workshop..
and they all do different things!
Vinyl printing and cutter with cmyk and white small machine.
Mutoh 1370 cmyk printer paired with a laminator and kona cutter and now a a3 mimaki flatbed uv with cmyk white and varnish inks.

Oh and I have a laser..

Can’t wait to start producing some unique items.

11/12/2025

Update… (long post as Im killing time)

Chinese printer just not an option. I consider it too much of a risk for my hard earned money.
Back to the drawing that took me down a quality second hand route.
Research research research!!! I have had some great help and advice from some amazing suppliers!

I have to say my budget was low initially as I was looking at a Chinese machine. I’m sure these machines will be “ok” for a hobbyist but not for an established business that needs reliability and consistency.

The quality used market is coming in at around the 10k mark and in particular I was looking at mimaki and Mutoh brands. 4K over what I intended to spend.

Now I already have a Mutoh large format (1370mm wide) machine that prints on rolled media rather directly onto hard substates like acrylic and I bought it second hand, it’s a good machine but the support was lacking from the vendor.
Yes I broke it in its second year due to not knowing enough about it, don’t panic I fixed it but it cost me a bag of sand.

The problem with buying second hand does come with its own problems as I found out, but after digging down there are new machines out there for not a lot more!!

I now have 2 new machines in mind a Mutoh and one I never considered at the time a roland!

I also have a vinyl small format (470mm wide) print cut from Roland that I bought from new.. yes I did break that to when I first had it but it was under warranty, the point being I do have faith in Roland as this was my second Roland brand printer.. Roland is top dollar though.

I ran the specs , price and roi through an ai engine and got some interesting results..

Crap.. my budget is now stretched to around 15k plus vat as these both come at around the same price, the difference being £500. But brand new!

I think I have made decision, there is one deciding factor and I have put wheels in motion to double check production output on one machine that may not be able to do what I want it to..

Will it be the Mutoh or the Roland!!

Another day and morning talking via WhatsApp to the Chinese supplier.Simultaneously I commented on a sponsored post on F...
04/12/2025

Another day and morning talking via WhatsApp to the Chinese supplier.
Simultaneously I commented on a sponsored post on Facebook from the same supplier only to notice that many people had commented asking for prices and that was a year ago..
The point of my conversation this morning was to ask how many of these types of machines have been shipped to the uk and if I can view one and get an independent review, After an hour it would appear none..

Digging down into branded machines my contact in the industry has been ever so helpful.

I have been given two machines to research and one in particular stands out.. if I’m honest both are at the top and a little bit of a stretch for my budget ( but not out of reach )..

I feel buying a branded machine second hand which normally retail new between 13 and 17k plus vat would be a safer bet than a Chinese one new for 5k

The quality used machine I am now looking at is 10k plus vat.
Even though it’s another 5k and it’s second hand / refurbished I feel it’s a going to be a safer bet.

Just look at one example of what I will be able to produce !

ok, so i have an engineer contact and i got my hopes up on a "branded" second hand machine that needed a new print head ...
03/12/2025

ok, so i have an engineer contact and i got my hopes up on a "branded" second hand machine that needed a new print head and we thought we could get it at a steal and fix it.. proabably still more than a chinese bought printer but it would have uk tech support and someone who knew the machine from new. The owners of the machine dont want to let it go for cheap and dont want to fix it.. madness, so i guess they have an expensive paperweight. The said machine has already been replaced, seems a bit unfair that they dont want to sell it.
The way i see it, the resale value of a broken machine a lot less than a working machine as we have to buy replacement parts. Currently the same model of this UV printer "NEW" is on sale as a new version is due to land next year making this broken machine potentially even cheaper in the second hand market.

A new printer of this type and brand that is due to be replaced is £12k Plus Vat and thats just out of my price range.

Today I contacted the Chinese vendor to ask if anyone has one of their machines in the Uk i can contact and ask for an independant review. So far i have found one of said machines that is currently on ebay for spares and repairs... not a good sign.

