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RoyalD76 · March 24th, 2008

Hello all,

I am new in the game, I purhcased a heat press about 2 years ago and I am considering purchasing a vinyl cutter to cut heat transfer film, is it worth it to go that route? or should I just save up to purchase a small screen press?

Any suggestions would be helpful-

Rodney · March 24th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoyalD76


	Hello all, I am new in the game, I purhcased a heat press about 2 years ago and I am considering purchasing a vinyl cutter to cut heat transfer film, is it worth it to go that route? or should I just save up to purchase a small screen press? Any suggestions would be helpful-

Do you want to do screen printing or do you want to do vinyl transfers?

Without knowing your business plan or the types of customers you plan to serve (or the printing you want to do), it's hard to give you a suggestion about what you should do next or what you should invest in

RoyalD76 · March 24th, 2008

Thanks Rodney,

I am looking for the highest quality and the most cost effective method-

I have a hotronix 16x20 heat press and I feel that it is limited as far as printing on colored garments. But I do like the idea of creating complex multi-colored t-shirt designs, but I just haven't found the right formula for colored garments and tee's. I have used several transfer papers as well and I find that the washability isn't that durable-

MotoskinGraphix · March 24th, 2008

If you are in it for the long haul and multiple prints of the same design I would go screen print. If you want quick one offs and instant results I would get a vinyl cutter. Like Rodney mentioned, it all depends on what direction you are heading in and where your customers are coming from.

Chani · March 24th, 2008

I agree.

We went the plotter route, but that's what we wanted to do. Custom shirts.

We'd eventually like to buy a screen printing setup, but that won't be for a long time, and only when we decide we want to sell many of the same designs.

RoyalD76 · March 24th, 2008

Thanks Dave

RoyalD76 · March 24th, 2008

Hi Chani, are there any good cutters for under $500

MotoskinGraphix · March 24th, 2008

I started with a vinyl cutter. I then purchased a heatpress because like Chani we do custom shirts at events. I am playing around with screenprint right now.

scubadog · March 24th, 2008

I would say screen print for a large number of shirts would be the most cost effective. With screen printing your per shirt cost goes down as the quantity goes up. With vinyl your cost stays the same per shirt no matter how many you run.

KenS · March 24th, 2008

Another option is a Cutter and do custom transfers. That is what we do. I use the cutter for one of a kind or small runs. I sub out other stuff for custom transfers. You already have the heat press. I think starting out, this is the better of both worlds.

I have a book I am reading now on screen printing. We will prob go that route next, but for now the cutter and subbing the transfers work great for us.

RoyalD76 · March 24th, 2008

Do you sub out your larger jobs locally or do you use an online vendor?

mrdavid · March 24th, 2008

I have heat transfer and vinyl as will as screen print I use heat transfers more then screen print but if I need to screen print I can

KenS · March 24th, 2008

For the custom transfers I sub it out. I have used Untitled Document
But I have recently been using Howard Sportswear Graphics | welcome

I really like the Howard prints. We just did 120 5 color for the Sheriffs Dept.

They are not as picky about art (will make minor changes for you) and they usually ship the next day, so I have them in my hands in 4 days. First-Edition does not ship for 7 days unless you pay a rush chg. Also, if you have different balcks or some other problem they will send it back or ask to chg you a half hr edit fee. Howards usually just does it for you.

deChez · March 24th, 2008

In many shops, there's a need for both vinyl and screen printing.

I use vinyl for small jobs, screen printing for larger.

There have been times when I've used both on the same job. For example, I had a large order with a 1 color design. A few of the shirts were very small childrens shirts so...I used screen printing for the majority of the order but, for the smaller shirts, I just cut a smaller version of the design in vinyl.

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is it worth it to invest in a vinyl cutter - or should I save for a screen printing press?