which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
Go to Page...
Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
Hi
I realise you get a lot of this sort of thing and I appreciate your patience.
I've been reading the forums for a couple of weeks now and i've found a lot of very useful information and I wanted to avoid starting a new thread of my own but I'm still a bit confused.
Basically- I'm in the UK and I want to start up a very small business but I've only got about £600-800 max to spend.
What I've worked out that means for me is I'll have to buy a cheap Heat Press from ebay (or possibly a decent used one) and stick to Transfer paper T-shirts to begin with as I won't have the money for Vinyl cutters/plotters etc. I think all I'll need is a Press, a standard printer, and some transfer paper? No special inks or other machinery- have I got this correct?
My plan is to have political quotes on t-shirts, as I know the student market very well as well as a lot of socialist/commnity groups- basic tshirts with quotes on them, (but I would eventually like to get into more elaborate designs).
I believe this is pretty easy to get black text on a white shirt using transfer paper, but I'm still not sure how to get white text on a black t-shirt- will I have to cut around each individual letter (bearing in mind I expect the quotes to be fairly small font)? Is there a better (but still cheap way) I should think about?
So, I'd just like some opinions on my plan, what you would do given my small budget, and the best way to go about printing quite small text.
Firstly welcome to the forum and good luck with your new venture.
If you are looking at putting phrases on t-shirts I don't think transfer papers are the way to go, they are not really retail quality for a start and as you have said you would need to cut out words if you wanted white (or any colour for that matter where you didn't want a 'box' around the design). They don't look good hand cut, no matter how good you are at cutting.
The most important thing is the press if you want professional results that last, you can buy cheap ones but don't expect too much and prepare for problems, or you could rent a decent one. I would get the best press I could afford and not get the printer/papers.
If you want letters cut from the various garment vinyls then you can make contact with someone who will cut and supply to you. This would get better results and still mean you control your stock, i.e get 20 slogans cut and apply them to whatever garment/bag you want when you want it. Vinyl will outlast the t-shirt and never fades. Have a look at xpres, themagictouch or victorydesign for vinyl examples.
You can also rent cutters, which if your t-shirts took off then you could go that route.
__________________
trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
Hi Progeny, Thanks for your help.
I know its best to get a good heat press but from what I can tell, a good new one in the UK costs £900+, and even second hand ones are going for £500+ on ebay. Which would be a lot for me, and I've been told the cheaper ones aren't all that bad for beginners?
So who could make my designs for me? I checked those sites but no real production service I can see?
And what sort of Price would I be looking at?
How does the vinyl process work if somebody else produces it for me- Do I then just peel the background off the sheet or is there more cutting involved?
I don't think renting would be an option for me- Any work on this would be in my spare time, when and If I could do it, and renting would mean I'd be committed to using the machinery at a particular time.
Thanks for your help again. Any other offers of advice?
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
The sites I mentioned are suppliers of vinyl and presses, they don't cut for you, I was just pointing out the different types of vinyl you can get.
The price of cut vinyl depends on how big or complex the design is. It also depends on the colour/type of vinyl. If I was to cut some vinyl for you I would weed it first and send it too you on it's backing sheet, you would place the vinyl on the garment (not removing it from the backing) and press then peel off the backing, press again and done. No further cutting, no further anything. It could be sent un-weeded if you preferred which means you would have to take off all the excess vinyl, it's not hard it just takes time, that way it would be cheaper.
If you look on themagictouch website they have videos of it being done, also Josh Ellsworth from Imprintables on this forum, look over to the left or search for his posts, has videos on here of heat pressing.
You can go for a cheap press, I started with one and I was lucky it was a workhorse but others have had problems. I think I got mine for £200.
PM me if you need any further
Lee
__________________
trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
If you have more time than money, why not just look into screen printing further. It's inexpensive if you want it to be. total control over design too.
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
BUT you have high set up costs and need to print quite a few of one design to make it worth while. Each design has a set up cost before you even pay for shirts and ink, with vinyl you make as many as you want when you want.
__________________
trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
Yeah, I don't think Screen printing is for me.
So Progeny, Do you know of any places in the UK who do offer the vinyl cutting service? (Do you? )
Lets say for example I wanted 100 pieces (20 x 5 different desings) with each design being simple quotes about 1inch by 10inch (or maybe 2inch by 10inch if its a couple of lines)- What kind of prices am I looking at for the simplest type of vinyl - (white and it comes already weeded)?
How about an A4 sheet or A3 sheet?
I've been reading about Plastisol, it seems a lot of people get other people to cut plastisol designs- Does that have the same problems as a regular heat transfer? (with regards to white on black t-shirts, quality etc?). And is it more or less expensive than vinyl?
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
Plastisol is an ink used in screenprinting, it can also be used to make plastisol transfers. Garment vinyl is the material used on a vinyl cutter. There is a material called easycut (amongst other things) from Xpres which is basically screen printing ink that's on a sheet that can be cut using a cutter. Vinyl will be fine for your application.
The amount of designs does not really matter in your case if they are all words/slogans. There are no set up costs with vinyl.
PM'd you with details.
__________________
trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
We started with a heat press and quickly found that using thermoflex and a cutter was very costly and labor intensive. We bought an entry level screenprinting system and it paid for itself very fast.
Re: which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans
Not sure, the answer to your second question is,
Foison C24 is the model, I've had a look and there aren't any about at the moment by the looks of it. I got mine off Ebay from Signwizard, if you look at their site it looks like they are out of stock. They sell them for about £400.
__________________
trying to help, sometimes i don't!
This is a discussion about which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans that was posted in the Heat Press and Heat Transfers section of the forums.
which heat transfer equipment for my budget? Want to make t-shirts with slogans 
)