Here are the two examples of what I would like to achieve with a uv DTF printer.One being Stickers, (the green bottle) t...
01/12/2025

Here are the two examples of what I would like to achieve with a uv DTF printer.
One being Stickers, (the green bottle) the other being printed direct onto acrylic (the football shirts )

I can already make these using a different technique but a uv DTF printer streamlines the production times.

01/12/2025

Little update… the more I dig and research into this it’s becoming more and more obvious to me that buying a Chinese printer direct may be a massive mistake !!!

A financial mistake I can’t afford.

The machines look great I must admit, the lack of physically technical support by local engineers - non existent. I’m completely on my own other than potentially face time and what’s app messages. No local engineers would touch them.

I may be wrong as uk distributions of course are more interested in selling me their products, but are ultimately built in China!

They have done the hard work and set up reliable supply chains, training their local engineers to back up their products, this of course comes at a price. A pricey security blanket.

Luckily being in the trade for a number of years I have pulled some resources. This should enable me to make a more educated decision.

The hunt for a uv printer is not over before it’s begun but is evolving..

I really thought I could get one machine to do it all.. potentially I can, but the problems it causes simply are not worth it. Reliability is key.

I don’t believe as good as its sounds there is one machine to do it all… so let’s break it down.

Rather than all the bells and whistles, simply put, I would like to print “direct” onto various hard surfaces and create individual uv DTF stickers.

This I thought was simple enough, only to find out there are two different sorts of ink.. and typically they may not be compatible for both uses.

Ok back to drawing board for now.

Just look at this machine… !!

Ok, so where am I currently and why do I want a uv DTF printer. I have a premises in Snodland Kent which has a retail sh...
30/11/2025

Ok, so where am I currently and why do I want a uv DTF printer.
I have a premises in Snodland Kent which has a retail shop front and have x2 large format digital ecosol printers and a laminator.
Both printers are paired with a plotter and work together to make print cut stickers.

Not only will these machines print onto sticky back vinyl to create stickers they also can print onto other rolled products like paper (for posters) pvc (for banners) canvas (for wooden stretch frames) and PET (roller banners - pull up exhibition / advertising stands).. and that just the material I decide to use.

There is a lot more other types of material available but this is what I mainly like to use.

I also have a small 300mm x 400mm (bed size) co2 commercial grade laser cutter / engraver.. (not a desk top diode laser) this machine is designed to cut and engrave most materials apart from metal. It will how ever laser paint off metal surfaces. I mainly use it for laser cutting shapes and letters from acrylic or lasering etching (burning) names and designs into wood plaques.

In the rear room we have a full wood shop that has a wood planer / chopsaw / reciprocal saw l pillar drills / table router and dust extraction. This lets us take raw materials and finish them for lasering.

That’s a lot of stuff ! For one person.

So why the in DTF?

I’ll explain in the next post.

What is UV DTF printing. Uv DTF printing is a method for applying vibrant, durable designs to hard surfaces like glass, ...
29/11/2025

What is UV DTF printing.

Uv DTF printing is a method for applying vibrant, durable designs to hard surfaces like glass, metal, plastics and wood by printing onto a specialized film and then using an adhesive to transfer it without a heat press. The UV-curable inks are cured instantly by UV light, creating waterproof, scratch-resistant, and long-lasting transfers that are easy to apply with a simple peel-and-stick process.
uv DTF also had the ability to print direct onto such surfaces like plastics, acrylics, metal wood and much more!

Hi and thanks for joing me on my journey. My name is Ian Hobbs and have a small sign business, my experience spans 30 yr...
29/11/2025

Hi and thanks for joing me on my journey. My name is Ian Hobbs and have a small sign business, my experience spans 30 yrs in the signs and graphics industry.
I thought it would be be a good idea to share my experience!
I have £8000 to spend on a uv DTF printer.. how will it go? Any advice or comments welcome!
I have done a fair bit of research with more to go. Any likes and shares appreciated, let’s share my buying from China experience! Will it pan it out or will I end up with an expensive paper weight!

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8 Malling Road Snodland
Snodland
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