Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
hello everyone! let me first say that this site is amazing and i will be adding more posts in the future. lemme tell you that i am very new to this site and the industry but very eager to learn. so heres my story... i have an epson 1400 using the stock claria inks, a sunie 16x24 press with two teflon sheets, and jpss paper with the intentions to make my own shirts obviously. is there any other supplies anyone would recommend or corrections to my set up. also should i invest in a vinyl cutter, i have noticed them being discussed in these forums alot, my initial plan was just to use an x-acto blade and a cutting board. if anyone could help guide me in the right direction before i make my first t shirt i would really appreciate it. oh and i have been doing the designs on windows vista version of photoshop cs4 if that means anything. thank you again
Sounds good, the only thing I would consider if I was you, and this depends on your ink usage, is to look at re-fill carts or bulk ink systems to save $$ on ink expenses. If you print low volume, you'll be okay for now, but re-fill carts are relatively easy to afford and save alot of money over OEM carts (Epson carts). I am going to go to inkjetcarts.us, but there are certainly other ink suppliers out there, like shopdyesub.com and inkjetfly.com. I hear great things about all 3 of these suppliers.
I would get a Magic Eraser to keep the teflon sheets between pressing, to eliminate ghosting from leftover ink on the teflon sheet.
As far as cutters, if you want to use one to cut transfer paper, you'll need one that does contour cutting, like the Laser Point by UScutter, or the Graphtec CE5000, or the Roland gx24. They are listed in price order in that sentence, start with the least expensive.
here's a list of a few other items that I have on hand
scissors, Large and small
x-acto blade, (chip board - for cutting on - easy throw away)
parchment paper,
mouse pad (x-large down to mini - to insert inside of the shirts or raise up smaller size shirt - to get an even press area)
several sizes of Teflon sheets,
hand towels
EZ-OFF Hot Iron Cleaner.
2 rulers,
trash can
radio. . . humming to one's self don't always get it . . . *LOL*~
lint rollers (large and small)
T-shirt bags (several sizes), if you plan to package your shirts
fabric pens
easy tote/folding table for your --
flip and fold - for folding the shirts (tiz easy for me than the 3 second fold)
I have both the child size and the adult size . . . I don't use the child size . .
mouse pads, mini mouse pads, round mouse pads, tote bags,
shirts, white is my main stock, . . however I do keep , natural (lite tan), lite blue, pale pink, yellow, ash gray on hand
when I have single orders of 10 or more . . I order those shirts separately
lots and lots of lighting -- gotta have good lighting . .
and if I can think of anything else . . . I will edit this list and add to it
Happy Pressing
Diane
;o}
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Get some pigment inks so you don't end up with bleeding issues. I have been using inkjetfly.com's ink with good success on JPSS printed with my 1400. Contact Leo there and he'll help you with getting the proper inks for heat transfers. I use the refillable carts over the CIS mainly because I don't do a lot of inkjet stuff and its easy to care for.
Get a good cutter when you get one. You'll want to be able to contour cut at some point. The Graphtec has been well worth the money for me. The craft robo pro would be the cheapest Graphtec that I could recommend at $900, but its only 15" and bumping up to the 24" could be worth it in the long run.
I have tried some cheaper cutters first and they can be made to work for most things, but they take a lot of patience and have a learning curve. The problem with the cheaper cutters is their lack of an optical eye to contour cut with and at least for me the reliability of their performance. I waisted a bunch of vinyl learning that I just needed to upgrade to a Graphtec. Since then I'm a happy camper.
I thought everything was going ok with the Claria. I did some wash tests and everything looked ok, but on my first JPSS order I had a customer bring some shirts back because the red & black were bleeding. That was pretty much it for me as I was used to plastisol and vinyl quality and bleeding just isn't something I'm willing to take a risk on.
Since then I've switched to pigments and have been happy with them.
can u attach a link to the appropriate refillable carts and inks for me coz i looked them over and it all seems foreign to me and i dont wanna buy the wrong kind. also i did my first shirt today wit the claria inks and jpss... first attempt, didnt peel soon enough, left it faded and peely (at least i believe that was the problem).... second attepmt ... couldnt be happier with the turnout, although i havent washed yet. i dont doubt your expertise on the claria inks i was just too excited to have to wait for the pigment inks. thanks for the help so far and please help me figure out what to git as far as tho inks and carts are concerned. oh and another thing, do you use the teflon sheet with your jpss or parchment paper, or do u jus press as is? thanks again.
