Discuss the different types of equipment needed for screen printing. Topics include manual screen printing presses, automatic presses, dryers, folding machines, starter kits and high end machines.
I have a question for you guys here. I am about to purchase my first machine. I don't know if i am going to go with a screen print or heat press machine. The primary use for this will be my miniature skateboards. They are made of 5 layers of veneer and i will need multiple colors in the graphics. With that being said i want to make some T-shirts for my company as well so would it be better for me to get a screen printing machine or a heat press? The different angles of wood and the product being only 1 1/4 inches X 4 1/4 inches i know that i will have to have custom screens or custom platens whichever the case may be. So in your guys honest opinion what would be the best way to go to get the most crisp graphics on these wooden miniature skateboards while still being able to turn out a very nice t-shirt?
If you're doing it on boards with curves, chances are you won't be able to heat press them without a heat press that matches the contours. Screen printing might work, but if there is any type of fine detail it's not likely that you'll be able to reproduce it at the sizes you're talking about. Have you considered using printed vinyl, like contour-cut printed stickers?
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Another method you could try would be to stencil them. If you get a vinyl cutting plotter, you can make a stencil with it and possibly airbrush your boards. That would be pretty cool. You can also use the plotter to make T-shirts by using heat applied vinyl. You would also have the option of using vinyl lettering on the boards too.
If there is a flat section in the middle where you transfer will be placed and the platen for the heat press fits this area. Then yes you can use a transfer with not much trouble. If it's the whole length of the board you would have to have a puck made in the shape of the board. Heat transfers are done to Plates using sublimation with a flat platen heat press. You might be able to adapt a plate puck to use for this.
For direct print to the board, I would say you would need a custom screen to do that well. The best way would to make a custom screen frame so for the length of the board would be the shape of the frame. It would require some very tight registration.
I looked into the Stahls hotronix presses and they said that they could make me custom platens to work with almost any curves or angles that i had. I am wondering has any had this done to a surface that wasn't just flat? I am trying to get the 16 X 20 size as i want to do T-shirts for my company and i can probably make some on the side for friends and local sport leagues that i am affiliated with. The hotronix brand has anyone had any success with these machines would it be good enough to do what i wanted to do with it?
I have seen a lot of people talking about stick with the name brands and you can't go wrong. So i am trying to do that and trying to get the largest machine i can get and fit it into my budget as well. If anyone has any information on these machines pleasee let me know.
I have a Hotronix swinger..they are hard to beat. I'm sure there are others just as good, but I like mine a lot and it works great. Be aware though, if your planning on doing heat transfers onto hard surfaces, that is going to take special paper and I am pretty sure a laser printer, unless you do sublimation with ink jet. Let's just say this, I know you can transfer to wood or other hard goods using an Okidata color laser printer.
I have futher researched this area and i have found out that even with angles and different surfaces different companies can make special platens for you no matter what you are doing. I have emailed both the Stahls hotronix and the guys at Geo Knight presses and both have assured me that i would be able to do heat transfers with minimal trouble on the surfaces i need.
Yes their is a flat surface it is only 10mm wide though the rest has different angles and such. I have been able to talk with a couple of the guys in my field and they told me they had done the same thing so that was really helpful. Thanks to everyone here for being so nice and i guess it is more about the person doing the pressing than the press or so i have been told.
I am not sure which would be the very best process to use. I have heard that a lot of the guys in the same business as me use heat transfer presses with custom platens. However this could be to throw me off the right track. I make miniature skateboards and they are so small only 1.25 inches X 4.25 inches in size. They are shaped like a normal skateboard but the only flat area i have to work with is about 1.5 inches X 10 mm which is ok but i don't want to be limited to only using that area. If i get a heat press and the custom platens made especially to go on them would i be able to just throw them in the press and be done with it?
I have considered a lot of different options in my graphics delimna. I have considered waterslide graphics, i have considered stamping , as in a regular ink stamp, i looked into sublimation a little but i don't know if that would work for me as i didn't understand a lot about it. The main focus point for my project is to provide the best quality images on the wood , which is veneer, and then being able to use lacquer over top of the images. I of course don't want them to look like a regular sticker has been put on top of the thing and i just lacquered over it.
That is the reason i looked into heat presses in the first place. I had heard that a lot of people used heat transfer when applying graphics to real skateboards so i figured it might work for me. If you guys have any suggestions on how to get the thinnest, best looking, and longest lasting images on my product i would really love to hear about them.
The screen printing seems to be a harder thing for me to do since you have to make your own screens to put the images on and you have to work with a lot of ink in order to get the right look to the deck.
Grim:
I hear what your saying. How many of these items do you make? Have you considered laser engraving them? Obviously you don't have that capability, but you could sub it out. I am in the laser engraving business and the laser does beautiful work on wood. What you have described would work fine with a laser, especially with these small sizes. You can probably have lots of them done for what you would invest in equipment to do what your talking about.
Laser engraving i haven't thought about that to be honest. I will have to look into that for sure. Is there a way i can reach you to talk more about this?
I have decided to go with the heat pressing. I need multiple colors in some of the graphics that i am doing. I am going to go with a Stahls Hotronix 16 X 20 press and have custom platens made especially for the items that i am doing. This way i can make T-shirts, Jerseys for local sports teams, and still do my product. The fine people at Stahls have assured me that even with the small size details won't be a problem and the graphics will come out very clear so i hope that is true and it all works out well. Thanks for everything guys.
I have decided to go with the heat pressing. I need multiple colors in some of the graphics that i am doing. I am going to go with a Stahls Hotronix 16 X 20 press and have custom platens made especially for the items that i am doing. This way i can make T-shirts, Jerseys for local sports teams, and still do my product. The fine people at Stahls have assured me that even with the small size details won't be a problem and the graphics will come out very clear so i hope that is true and it all works out well. Thanks for everything guys.
Actually, the heat press would be good for the t-shirts, but for you miniature skate boards what you really need is a pad printer. They're specifically designed for doing high quality prints on small items like you're describing. Check out this video if you want to see how one works.
Actually, the heat press would be good for the t-shirts, but for you miniature skate boards what you really need is a pad printer. They're specifically designed for doing high quality prints on small items like you're describing. Check out this video if you want to see how one works.
I watched that video the thing that i don't understand about pad printing is if i have an image that has lets say 5 colors in it. Can that machine do the job because most of the pad printing machines i have seen do 1 color at a time. and doing it this way it would take quite a while to get that many colors onto my product. I do agree that the pad printer is a good source for graphics if i am doing a 1 or 2 color graphic but for others wouldn't i be better off getting a Stahls hotronix 16 X 20 and just having them make a custom platen for me to do my transfers with?
Screen Printing Vs. Heat Press 
