There are other aleternatives though. I have found great resources in the US anyway for polyester apparel. River's End is one of them.
So your not limited to those few mentioned.
And look for Repreve too, it's recycled polyester..and I bought a shirt the other day at walmart of all places and it wears great!
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Carl T. - www.ekkographics.com "An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one." - Charles Horton Cooley
Where did the information that Hanes has stopped making the soft'ink shirts come from? This sure would put a damper on their t-shirt sales as well as have a negative effect on their sublimation software. My supplier seems to be unaware of this situation.
I have read a bit and still need clarification.
I have a press that is able to do the mugs, plates, etc. I would like to do these but I do ot want to invest in making my own sheets just yet so, My question is ...
If you buy the sheets for sublimation, is there other chemicals or supplies I would need to print these correctly?
thx!
I am going to shop around to see if a replacement is available for the Hanes sublimation tee shirt. That may mean a plain polyester tee without the 'sublimation tag' attached to it. It may not have the anti wicking feature, but when compared to an ordinary Gildan cotton tee, sublimation tees are typically two to three times the cost.
I use the Chromablast ink and paper also from sawgrass which allows for sublimation on 100% cotton shirts. Paper and ink are a little higher but when you look at what you save on shirts well worth the while.
__________________ Daniel Slatkin, SBE Multi-Media, LLC Print On demand Fulfillment with free web store included. You Design Apparel T-shirts Hats and more.
Thanks for that Dan. Seems the Chromablast inks are even more expensive than the sublimation inks though. £280 ($560) for a set of 4 55ml inks, is rather expensive.
More worrying though, is that the supplier states in their literature "the overprint area does physically transfer, but washes away after one wash". I wouldn't feel comfortable in supplying a shirt that the customers had to wash before they could wear it. Washing them myself, would be far too much hassle to even contemplate.
I have fortunately now found a European supplier of sublimation shirts, similar to Hanes in both price and style.
Sublimation creates some stunning imagery in vivid colours, but lower priced garments would make it more competitive with cotton tees.
I plotter cut all the designs to eliminate the overprint area. This should easily take care of any 'haze' surrounding the image.
__________________ Daniel Slatkin, SBE Multi-Media, LLC Print On demand Fulfillment with free web store included. You Design Apparel T-shirts Hats and more.
Hi. I am able to use my sublimation equipment for more than just tee shirts, in the same way that I use my vinyl cutter for more than just garments.
The Chromablast concept is good in principle, but I have found too many posts on here, that have been critical of the system. Clogging appears to be a common problem.
I use a 4880 Hybrid sublimation/Chromablast printer I have had no problems thus far and have printed about 800 shirts so far with this system. I work in a nice climate controlled shop with a constant temp and humidity this might have something to do with it. I also always pay for overnight shipping on things like ink, dye, pigment etc.. This is a lesson I learned when I was Airbrushing for a living. When paint, dye, ink, pigment etc... freeze and or are cooked due to to much heat this causes the pigments to clump into bigger masses which in turn plugs heads and lines leading to plugging cleaning etc... UPs FED EX ETC.. ship in non climate controlled Vehicles so the damage that is done to your heat/cold sensitive items can be severe depending on time in transit.
__________________ Daniel Slatkin, SBE Multi-Media, LLC Print On demand Fulfillment with free web store included. You Design Apparel T-shirts Hats and more.
Chromablast is certainlysomething to consider where the price of sublimation shirts becomes an issue. Biggest downside for me though, is that like sublimation, it is still limited to white, or pastel shirts. If Mr Sawgrass was to come up with something that worked with darks, I'd buy it tomorrow.
__________________ Daniel Slatkin, SBE Multi-Media, LLC Print On demand Fulfillment with free web store included. You Design Apparel T-shirts Hats and more.
Re: Sublimation 
Daniel Slatkin, 
