I did some research into Alps and discovered...................

...................they are still available in Japan but no longer imported here.  They are pretty expensive, unfortunately.

 http://www.alps-printer.com/

Peter

Where can the Ink Tapes be bought?

I have an Alps PRinter (MD-1000 model IIRC) and my ink tampe supply is running low!

Ken L

not quite accurate

The ALPS is not available "New" anywhere - in the case of the website suggested above, this intrepid group of ALPS techs has scavenged everything they can, and do have some new and like new ones. The original ALPS inks are still available but not likely for much longer.  The OKI version of the inks - spot red, green & blue - are long gone.

The ALPS printer is a finicky monster and cannot be trusted. But when they work properly, there is nothing like them.

ALPS groups

there are several alps groups in yahoo that can point you to suppliers.

I have not bought inks in years, so I am not sure who has stock anymore.

Here is one place: http://www.alps-supplies.com

Alps Color Dithering

Hi Bill,

Most of the color difficulties I've had were caused by Windows interpreting the colors used.

I produced quite a few "pepperoni" decals before I got it right.

I have an old PC running Windows 95 because it has the Alps drivers and gives the best results.

Kinkos, Officemax or Staples will copy a plain paper master on your decal film using their color laser copier for $1 per sheet.

It's amazing how many decals will fit on a single sheet of film.

For the record

I make full colour decals on a $75,000 laser 'copier' that blows what kinkos can do out of the water.

Btw, I am not looking for advice on making decals, just sharing a "moment of success" I enjoyed today, with a fickle old printer that does magic things when it's willing.

Cheers!

Do not take decal paper to Staples or Kinkos!

I know that the above statement is a gross generalization, but I have had absolutely no luck having the folks at the local Staples and Kinkos trying to copy onto anything other than the normal paper they stock. I went through an un reasonable amount of money to get blurred, smeared, printed on the wrong side and generally just unacceptable copies. (to say nothing of the cost of the decal paper itself)

I eventually gave up. A friend and I invested in the Pulsar pro FX Decalpro system, bought a colour laser printer and now we can make either water slide decals or dry transfers when ever we want. anything from true white on a dark background to full colour.

I have no idea what an ALPS printer is worth these days (if you can find one) but I'd wager a guess that our system is more economical.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Rick is Right

And not to mention that if your paper melts onto the fuser, Kinkos will hold you responsible for repairs since you brought your own paper.

I have to ask

When there was a printer that would print in white that was discontinued, why did someone not make a printer that would do that as well? There are lots of decals in use, and even more that are no longer being made that many of us would love to have. It would be so nice to have a printer that could print white decals as well as do the duties of the standard printer, copier fax etc all in one machines that we have now.

I know when it was time for a new printer or maybe before I would buy one. Imagine being able to do your decals at home. Maybe some font matching software, where an image could be scanned and the font duplicated, adding the rest of the numbers and letters. For those of us building our own cars or repainting and decaling used types it would be tremendously helpful.

I am fortunate at least three of the prototype roads I am looking for are readily available, but three more are not. For example it is very hard to find pre 1949 style decals for the Wheeling and Lake Erie. Akron Canton and Youngstown as well as Pittsburgh and West Virginia are not easy to find. Fortunately for me the Virginian, Baltimore and Ohio and Pennsylvania readily available thanks to micro scale and great decals. But even with the ones readily available it is sometimes tough to find data sets pre 1959.

I do miss champ decals.

The problem is...

The market for printing white on a small paper - is far too small.

The ALPS appeared to be developed as a desktop dye sublimation printer for t-shirt transfers - a much larger market and was also aimed at desktop photo proofing - in Dye Sub mode, there are no dots - no 'pepperoni' prints.

But the Dye Sub inks will not stick to decal film.

The real reason that ALPS was developed was to showcase the ribbon printing technology and sell it to other companies. Both Roland and Kodak licensed it and the technology is still used today in photo printing kiosks (dye sub) and some wide format printers from Roland (thermal wax transfer).

There are many printers available now that can print white inks, but only a few that can print on decal film and the cost of such printers start well over $5000 last time I checked. Most over $15000.

Basically the market is tiny.

The Pulsar pro FX Decalpro is neat, but it looks tedious.

If you can find somebody with an ALPS that can also do your artwork, you'll spend far less time and money in the long run having them make your decals in my opinion.

Regarding Champ: they had the best paper and the best decal set solution IMO. Richard bought his ALPS at the same time I did, and we often discussed how we could accomplish various things on the beast. The Champ rerun series was all made on ALPS printers.

