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.
At present I am buying in vinyl transfers, weeded @ £3.00 each! and would like to cut the cost by producing my own in house.
To start with I would produce only white text for black/dark shirts.
So my questions are
Is it worth buying a plotter/cutter?
Do I need Corel Draw or similar?
I have tried a free download of CD and it seems daunting. is it one of those things you just have to sit down with for a few days and learn or do you need to be a techi type?
The transfers I am getting at present are slightly tacky which is great for positioning on the shirt, does this have a brand name?
The heat press I bought is from China, works fine for me, do I need to buy a "branded" cutter or is a far east version as good/good enough?
In time I would like to incorporate artwork, single colour, am I going in the right direction?
Anything I missed?
By the way I am in the UK.
You are heading in the right direction, but I wouldn't cut to much corners with equipment because that 3.00 will be looking pretty good after a couple of runs.
In your case the plotter I would choose would be the graphtec 40 quite reasonably priced, Japanese made and far superior to the cheaper Chinese models.
Corel seems to be the favorite,as you're only planning to do text its should be quite easy to get started. Once you get going the rest will start comming easier. The first steps are always the hardest.
A vinyl cutter can be a great investment marketed correctly. Not only can you do tshirts with vinyl but you can do banners, decals, stickers and a ton of other things. I agree that I would not skimp on the cutter. I would be a good one, at least one that can do contour cutting, which is really useful if you want to do things like print graphics and then cut them out on the cutter later, after you learn more.
I myself use eco film and it has that tacky backing on it which is really easy to weed on compilcated designs as the vinyl sticks better to the backing while you are weeding it. I believe there is siser easy weed to that also has the same backing.
If you watch for sales and look for discounts in our preferred vendors list, you can get a good deal with a cutter. When I bought my Graphtec CE60-5000 I waited till it was on sale, and then also used a forum discount for the specialty graphics which is forum sponsor and saved quite a bit
As far as corel draw, it is pretty easy once you learn to use it. You dont need to be a techy person to use it, and there are a ton of great tutorials online for it. So there are great resources for it as well, to make learning more easy for you.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
I would go the E-Bay route. Look for a used Roland. For what you say your doing a small old Roland Stika would work fine.If it comes with the software "Dr.Stika" you won't need anymore software. If it does not come with software then Inkscape. Incscape is a wanta be corel. Wanta be but, its free.
If the cutter you choose comes with it's own software (which it should) then you won't need any other software for text based cutting or simple designs. Vinyl is cut in each colour separately so you don't need a software that can do all kinds of special effects/textures. I managed for over a year with my cutters basic software and I only upgraded because I wanted to do websites etc.
Contact xpres, themagictouch, targettransfers, thetransferpress and ask for samples and swatches. I always use xpres vinyls and most have the sticky backing. It's useful so you can place the design on the t-shirt even before you put it in the press.
Also have a look at printwearandpromotion website and subscribe to the free magazine, loads of info and contacts in there. Sign up for the Printwear and Promotion exhibition next march.
Lee
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trying to help, sometimes i don't!
This is a discussion about corel draw and vinyl cutter questions - UK that was posted in the Vinyl Cutters (Plotters) and Transfers section of the forums.
corel draw and vinyl cutter questions - UK 
