T-Shirt Forums - View Single Post - New to t-shirt printing

badalou · September 10th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyro


	Great forum here, i actually found it by watching some videos on youtube, great they were. I've been reading around t-shirt manufacturing business. The thing is i have a nice amount of customers that will be interested in buying our company branded t-shirts. I own a powerlifting and a bodybuilding site. Well thats enough about me. After long searching places like cafepress i found out that with the design and the delivery prices it is, well how you put it crap for my business. When the price adds up it is too high i think as this would put of my customers so i decided to invest into a heat pres and do my own shirts. There are some questions i wanted to ask that i am still not sure. Heat transfer onto white and light t's from heat transfer paper. Does it need to be cut out into the specific shape of the design or does it just press on the design? Printing designs on black t shirts needs vinyl? Does it behave in a similar way as heat transfer paper? What would be a good brand of heat press to buy? What size is recommended for optimum use? I was looking into clam press as they look the best in my case. Would buying a heat press would be a bad mistake? ebay 1 ebay 2 I have read to print on heat press paper you need a pigment based printer? I have epson d88, would this do if no this brings me onto my next question. Are there companies online that only specialize in transferring designs onto heatpress paper for light and dark t-shirts at reasonable prices? Are there any good blank t-shirt suppliers if you main goal is to provide cheap-ish shirts to who are going to wash it over and over again, meaning the best quality you can get at that price. Plain t-shirts, blank t-shirts, discount t-shirt Do you need a specific license or something to sell t-shirts online? I have more questions but i think this is enough for now any help appreciated and again great forum.

First I hope those were my video's you watched. If you have a customer base which it sounds like you do then I would recommend doing the shirts yourself but not with digital printed shirts but with plastisol design (Outside source) You can have the designs printed and then place them on the shirts as you need them. I would recommend a 15 x 15 heat press. I have a Mighty press which serves me well. I use tee shirts from Bodek and Rhodes ans SanMar. Yes buying a press may be a big mistake unless it is a company that is well known which is rare. But again plastisol transfers will save you a lot of work. Yes digital transfer need to be trimmed but not plastisol. Digital transfer need to be placed on white shirts or light shirts unless they are opaque transfers which most of us hate to use. But plastisol transfer can go on any color. Hope this helps.