Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Hi,
New member here. I have a question that is the flip side of one I read below. I have a couple of transfers printed on Avery computer transfer paper (81/2X11) that I need to do a final approval on. If I like them then I and the maker of these will be able to do business. They are both printed on the Avery light garment trans. paper but one has an added layer of ink behind the image to make it possible to do that one on dark garments. Any way the instructions for printing are for a household iron and I need to be able to use my heat press. I have a manual HIX press and have never done anything but transfers designed for presses. The instructions say to use the highest cotton setting on the iron, 3 minute press time using 20 second sweeps across and up and down with heavy pressure, peel cold. Now how would I convert those instructions to the correct temperature, pressure and press time for a heat press?
I have never done a cold peel either and from what I have seen it can ruin easily if you dont peel it at the right moment. Too soon and it screws up and wait too long and it screws up.
Any advise or guidance in this matter is greatly appreciated.
I am not familiar with the Avery transfer paper, but I have used many different brands and they all seem to be pretty close in operation.
If it were me (my opinion) I would press it at 350 degres for 15 sec at high pressure (you have to push down lard on the press to close it) then let it sit and cool then peel slowly. I have always found that when working in the imprinting business that you have to experiment a little to find the right combination of time/temp & pressure to get the best results..
Thanks Dave. We were thinking about 350 and very firm pressure. Didnt have a clue to the press time though. We press about 7 different companies transfers and the one thing they are pretty much all the same about is the pressure. The seconds range from 6-8 for X-it to 12 or more for some of the Impulse art. Temps usually stay within the 350 to 400 range for the heat press transfers we use.
I've used the Avery transfer paper, before I bought my heat press. It was the only transfer paper I had available to test the heat press as well; we did pretty normal settings: average pressure, 375 degrees, 15 seconds. As for the cold peel, simply wait until the transfer is cool to the touch (normal tempreture instead of hot) which should be about 10 minutes or so.
I would highly suggest you order some good transfer paper designed for heat presses, and try to have everyone you're working with use that. The most popular brand out there is the Transjet II (a.k.a. MagicJet) paper, which isn't any more expensive (in fact, probably cheaper, especially in bulk) than the Avery paper is. You can get it at http://personalizedsupplies.com/transferpaper.htm and a few other places.
from the iron to the press 
Re: from the iron to the press 
