Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I am interested in printing shirts at a festival during the summer. My question is are there programs that will allow me to let customers pick a design say out of a book then transfer them to a shirt using a heat press? Im looking for the best programs, heat press, transfer paper and any other advice you may have. I know a company that presses on shirts and they leave an outline on the shirt where they cut the transfer paper and am looking to avoid that so please shoot me some ideas. Thank You!
Vinyl transfer using a plotter and cad cut heat press vinyl, inkjet transfers designed on your computer and printed on an epson inkjet printer using Jet pro soft stretch transfer paper. The design being heatpressed on lite colored tees. Stock plastisol transfers from folks like Pro-world heat pressed onto tees.
Thanks Dave, what about dark colored tees? My plan is to set up at a motorcycle festival have a few samples out but primarily have them choose their design from a book of sample artwork print it off and go back and press it on the tee. This festival is really big and am interested in great quality because I would like to be there every year and have customers that choose my product year after year.
Dark/black shirts with bold colours and 'wicked' designs... that sounds like vinyl.
Make sure you test all your designs ahead of time and that they are easy to weed. Limit yourself to 1 or 2 colour designs for a project like this. Although, which colours they choose does not matter. Definately bring orange though (Harley orange). Men & vehicle fans also like the silver, gold and Electric colours from Stahls. It's nice to work with. Atomic Orange is my favourite.
__________________ Equipment: GX24, 15 x15 heat press, Corel 12 Useful Info: 2 years Epson tech support - Mac & PC
Thanks Dave, what about dark colored tees? My plan is to set up at a motorcycle festival have a few samples out but primarily have them choose their design from a book of sample artwork print it off and go back and press it on the tee. This festival is really big and am interested in great quality because I would like to be there every year and have customers that choose my product year after year.
You are wanting to do basically what Kim and I do but we do custom car events. I think to get up and running you should look into stock plastisol transfers. We have a display of around 70 designs and folks just pick the image they like and we press anywhere on the tee, front, back, side etc.
We offer custom vinyl tees but you will get bogged down trying to find the exact font or art to cut, weed and press on tees. Limit your font selection to about ten. Time is everything and vinyl at a show is a time killer. You can also limit your tee color choices to a lite and a dark, regular unisex tee or a tank top. The less decisions the customer has to make the faster you can move to the sale and the next customer.
The quality of stock or custom made plastisol transfers is outstanding and your customers will be satisfied.
You are wanting to do basically what Kim and I do but we do custom car events. I think to get up and running you should look into stock plastisol transfers. We have a display of around 70 designs and folks just pick the image they like and we press anywhere on the tee, front, back, side etc.
Do you find much issue with unused transfers? I'd be worried I have lets say 10 each of 70 designs and I'd only sell 1/3 of them. So that is a lot of waste and wasted money...
What have your results been?
__________________ Equipment: GX24, 15 x15 heat press, Corel 12 Useful Info: 2 years Epson tech support - Mac & PC
We didnt start with 70 plastisol designs but just kept adding and dropping with our specific genre of images. Order six pcs. of one design, one goes on your display tee in a size you can sell right off the wall. The five left are your show inventory and if you sell out of that particular design you have a winner. If you just cant move a particular design it goes in the discount bin and will get sold eventually. Everything gets sold eventually is the rule even if you just are getting cost back.
You will order something that doesnt move...it happens with screenprinting as well. You will learn over time what works and what doesnt. The trick is to minimise the mistakes take note of the selling trend and purchase more designs within that trend.
We started with just vinyl graphics, moved into heatpress custom tees, moved quickly into stock plastisol transfers and now do a bit of inkjet transfers as well.
The stock transfers or if you have your own designs custom transfers are by far the fastest, easiest most efficient way of getting the most out of your show time.
Hey everyone, just reading through the thread. Useful info thanks! My husband and I have been doing screenprinting going on 2 years now and are looking into more info on heat presses. MotoskinGraphix saw your website and have great t-shirt designs? Are those done with heatpress. About 90% of our orders are for black tees and we've gotten a few requests for multi-color designs--as you know there's a limitation to screenprinting presses.
Hey everyone, just reading through the thread. Useful info thanks! My husband and I have been doing screenprinting going on 2 years now and are looking into more info on heat presses. MotoskinGraphix saw your website and have great t-shirt designs? Are those done with heatpress. About 90% of our orders are for black tees and we've gotten a few requests for multi-color designs--as you know there's a limitation to screenprinting presses.
Everything on the website is plastisol transfers onthe tee side.
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