Discuss the various aspects of heat pressed vinyl transfers. Popular and new types of vinyl media, suppliers, vinyl cutters /plotters, press times, quality, how to instructions and more can be found in this heat press sub forum.
Well, we just got our new Graphtec CE5000-60 plotter on Thursday. It's the first time I've ever seen a plotter run, much less run one myself. So we test cut a bunch of designs and used a variety of different materials from different suppliers.
Today we got our new Hix heat press and we pressed a few designs. I got the inaugural press on the Hix with the very first design that I vecorized, cut, and pressed. The design itself is not mine. It's the signature of an artist I admire.
Anyway, it's using red Hotmark 70 and black reflective Spectra. This picture was taken with a flash, so you'll see what that black does with the right light.
I'm extremely happy with our choices of equipment, and I'm very happy with the Hotmark 70 and reflective Spectra.
It's pretty basic, but I've never done this before, so I'm excited!
Great job on your first shirt! I wanted to confirm... the white in the pic on the logo is the black reflective? That's pretty awesome if it is. I'll have to try that stuff sometime!
It's the "signature" of an artist that I like...Derek Riggs. He did all of the cover art for Iron Maiden up to I think Seventh Son or No Prayer for the Dying. Then they got another artist. I'm not sure why.
You can see this very design on Eddie's (Iron Maiden's mascot) chest on the Somewhere in Time album cover.
I love his style, and I love this design.
I emailed him last night and I'm waiting for a response to see what he thinks of these shirts.
As an old Maiden fan I was imediately surprised when I saw the pic with your design. Looking foreward to make some like those myself
What's up with the max cutting force you need on the blade in a plotter for doing T-shirt vinyl and window foil? I see differences between brands going up from 250 - Roland, 300 - Graphtec up to 400 - Summa?
That's awesome. I think that some designs on a black shirt might be interesting with the black reflective. I'd make for some surprise pictures with the flash! Keep up the good work!
You jumped right in with the multi color vinyl designs...very brave
Does the vinyl on top of vinyl stick to each other, or did you leave blank spots for the second color to go?
Thanks!
The red is actually the exact same size as the black triangle. I laid the black reflective over the red.
So far it's staying put. I washed it in a normal wash and everything stuck, but we're going wash all the shirts we've done so far in HOT water and HIGH heat in the dryer and see what stays and what falls.
The only thing, tho, is that the red Hotmark 70 got a little wrinkly after being dried. it actually looks like pleather right now. I may not have used enough pressure on our press on that one. I'll press it again and see what happens.
My Very First Shirt 