1) I've used the Claria inks for about a year and a half now and have only had 1 complaint about bleeding. I sent them another product and they had the same results with bleeding - so the majority of consumers should have no problems with the Claria inks - so you can sleep a little easier until you get some pigment ink. They're pricy though - I think my 6 color epson ink cartridges are $15-18 each in the retail store. Lot of money for such a little amount of ink.
2) I use a teflon sheet for everything. I don't like the idea of a heated surface coming in direct contact with a garment and I feel the teflon sheet keeps the garment 'cleaner' if nothing else. You don't have to use either (teflon or kraft paper) with the JPSS and you'll still get the same results, but I do use them. I also recommend giving the shirt or onesie a little tug around the design while it's still warm. Stretch the design just a little to help with the hand.
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"It's difficult to heat press straight when you're hungover"
what settings do you use on your 1400 with the jpss coz ive tried different paper settings and ive tried photo quality and text with image quality and the photo one comes out the most vibrant but it doesnt hold well becoz i think theres too much ink on the page. any suggestions? also is there diffent kinds of jpss coz i watched some videos on it and they had blue grids on thiers and mine came with jus a black line on the back.
can u attach a link to the appropriate refillable carts and inks for me coz i looked them over and it all seems foreign to me and i dont wanna buy the wrong kind. also i did my first shirt today wit the claria inks and jpss... first attempt, didnt peel soon enough, left it faded and peely (at least i believe that was the problem).... second attepmt ... couldnt be happier with the turnout, although i havent washed yet. i dont doubt your expertise on the claria inks i was just too excited to have to wait for the pigment inks. thanks for the help so far and please help me figure out what to git as far as tho inks and carts are concerned. oh and another thing, do you use the teflon sheet with your jpss or parchment paper, or do u jus press as is? thanks again.
I have personally only had bleed problems on red print with the Claria inks, but obviously different wash detergents, water, equipment, or wash habits (leaving wet in washer too long) seem to cause problems. The problem is that I don't really know how many customers have had problems with their transfers made from Claria inks. We all assume that if we don't hear complaints that everything is ok, but I am afraid that there are possibly many more customers that just toss the shirt and won't use my services next time. The one customer that did complain was a business friend that knew I would want to know if there was a problem. Especially for event shirts I'm afraid that I might not ever hear of a problem and just end up with a poor reputation.
Now, for the inks and such. I prefer the refillable carts, but there is nothing wrong with a CIS and if I used my printer more or didn't move it so often, I would likely get a CIS in place of refills. Black ink seems to be one of the bigger issues for different types of printing. The MK ink is meant for heat pressing and has given me good results. The main thing to understand is that many different pigment inks may work fine, but figuring out how the colors will appear after they have been heat pressed can be the problem. Many things like the garment itself &/or its color, print driver profile & settings, & environment can effect your color results as well. So, be prepared that if you are a control freak like me, it might take some testing to find your perfect combination. Below the product links are some links to threads here that have helped me a lot. Be sure to read all the way through the threads because there are many differnent opinions and often people have changed there minds based on results of things as these threads went along.
For most transfer related things you might need, I'd start at http://www.heatpressessentials.com
Lou has a lot of good products that he uses in his business and is willing to help you use as well.
If you haven't been to TShirtSupplies.com check them out for paper as well.
thank you masterkoin, i dont know him personally although, lou actually turned me onto the jpss paper thru his youtube videos, i jus wish i could git the quality he got using his epson c88 with the durabrite inks. i woulda bought one of those had i not wanted the 1400 based on its wide format printin abilities. although i later saw that theres another wide format printer thru epson called the r1800 i believe its called that utilizes a higher quality version of the durabrite pigment inks. all in all, lou def knows wat he's doin. thanks alot for the help again. i will research those links.
I tried to send my 1400 back as soon as I realized how many things I didn't like about it, but missed the deadline to return and got stuck with it, but after much experimenting it seems to be ok and useable. I do still have some feed problems from time to time, but I think its just very sensitive to very squarely cut paper. I normally buy the larger 11x17 JPSS sheets and just cut them down to 8.5x11 when I don't need the larger paper and I found that I was having feed problems from them being cut the slightest bit off of square.
Newbie in need of veteran advice 
Re: Newbie in need of veteran advice 
