Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I am just starting out making inkjet heat transfer T shirts. Here’s my story, feel free to LOL. I have some designs that I’m donating to a fundraising project. We made a gallery with an online vanity press site but of course that brings in very little $$ so I decided to try to make T shirts myself. I started out with Avery 8.5 X 11 transfers for light color shirts, 100% cotton and my iron. I have made about 30 shirts so far. My arm is sore. Because they are so plastic-feeling I figured I should try washing a few – you see where this is going, right? The transfer is still sticking well, not peeling but is cracking badly. So I ordered a Stahl Mighty-Lite on ebay and I’m hoping it arrives well before my deadline. Also ordered some TransJet II papers and a teflon sheet. My current question – can I repress the ironed-on shirts with the heat press and fix them? I tried ironing over a washed shirt and the transfer smoothes out again so I have hope. Suggestions for temperature and pressure on the re-do’s? Any advice appreciated.
You sure they were for lights. You did the right thing on the Transjet ll paper, I use a softer feel paper than that, Iron all/miracool. There is not plastic feel from any of the above papers unless it was opaque. No you can not put another tranfer over the old one.. You want the shirts to look great you need to start over. I have a video that you can see in how to do the transfer just click on my sig below. temp. at 375 pre pres 3 to 5 second and pressure med to hard.. YOU MUST PRE-PRESS!!!!
Thanks for your speedy response and the encouragement.
I don't want to put a new transfer over the old one. I just want to use a teflon sheet over the existing ironed-on transfer and use the heat press to try to improve the quality. I have hopes. Or delusions - I'll let you know.
The Avery transfers aren't too bad from my experience; I used them when I was just making a few shirts for myself only a long while back. Certainly didn't feel especially thick, though the hand was a bit higher than you'll get with Transjet II. How much pressure did you use when applying them? Did you press down heavily with both hands, or just use it like a normal ironing job with one hand?
As far as re-pressing the shirts goes, I don't think it will probably help much. However, it also shouldn't hurt anything, so you can try it on a few (and yes, make sure you don't forget the teflon sheet) and see if it helps anything. With other types of transfers (e.g. Plastisol transfers) it can actually hurt to re-press them, but regular heat transfers should be fine to try it anyway. The instructons that came with the Avery paper might recommend a temperature already - if not, maybe 350-375 degrees or so for 10+ seconds (hard to say for sure since I've not used the Avery paper on a press & it is a re-press).
To sum up - go ahead and give it a try, but it might not help that much.
Hey Twinge,
Thanks for the tips. I'm not as worried about the "hand" because the stiffness improves with washing. It's the cracking in the first wash that really set me back. I'm sure I didn't use enuf pressure - 1 hand - so I'm hoping the heat press will drive the design into the fabric. I'll let you know...
The mighty press lite you ordered...hope its not from those folks in Lacy Louisiana. They dont stock the press...just take orders and have them drop shipped from the Stahls factory. Process takes about 6 weeks for some strange reason...price is good but thier communication is fairly weak.
fix for shabby iron-ons? 
