Just curious because this is the way that I'll be curing my shirts until my business expands even more. I've recently been heat pressing for my full cures.
What kind of material do you use under your shirt to sit on, and what's your heigth above the shirt.. and curing time?
I generally keep my flash about 2" above my clothes when I do it.
I have an old shirt pallet that I put on my press when I cure them. I don't use it to print, so I don't have to worry about it getting warped. Having it on the press means I don't have to adjust the flash height, and the pallets rotate making the job easier.
Curing with a flash depends on ambient temperature, humidity and I'm sure a bunch of other things. They also don't seem to maintain a perfectly uniform temperature.
Using my flash, it usually takes about 30 seconds a shirt. The shirt will start to steam and I usually leave it for a few seconds after I see that. I've never scorched a shirt, but I have gotten the ink to the "re-melt" stage many times where the ink bubbles. Not the end of the world, but still not something you want to happen.
I would assume that consistency and ease are much better with a conveyor dryer, but doing both stretch and wash tests, my shirts usually come out alright with the flash.
When we use the flash to cure, we have an eight foot long table made of 2 X 6 s that we put the shirts on. We run the flash a small bit over three inches off and for around 45 to 60 seconds. The results are very good.
When I cure with the flash I put about three inches above the shirt and cure for 1 minute. I use an old ironing board with cover to lay the shirts on. I don't have to worry about warping and I can fold it up out of the way when it's not in use.
Does anyone use temperature strips to assure the temp reaches 290 - 330 per Union Ink requirements for full cure? I flash cure and had good results, but thinking about buying these strips. Where can I get them? Thanks
Koala- you should look into getting an InfraRed thermometer gun instead of using the strips so that you can just point it at the shirts to get a temperature reading. I think they can be had online for around $60 and it would be, in the long run, financially better than using strips constantly.
1. When curing a shirt with multiple colors, how do you go about controlling this process?
2. When curing ink to transfer paper, how different is "Ultra Strip Paper 3000 for plastisol (hotsplit transfers)" compared to "Hot Peel Paper Trans60 for just hot split transfers".What other variables are involved when Flashing transfer papers and shirts?
3. I realize you don't want to completely dry the ink to your transfer paper, so what is the term for a 'partial cure' or is 'curing' the ink to the transfer paper the correct term and the final step is 'drying' the shirt?
This is what I will be doing mostly, screen-printing onto transfer paper. I believe these are called Plastisol Transfers? Correct me if I am wrong, it will make reference much easier in the future.
Good questions Jesse. I am looking into making some transfer also. I have not tried it yet. Is there a special ink you use? I have the ultrasoft Union Inks. The info on the paper is good. I will follow this thread and see what other members say. Jeff
For those who full cure with a flash unit? 
