Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Hello to all,
I just joines the forum and I am happy to be here. There is one question that I have regarding my heat press and a problem I am having with it.
I have been applying proworldinc.com transfers. They recommend that the shirt is pre pressed wiht the machine for about 6 seconds using just the weight of the platen.
My problem is that I keep getting a square press mark on the t-shirt where the heat plate touches the shirt. I have a 15x15 press and the silicone pad is the same size. When it is pressed I get a square the size of the plate pressed onto the shirt.
It eventually does come out with a few washing but why is this happening?
I lowered the heat to 250 degrees and I still get this press mark.
Would a teflon sheet keep this from happening?
I get like an outline pressed intothe shirt from the press.
Has this happened to anyone else or is this common?
Maybe your pressure setting is too high? 250 degrees is probably way too low to actually press anything, though I don't know what those ready-made transfers call for.
Thanks for the reply. Here is what happens. I lowered the temp. to 250 and I use the just the weight of the iron to do a pre press and it still gets that press mark of the heat plate on the shirt.
I tried the 250 just to see if it was the temp or not. I get the press mark whether there is pressure or not and at temps of 250 to 385 or higher.
I can't figure why this is happening. No one else I know of has this problem.
In conclusion, If I set the temp at anywhere from 250 or higher and press a shirt at 2 pounds of pressure or more for 6 seconds I get this heat mark and no one seems to know why.
any help or ideas would be great.
I have also tried Jerzee shirts hanes and fruit of the loom 50/50 and 100% cotton and it was on all shirts
Is it an actual mark? Perhaps the edges of your heat press need to be cleaned?
You might try dropping the question over at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Heat_T...sktop_Printers too, there's a ton of people doing heat press work and someone may have encountered that problem as well. (You'll probably want to mention what type of heat press you have over there as well)
It is kind of hard to explain but the heat plate and silicone pad seem to press a crease or an outline on the shirt that is hard to get out.
When the press is opened there is a pressed line or crease so to speak in the shape of the heat plate.
I wouldn't care about it but it is tough to get out.
It is a used press made but the National Screen Printing Company which is no longer in biz. I was thinking of just selling it and getting a nice new one. That way I can call the company if anything goes wrong.
Thanks for any help you have given.
PS>>>Is there anyway to test how much pressure is being applied? The press won't accept anything bigger than 1/4 inch. Thanks for any help
We have this problem too. The reason the square is appearing there is because when you press it for the first 6 seconds this is to take ALL the moisture out for the transfer to set well. Thus the square gets there because there is no humitity on that part of the shirt because you steamed it all out. I find this to be specially bad on reds.
It is the pressure as I get it also. Sometime you think you need more pressure but you do not. Like Cassidy stated it may be the preheat also. I never thought of that. Try a sheet of parchement paper on the preheat and see if that makes a difference. The idea is to make it hot. Even lowering you top to just above the area may do this also. The heat will radiate down to the fabric. test , test , test. I have a bunch of test shirts.
You could always try preheating the print area with an iron or something. Maybe they want you to prepress it so all the wrinkles are gone. Does the square show up even if you dont do the prepress?
The square image is created when your press takes the moisture out of the applied area. You shouldn't see that square image after a couple of hours. I suppose this is happening on dark garments? I wouldn't worry about it. Just let it sit a while in room temperature.
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Heat press trouble 
