I have been doing a little bit of research, but I need your opinion on what to get.
Basically I need the most effective way of printing shirts.
I have $5,000US to spend on equipment, whats the best way to go? Screen Printing? Heat Press and Heat Transfers? Direct to Garment (DTG) Inkjet Printing? Dye Sublimation?
What is your need ?
What do your customer want ?
Do you want to print 1000 shirts or just small batch ?
Depending on your answer, the way to go can be completely different.
In my opinion $5000 to make some serious screen printing is a tight budget.
But with $5000 you can buy a plotter, heat press, a good printer and make vinyl application onto garment and even for sign industry, dye sublimation...
Remember, what is your need, your business plan...
I think that I would step into this slowly. I would suggest that you buy a good heat press...at least 15x15 and then do outsourcing for custom designs..use plastisol transfers...which is just like screen printing..look at doing business with such as First Edition, transferexpress or F&M transfers or air waves
check them out...that way you can make a few buck to see if you are going to like it, if your designs will sell and who knows...you may just want to keep outsourcing
You won't be able to get into the Direct to Garment business for $5,000. The machines (even used ones) are over $8,000.
New DTG machines are going to run you about $18,000 and up.
Screen printing is an option, but you will be limited in the equipment that you can buy for a collective $5,000 budget, and that will limit your capabilities as well as what you can produce for the customer.
If you can give us a better idea of who your target market is, what you plan to print (ideas of colors, fine lines, athletic apparel, etc.), and your business plan we can better suggest items that will suit your needs and help you succeed.
I could tell you all the things you could buy, but it may not do for you what you want to do. Let us know so we can help cater an educated suggestion for you.
Good luck and welcome to the apparel decorating industry!
For $5000 you could get a nice used 6-color press and a small used conveyor dryer. Build a blacklight fluorescent exposure unit with a vacuum blanket, buy quarts of a few basic ink colors, some reclaim solution, screen wash, a quart of emulsion and a couple of frames and a couple of squeegies. It would get you going enough to start learning and start doing some single color or two color spot color jobs. I've seen nice used presses for as little as $2500 and a dryer for $1500 or less. Buy used, and make sure you get opinions from people who know before buying any equipment, new or used. Spend as much time as possible on this forum and over at Screenprinters.net. Get the book "Printing T-Shirts for Fun and Profit" and read it. Don't get suckered into the new stuff they sell on Ebay, and don't buy "kits". You can get some vellum to make positives from a laser printer if you don't have an inkjet printer that will output enough ink to make films. Take it to Kinkos and ask them to print your file on your vellum.
Ideally, go to a screenprinting shop and get a job doing it (everyone says to do this, nobody does, but it is good advice) or see if some screenprinter in a town some distance from yours (so he doesn't get spooked) would let you spend a day watching the whole procedure so you'd at least have some kind of an idea of what you'd be letting yourself in for.
The suggestions as to the different ways of shirt decoration are good, but ultimately, screenprinting will do just about everything. The worst thing you can do is buy junk in a hurry because you're all excited about getting into it, and then quitting pissed off because, in addition to the learning curve you'll need to go through even if things go pretty well, if your equipment is crap, it'll make the whole process miserable, and you'll be out your money to boot. Take your time finding good used stuff. It's out there, just learn what to look for and be patient. I spent $2400 on two crappy presses (one was new) before spending $3000 on a great one that was 4 months old and sold new for $4500. The people who get burned the worst in this business are the ones with no research into the business, no patience, and just enough cash to be taken for a ride.
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