Biil maybe you know.............

................I have a friend who used to work for Textronics before they were bought by someone and he used to sell a printer that used some kind of "color sticks" or colored wax slugs that looked like glue sticks for a hot glue gun.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  I think they called them hot wax printers.  I was out of MRing at that time so I never thought about if they had a white stick.  I'm guessing not as I have never heard of any printer associated with decals other than ALPS.

Curious.................

Peter

Tektronics

I first discovered the Tektronix line of printers before the ALPS. They did amazing continuous tone photos and colour. Sadly the technology was dye sublimation so again it would not stick to the decal paper.

Then there was the Fargo - it was a wax thermal, and did stick, but no white option - so that was a non-starter.

Then came the ALPS.

Later Tektronix developed solid resin toners for laser use and there are many lasers today that use this technology, but I have not found white for them.

Fluid based whites do not adhere to the decal paper. These are used in the t-shirt industry mostly also.

Thank you

Hi Bill I became a member and Thank You for the time and effort you put in to make these Ontario Northland Transport decals for me. Like you said you had been wanting these for years, me too! That is why I asked to have them done professionally.

Oki C711WT Color Laser Printer?

Bill, are you familiar with the Oki C711WT Color Laser Printer?  Open in new window

They claim that it will print with a white toner... no mention about decals though. It would appear that the vendor, Mountain Cow has exclusive rights to sell it here in the states... I can't find much info on it except on their site.

-Eric

C711WT

I looked at this printer when it first came out a few years ago.

Yes, it can print white. And should have no problem with Laser decal paper BUT it cannot print other colours in register on top of the white. If you want other colours over the white, they recommend at least a 3mm border white trapping border around the colour sections.

Conclusion: Fine for T-Shirts. Not so great for decals.

However, if printing single layer white decals for a starting cost of about $3500 is attractive to somebody, this printer is available, Including approved decal papers at http://www.themagictouchusa.com

Great discussion Bill

I think you have come up with the best solution to many decal issues when trying for white. I really appreciated the work you did for me. I think being able to have access to manufacturers such as yourself, allow us modelers to get the "one of a kind" decals and laser cut products. 

Thomas Gasior

I love it too buuuuuuut....

...now that I have installed Windows 7-64 I can't seem to find a driver that works with a USB port for my MD-1000 Alps Printer.  I don't want the hassle of installing the Windows XP simulator unless that is my only option left.  By any chance does anyone know (or if they have it could send it directly to me) a windows 7-64 bit driver for the alps MD-1000 printer that connects to the PC via a USB port? 

Thanks!

Ken L.

There is only...

There is only a win7 32bit driver. There is no 64bit support.

Win 7 in XP Mode doesn't seem to work

with the Alps printer either.  For some reason it won't detect it on the USB port.  I KNOW I used the USB port when i was using XP, so Plan C is to buy a larger power supply and add another drive (two drives actually in RAID O, or is it RAID 1, whichever is the mirrioring one, i always mix them up until it's time to set up and it tells me which one is which LOL) and install windows XP on it totally separate and boot from them on demand.  I just need to make sure windows 7 doesn't see them somehow, there has to be a way, there used to be at least many years ago because I did it.  Just need to make sure I use the older version of Word I have, thank goodness I keep my old Install CD's!!!!

Ken L

Refurbished XP computers can

Refurbished XP computers can be had really cheap on e-bay.

Bought one for about $60 bucks to run my XP stuff.

Harold

xp mode

nope, win7 XPmode will not work if it's sitting on a 64bit win7 install.

But XPmode will print to an alps that is shared on the network from another xp computer.

no, printing from win764 to the xp share also does not work.

Although I do have an XP machine....

...in the house, it's not here at my workdesk, and I already have two printers hooked up to that machine, and there isn't room to put a third, and the ALPS fits on my desk nicely, versus the two other laser printers that wouldn't fit here. 

Thanks for the info tho.  It's good to know that once I get the XP working on my machine, I'll be good to go.

I needed to buy a bigger PS anyways for this machine.  It was reaching it's limit with the 8 HD, 1 SDD, 1 DVD, video, MB, etc. I can use the old PS on a different machine.

Ken L.

I keep reading the subject line wrong

Nice, Alf not Alps, lets see

Nice, Alf not Alps, lets see if someone makes a ALF printer (in photoshop) instead of ALPs