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.
Has anyone else been having troubles with ThermoFlex Plus shrinking side-to-side once it's been pressed?
We've tried peeling hot, peeling warm, and peeling cold, and nothing seems to make a difference.
We NEED to be able to press multi-color designs, but when one layer shrinks after you press, it's EXTREMELY difficult to get everything else to line up!
I've only REALLY noticed this with black, but then again, that's the only color we've been using as a base for other colors.
from time to time - and i don't think it's so much that the thermo stretches, i think the shirt draws up a bit. it always seems worse with 100% cotton shirts, less so with the blends.
i peel hot then as soon as i can stand to lay hands on the shirt i just kind of two-handed brush it flat handed from the center toward the edges. then pre-press the next shirt a lot longer
__________________
it's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!
We do pre-press probably a little longer than most people. Well, I do, at least. But I think the problem might be that we're letting our shirts cool before we actually press. Not necessarily deliberately, but sometimes, if we're not in a hurry, we take our time. We're not exactly high-production yet.
I didn't really think that it might be the shirts. Yes, we're using 100% cotton, but the way the ThermoFlex shrinks side-to-side, I thought that it was shrinking the only way it could because of the ribs on the shirts.
The only other problem is that we can't peel the black that we have hot. It comes up with its backer. We have that problem with a couple of colors of ThermoFlex Plus.
I'll try your brushing method and see if that helps at all.
nah the thermo doesn't have a warp and weft like the fabric, so if it was gonna shrink it would shrink in all directions - tho it took me a lot of frustrating apps to figure that out if it's pulling in just side to side - it's the shirt itself pulling in and hauling the thermo along with it.
i've been using multicut for the most part for so long that i'd forgotten about some of the thermo needing to peel warm or cool - the only thing i cold peel these days is the glitter material - everything else peels hot.
ps: congrats - you look good in black
__________________
it's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!
I have had the same problem with it shrinking - not only in the horizontal but vertical. I was applying a two color - orange laid down first with white on top. I thought I was loosing my mind and called the manufacturer and spoke to someone in tech support. They indicated that their material does shrink especially some colors. They indicated to lay down the first layer and only press for about 10 sec. and peel hot and that would limit the shrinkage but I did not find that it helped all that much. It would have been nice to have some sort of factor so that the shrinkage could be taken into account when cutting the base layer so that when applied the outline is uniform when the top layer is applied. I have found that the shrinkage (I was using the orange thermoflex plus) was probably less than 5% but enough to give you nightmares.
ThermoFlex Plus Shrinking Side-To-Side? 
We're not exactly high-production yet. 
We have that problem with a couple of colors of ThermoFlex Plus. 
)
