Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
I have a question for all you great people.
I am 3 days from ordering my 4800 dye sub setup and all the supplies needed $5500 worth.
I have been doing dye sub pressing for 3 years now. I have been selling dye sub and screenprinted shirts for 3 years now aswell.
I personally have never screen printed before, but it is one thing that I woudl love to eventually be doing in house.
I have $6000 to put towards equipment and I decided to put it towards dye sublimation since that is the easiest for me to do and Iknow pretty much how to do it. Plus all the cool products you can add on sales.
Alittle background on my business.....I do 99% sports teams, mostly mens softball teams. I am starting to do more for a couple of the schools here, they have no interest in dye sub shirts. I want to do more and more schools and local business.
Anyway...I found some great screenprinting equipment in the $4000 range. Everything needed to get going...plus extra money to go take a training class at Vastex or another one I saw in Pittsburgh.
So....basically what i'm asking....for those who have done both....what would be the best option for the highest profits/income.
I think i know the answer, but I wanted to hear other peoples opinions.
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
I am glad there are those that do screen printing...gives me a place to outsource as last result. I am never, ever going to pull a squeeze again. I am lazy and don't want to mess with exposing the screen, doing the registration, setting up the platen, rotating if more than one color, cleaning the screen, reclaiming the screen, getting rid of the waste material, doing an airing out of the work space, storing the ink, cleaning up the mess I usually make ...and all for a few shirts....nope...ain't gonna do it..will use plastisol, transfers, or dye sub, laser or inkjet...and on second thought...would not spend 5K plus for sublimation...that unit cannot do much more than my 1400 with bulk system that has yet to mess me up... but then....I only spent $1300
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
Do a forum search on "dye sublimation" and you'll find several good threads with all kinds of information on the subject.
Short form, it is a process in which an ink, or "dye" is pressed onto a shirt, becoming a gas which wraps around the fibers of the fabric. It can only be done on certain types of shirts (polyester). Hope this helps a bit.
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
hi steve! i also do a lot of dye sublimation and like charles, just don't want the mess and hassle of a screen print operation! there are just too many good ones out there (even locally for me which is a hoot - i live in the middle of nowhere!) and for most orders which are not suitable for sublimation or cut vinyl there is the magic of plastisol. all of the different processes have their niche - i like the flexibility of being able to provide what the customer needs rather than having to push the customer into the process i can produce! by now you know the capabilities and limitation of the dye sub process - it's a wonderful thing! - but i'm glad i have the flexibility to provide others as well without having to tie up time, space and resources for a screen print operation which i really don't want to do anyway! i've heard good things about the 4800 - if my elderly 3000 ever dies that's the next step. good luck whichever way you decide to go!
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Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
My understanding is that there is a product out now that allows you to use sublimation on organic fabrics, i.e. cotton tee shirts. What can anyone tell me about this process.
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
Quote:
Originally Posted by dmatsel
My understanding is that there is a product out now that allows you to use sublimation on organic fabrics, i.e. cotton tee shirts. What can anyone tell me about this process.
Epson makes inks that you can use on Cotton Tees. i'm not familiar with it though.
thanks for the replies everyone. I have ordred my 4880 setup. should be here next week.
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
dotti...the ultimate urban myth....in my opinion. I have tried various products that is supposed to do what you say...use sublimation on cotton...ain't gonna happen. What does happen is that by using sprays, or coated paper, you first lay down a polymer coating on a cotton or blend fabric and THEN you use a sublimated image on that area and press.. You do get a pretty good image but it is not part of the fabric as sublimation as the image is still ON TOP of the fabric not INTO the fabric and will not wash or wear as well...or so my experience has been. In any case it is a two step process. And you still limited to white/ash colors. and sublimation inks are very expensive...
If you want to put a transfer on cotton...you can use a laser printer and certain papers to do this cheaper and easier and probably have a better image. But again only for white/ash. If you want to do colors you will need to go with one of the opaque papers for either inkjet or laser or use plastisol transfer or sub out to a screen printer if you don't do that yourself
This is not to say others may not have had satisfactory experience...just that I have not found this to be a commercially viable option for me
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
I tried ATI Dye Sub Laser and it was far below my expectations and experience with Inkjet Dye Sub. I have a comparison of the two side by side somewhere.
Re: Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business
I have Dye sub and screen printing in house, but pretty much decided to throw away my dye-sub part. Not even going to try to sell the stuff off (probably about 8K in equipment and supplies) I will feel much better if I take it out back and shoot it (lol). Unless you have quite a bit of work to do with your sublimation equipment I do not recommend it, I have had 5 machines go down in a matter of 3 years, and know at least 4 companies who feel the same way (they seize up real easy if not using everyday, probably have 200+ hours in repairing). That is just my opinion (may be just a bad run of luck), but have not come across a happy sublimation user yet. I probably will still offer it but will sub out for my transfers from here out.
This is a discussion about Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business that was posted in the General T-Shirt Selling Discussion section of the forums.
Screen Printing Business or Dye Sublimation business 
