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.
I am just wondering why everyone needs a printer to get into the business? I am looking to start but as far as I'm concerned, don't I just need a vinyl cutter and a heat press?
That all depends on what type(s) of priniting you want to do. Vinyl is a very durable print but from my understanding (not experienced in vinyl) it is very time consuming to do short runs or multi color prints because of the weeding. Also intricate prints will a lot of time weeding. I use inkjet so I can do one off's or a few dozen multi color prints. No extra work for multiple colors and the "weeding" is just a few seconds per print to trim the edges so the poly window will not be very visible.
An inkjet or laser printer will also allow you to do photo gifts such as mousepads, coasters, puzzles and tee's.
It depends on what you are wanting to do. If you are just wanting to heat press vinyl designs, names, numbers, etc. - then yes, that would be all you need. Most people get printers because they want to do more intricately colored designs than what a vinyl cutter can do. So, they opt for an ink jet or a laser color printer and the appropriate heat transfer paper. Or - they get into screenprinting, or subcontract their work out to screenprinters. Or - they may even order plastisol transfers of their own work, or just buy stock transfers....Again - it just depends on what YOU are wanting to do.....Good luck!
You won't necessarily need a printer unless you want to do full color in house.
The vinyl cutter will allow you to do 1 and 2 color simple design and text based graphics. The process of using a cutter in combination with cad-cut film is ideal for low quantity custom runs and personalization.
Think - team names and numbers, custom quotes on shirts, simple logos.
The durability of cad-cut film is outstanding - and to start you can contract out for your full color jobs. The durability on full color four color process or standard plastisol transfers is typically much better than what you could do in house with a desktop inkjet printer and transfer paper.
With vinyl or a DTG I believe you can not do..... Glitter, High Desity, Water Based, chromaphomatic, and many other speicialty inks. I also would not want to do a large run on either of those. We have a 10,000 shirt order both sides to do that will take a little less than a week to do screen printing and I could not even want to imagine doing an order that size with another process.
What it really comes down to is what you are trying to produce.
Ok, Now I get it. I was unaware that the Heat Transfer paper printed with an inkjet was really an option. I am so new at this, that I don't really understand how that could work. If I was to print a design that I made (say, a blue dot) when I print that dot on the heat transfer paper, wouldn't I have to cut around the dot? If this is true, what would you do with an intricate design?
O, and I'm also looking for a vinyl cutter and heat press. So, if you have an extra one laying around or are planning on upgrading, Please let me know.
A vinyl cutter would easily do the logo designs you have on your site, not much weeding and press on a t-shirt etc. If you had a cutter you could offer this service to your customers for not much cost to yourself. Or show them their new logo on a t-shirt, they might place an order! You can put vinyl on almost any material so you can do aprons/workwear/corporate clothing. Vinyl is excellent for one off stuff.
You can get cutters that have an optical eye so that they can cut around ( contour cut ) a logo/picure whatever which would have been printed then put on the cutter. I use an epson D88 (C88) with durabrite ink, printed onto transfer paper from xpres.co.uk, there are loads of other different papers available. The image can be cut around and then pressed onto the garment.
You can get glitter/hologram/metallic vinyls and flock. These can be combined for some stunning effects and it's very easy to do. The vinyl would last much much longer than any transfer, sometimes outlasts the t-shirt it's on and never fades.
I Have The Roland Gx-24, Installed Cut Studio Onto My Labtop And Started With Something As Simple As Importing Text. I Loaded The Paper (the Side I Thought Was Right) Into The Cutter. Highlighted The Text.(blue) Then Clicked On The Cutting Icon.....nothing !!!
On The Cutter It Will Spit Almost Half The Roll Out Then Bring It Back,calculate The Width But Then The Length Would Be Blank _ _ _
And Im Left Punching Buttons , Clicking On Icons That Im Hoping Would Make My Machine Cut Something.
I Have Reviewed You Tube Footage Of Josh Ellsworth But Cant Seem To Pinpoint The Problem. ...just By This Does Anybody Know What Im Doing Wrong?
Why do I need a printer? 
