Generally no, you're looking for a piezo inkjet printhead (market cornered by Epson), that's why the majority of professional graphics printers (solvent, UV, sublimation, DTG, etc.) have insanely expensive printheads, because Epson is really stingy with selling them now that they're making their own lines.  You want at least a 6-color Epson wide format printer - one of the most popular to convert is the 4800, most of the name brand DTGs and the new UV flatbeds are based on it.  Check out this forum: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/diy-dtg/  The sticky "license to thrill" with almost 4800 posts is where it all started....  

I have a DTG Brand HM1 Kiosk w/white ink (the one where the whole printer moves on the y-axis above the platen).  It's based on the Epson R2400 and built like a tank, better than the newer DTG models or any of the other brands.  You can find them in the TSF classifieds and eBay often for $3000 or less and you can find used 2400's on eBay pretty cheap ($100-ish) to keep around for replacement parts.  (I bought mine from a classified ad in Houston a few years ago for $3500 with basically an entire business setup - a Hotronix auto-clam, pretreat station, supplies, extra parts, and 100's of shirts.)  The only major issues are if the board goes out (custom flashed) and that it requires chips for the ink counts - if for some reason they stop making the chips, I'm toast.  

Wherever you are, look to see if there's an ISS (ISSShows.com) or NBM (theNBMShow.com) show nearby that you can attend.  (EDIT: I see you're in Texas - ISS is at the end of October in Ft. Worth, and NBM is in the middle of March in Arlington.  Don't bother with the ASI show, it's crap, nor with PPIA.) You can see DTGs in action, and many of the vendors will give you a good deal of useful information (whether they realize it or not) to build your own.  If Brian Walker (long-lost relation hopefully?) from ImageArmour is there, go talk to him, he's a hell of a maker and a great guy - tell him Mandy told you to about him and he'll tell you everything you want to know, as long as it's not about copying one of his pretreat machines or formulas. :-)  Other maker-minded industry contacts: Peter @ All American (beer is on him, always); Craig and Lucas @ Digital Art Solutions;  there are a couple of guys from GSG in San Antonio/Houston, Mesa Distributors in Ft. Worth has an awesome tech that often helps with any DTG printer; and I just can't think of everyone right now...most of the others are outside of the DTG realm.  PM me and I can see if I can get you a free pass to the shows; plus I know a lot about these machines now - I have a Roland solvent printer, a Ricoh sublimation printer, two vinyl cutters, the DTG (which I refurbished), a 9060 chinese laser cutter (also refurbished myself), and self-built 3D printers and CNC machines.  (These things live at my house, I have a completely unrelated full-time job.)  You can come to my next garage sale, I'm about 5 hours from you. :-)

Three rules if you want to have a machine for more than just hacking/fun: don't buy new (unless you really need hand-holding/warranty/tech support, I'm assuming you don't since you're here), stick to a maintenance routine religiously, and you have to buy and LEARN CorelDraw (<-- most common failure I see, not learning the software).  You need the CorelDraw green box (X5 or greater); last I recall, the home and student edition (orange box) didn't allow macros.  I love GIMP, but very few people can provide any support on it (related to this particular application); when I started in 2008, most of them had no idea what GIMP was, and they still don't.  CorelDraw is the apparel decoration industry standard, whereas Adobe Illustrator is the print graphics standard.

If you ever get to Austin, Danny at the ATX Hackerspace (ATXHackerspace.org) is brilliant with laser cutters, CNC machines, and printers.  I met a couple of guys at 10BitWorks (10bitworks.com) that were great with 3D printers and CNC machines; someone there could definitely help you build a DIY DTG.  (I'm pretty sure they also have a laser cutter now!)

Have fun!

I would really like to talk with you!  You have so much knowledge and I need it!  Please contact me.  willa_katyk_walker@yahoo

I live in San Antonio