Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
They can in that they certainly have the equipment to do it. But most do not bother. 1, it does take a little more effort. And 2, making transfers means you are not making the additional income that comes with also supplying the shirt for printing.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Yeah, any printer in theory can do it, it's whether they want to.
It's the same process as printing a t-shirt, except you're printing on a special paper and instead of fully curing it, you partially cure it so that it's dry to the touch (and can be stacked for transport) and heat transferred onto a shirt later.
Schools do it a lot so that students can come in, pick from a handful of designs and then pick the type (and color) shirt they want. I've done it before. The profit isn't as much as standard printing (as mentioned above) but if you can sell them the shirts AND the transfers then it's usually a pretty good deal if the volumes right.
If they have their own supply for shirts, it's probably not worth the time, but that's your call.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Hello,
I am not intersted in making them myself but am interested in possibly finding a person or two that can make them for me on the side. with the larger companies, overhead is such a big factor in their pricing. I live close to Transfer Express and have been in their building. They are a real class act to say the least with I believe over 150 employees. That is some serious overhead,
Can a guy in his home operation get good results while keeping the costs down.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Thanks, I do not screen print but do alot of promo shirts. I am looking for a screen person who has the time to moonlite for us. Is this even on the right track.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
You don't have to resort to the moonlighting home operation to get reasonable transfers. With dowling, for example, you can get 25 1 color transfers done for $31. Prices go down from there in volume.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
How about artwork, setup and freight. One thing with my niche is i have alot of art changes. an order of 500 pcs may have 20 different company sponsors. what is average for artwork charges. I encounter the same doing mini fballs but we laser our pad printing plates in-house so it isn't an issue there.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Quote:
Originally Posted by leadergrafx
How about artwork, setup and freight. One thing with my niche is i have alot of art changes. an order of 500 pcs may have 20 different company sponsors. what is average for artwork charges. I encounter the same doing mini fballs but we laser our pad printing plates in-house so it isn't an issue there.
Whether you screen print or use transfers, you are going to have a lot of screen charges if you need 20 different designs.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Seems like DTG still has some development coming, as with anything else, how about image-clip. I have had a dificult time getting image clip to respond to my efforts but the samples I picked up in Atlanta transfered awesome. I have a Samsung laser and it goes through good but I am wondering if that prodoct was developed to get top performance with the OKI. Any experience with this.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
jus a few questions. i know i need transfer paper for the inks but do i need special inks? or can i jus use any fabric screenprinting ink and have it done?
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Tip for saving on Setup.
Depending on your design...
If you can cluster some of your sponsors onto a single page (or less pages than you would if you did them separately), then cut them apart yourself. You will save on setup fees and costs, but you will be increasing your labour.
Also, remember some transfer folks have larger sheets for their transfers than the shirt area you are using. So throw extra pieces of art into that space.
__________________ Equipment: GX24, 15 x15 heat press, Corel 12 Useful Info: 2 years Epson tech support - Mac & PC
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
Do some companies have larger base sheets to group artwork on. another quick questions - what is the average size of a the average size of a print for the back of a shirt and can you group when you are doing large prints. Who is the best to use.
Re: Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers
I keep my art within 8.5 x 8.5 most of the time, but will expand to 10 x 10 if needed.
My screener does sheets up to 13x22 I think. I could be wrong on that, but I know it was much larger than the space I need.
You will need to talk to your local suppliers to find out what is available in your area. Only then will you know how you can layout your design.
And whoever you go with... get proper heat & time settings from them. I did some work for someone else and they didn't do that. Well, their guess work sucked and the shirts turned out like crap. Ask the questions and plan for a couple test runs just to be sure. Remember you can cut your test sheets smaller if all you are testing is settings.
__________________ Equipment: GX24, 15 x15 heat press, Corel 12 Useful Info: 2 years Epson tech support - Mac & PC
This is a discussion about Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers that was posted in the Heat Press and Heat Transfers section of the forums.
Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers 
