Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I'm trying to get started in the t-shirt biz and have a few questions. I am looking for a budget heat press and have found sizes 11x15", 12x14" and 9x12". My question is, some of the transfers that I want to use are 12x13", would I have to have a press as big or bigger than that, or can I use a smaller press (maybe 9x12") and just press the part that didn't fit the first time by itself the second time? The main reason I am asking is because of the price differences for the presses and the fact that only a few of the transfers I will be using are actually bigger than the smaller press.
Does anyone have or know of anything selling a heat press?
Would an Epson C86 printer be good to do transfer printing with?
You'll want to press the paper all at once, and you should have at least a half inch margin between the paper and the edge of the press.
If you want a cheaper heat press, look for a used one. Call up local companies (Phone book -- under 't-shirt' and 'screen printing') and ask around to see if you can find a used press for sale. You might also check thrift stores, pawn shops, etc. If you find one, you can get it for about 1/3-1/4 of the price of a new one... and finding a local one means you don't have to pay shipping and you can physically look at the press before you buy it. (This is how I found mine, from a screen printer who stopped doing heat transfer over a year ago.) Even if you're only pressing some 8.5x11 prints (that's all I'm doing right now), a larger press can be very nice just because it's a lot easier to center the shirt on a larger press.
Epsons printers are generally best for heat transfer work, though I'm not very familiar with specific models. You'll want some variety of pigmented ink, such as the OEM Durabrite inks or the Magic Mix inks.
I am thinking about getting the Jetpress 12x14" for about $450 shipped. Does that sound like a good deal? Would it be big enough for the occasional 12x13" print? I tried calling some of the local printers, with no luck. None of them even knew anywhere local to purchase one new. Besides ebay, are there any other places to buy a used press online?
I imagine that'd be about 1/2 the price of a new one; assuming it's used you should be able to go a bit lower than that. I'd finish calling all the local places too; just because some don't have one doesn't mean the next one on the list won't have a press that's been collecting dust for the past year.
Actually that is the price of a brand new one shipped to my door with a warranty. I checked several places online and most seem to be just a little higher than what I quoted and it was usually with their shipping prices. I will try to call a few more places tomorrow and see if I can find anything.
Oh? Cheaper for those than I thought, though it may be a lesser brand (then again, I haven't really heard anything bad about any brand of heat press except Geo Knight). Obviously it's not a definately you'll find a used one, but you might just luck out and find someone who really wants to get rid of it, thus giving you a great deal.
Signsupplystore.com is where I was looking at them at. They are actually $429 and $37.95 shipping, so a total of $466.95 actually. They sell them on ebay at that price and they are a good company. I buy alot of my vinyl from them for my vinyl cutting business that I do. Their ebay name is signsupplystore, check them out.
The JetPress is a very good press to start off with, I still have one and have used it for many years now. If you are doing heat transfers you'll want to press the sheet in one go. If you were dye subbing it wouldn't matter. You can press very wide areas i.e. a large signage in several press attempts. The JetPress has come down heaps over the years in price and now has displays on them, they never used to. It's a very good buy indeed. I'm tempted to buy another. It's a Geo Knight and I've never had one problem with it at all, and it gets a lot of use!
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At the time, a bunch of us at signs101.com got together to get 12 heat presses at the same time so we could get the distributer price. We are getting the 15x15" digital Heat Master press for $365 plus shipping. I don't know if you can still get the same price or not, but perhaps if there were 12 people here on this forum that would buy one, you could still get a good deal.
Heat press selection 
