Well have to say this is a great forum but I am a little lost with all the products available, I have a forum and I would like to start printing shirts for them and also start a shirt business online, I have looked at the shirt press's and they seem fairly trivial all they do is hold it onto the rack i there a DIY building tutorial laying around or do you guys recomend going with a professional job,
From what I can see, you need:
1) Screen Press
2) Flash dryer ( is this really needed, i saw people using heat guns)
3) a box to flash your frame with emulsion on it ( unfiltered black light the best?)
4) frames
5) storage for your frames
6) ink and squeegees
as much as needed but as little as possible I dont really know, I was also looking at heat pressing but it seems that you get better quality with screen printing or am I wrong ?
Heat pressing with plastisol transfers is just as good as direct printing, and can even produce a softer feel in some cases.
My suggestions is to start with a heat press if you're unsure. Screen Printing isn't something to just dive into without being totally sure and committed. It's a lot of money up front, a lot of learning, and a lot of mess!
Heat presses are a fairly inexpensive way to get into making shirts. For $1000 or so, you can be producing shirts that rival any others on the market. And if you don't like it, it is VERY easy to sell a heat press.
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Heat pressing with plastisol transfers is just as good as direct printing, and can even produce a softer feel in some cases.
My suggestions is to start with a heat press if you're unsure. Screen Printing isn't something to just dive into without being totally sure and committed. It's a lot of money up front, a lot of learning, and a lot of mess!
Heat presses are a fairly inexpensive way to get into making shirts. For $1000 or so, you can be producing shirts that rival any others on the market. And if you don't like it, it is VERY easy to sell a heat press.
Plastisol transfers will cost the same to setup as getting a screenprint tshirt design setup except the tshirt? right? I am new to this.So if you go heat press with plastisol transfers in mind, you end up paying the screen printer anyway which also cuts into the profit. So if you want durable quality it would be much more profitable to go screenprinting?
Plastisol transfers will cost the same to setup as getting a screenprint tshirt design setup except the tshirt? right? I am new to this.So if you go heat press with plastisol transfers in mind, you end up paying the screen printer anyway which also cuts into the profit. So if you want durable quality it would be much more profitable to go screenprinting?
Not lecturing just curious.
I guess that depends. It's more profitable to screen print yourself if you're doing huge runs all at once, but if you're selling through an online shop, I would think heat press would be smarter. That way you don't have to have a ton of printed inventory. It's a lot less risk.
__________________ ScreenPrintH2O.com - An Online Community of Waterbased Screen Printers SignAmigo.com - An Online Community of Sign Makers.
What amount of shirts do you think would be classed as large quantity that would make screen printing the better option?
Sorry for Hijacking this thread
Well, are you planning to sell online as a retailer? Or are you planning on making shirts for others to sell?
If I was only doing shirts to sell at retail cost, I'd probably go the heat press route.
Screen printing is only worth doing for quantities of 12 or more at a time. Even 12 is barely worth it. So if you have an online store with 15 designs, it's a lot more cost effective to have someone print transfers for you and just press the shirts as you get the order. If you get really busy, then screen printing would be the next step. But even then, if I was really busy selling retail shirts, I'd rather pay someone else to do the printing and focus on sales and service. That's just my opinion of course.
__________________ ScreenPrintH2O.com - An Online Community of Waterbased Screen Printers SignAmigo.com - An Online Community of Sign Makers.
Hmm, you maybe selling me on this. Basically I would like to cover the market where I am located, doing work staff shirts (nightclub,sport etc.) Also I have some designs I would like to sell online but want to sell good quality stuff. One problem I thought would be the fact that I do want some of my design to cover over the shoulder on some designs.
Thanks for the info.
Looking at getting a setup 
I dont really know, I was also looking at heat pressing but it seems that you get better quality with screen printing or am I wrong ?
