[CreativeClod]

I need to buy a flash dryer for shirts Im printing using waterbase. A forced air dryer is going to cost me nearly $2000. But now im thinking for that money, I could buy a heat press and make plasticol transfers, or modify my 1430 printiner to do sublimation transfers. Less mess, and if im not mistaken, plasticol transfers cure while being heat pressed.
Does anyone have any pros or cons or suggestions to offer? Screen printing has eaten up alot of my money already. Need to make a right choice. Thanks in advance!

 

[CreativeClod]

Ah....nevermind. I sold my press and bought a **** tonne of narcotics. Going to ride this last leg of my life out on a big wave of H. Take care.

 

[NoXid]

Ha! Well, after you come down, you can simplify things. You don't need forced air to print waterbase. My flash is a Vatex F1000. I cure with a heat press. Lots of others use the same flash or similar with waterbase. I use a heat press to cure because it takes up a lot less space and costs a lot less than a conveyor dryer.

Making your own Plastisol transfers is a lot more bother and more to go wrong than simply printing direct to shirt with either Plastisol or waterbase.

 

[CreativeClod]

Thanks for responding. Are you saying that in lieu of a flash dryer, I can buy a heat press which will cure waterbase and maybe plasticol inks?. I would also be able to do sublimation as well then, correct? Any recommendation on the heat press?

 

[rescue7394]

I will tell you, from experience, I am doing the exact opposite - I am going from sublimation to screen printing. Sublimation is so darn limited or your stuck with a heavy transfer. It's so time consuming to do sublimation on a transfer - and then run it through the cutter and hope the cut comes out good. I have wasted more time and money trying to make sublimation work for me than I spent on my press. As far as the plastisol transfer goes - they do have a place. I make a crap ton of stock shirts where all I need to do is change the name of a department and the rest stays the same. I can burn off 200 transfers (without a name) - burn one screen - put 4 different departments on it - and boom I can bust out 200 shirts, for 4 different departments in no time flat on demand.

 

[DrivingZiggy]

Thanks for responding. Are you saying that in lieu of a flash dryer, I can buy a heat press which will cure waterbase and maybe plasticol inks?. I would also be able to do sublimation as well then, correct? Any recommendation on the heat press?

There are still going to be times that you need a flash dryer when screen printing. But it is not the optimum way to cure the shirt. Optimum would be a conveyor oven, but they're big and expensive. So a "good" alternative would be a heat press.

And with a heat press you could also cure your product if you ever decide to get into DTG. Other uses would be for sublimation and HTV.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the heat press is not really a substitute for a flash dryer, but it can be used for other things as well.

 

[CreativeClod]

I saw a video of someone printing right out of photoshop onto a transfer paper and using a heat press to lay the image on a shirt. I assumed that was sublimation. I know they modified the ink cartridges some how. It looked easy and surperb. Any idea what that was? Also, can any of you fine folks tell me a good heat press I could look into for under $2000 cdn?
I really appreciate your help on this.

 

[NoXid]

I saw a video of someone printing right out of photoshop onto a transfer paper and using a heat press to lay the image on a shirt. I assumed that was sublimation. I know they modified the ink cartridges some how. It looked easy and surperb. Any idea what that was? Also, can any of you fine folks tell me a good heat press I could look into for under $2000 cdn?
I really appreciate your help on this.

Some inkjet transfers are sublimation, some are regular transfers. Then there are also laser transfers. Sublimation is ONLY for white polyester fabrics (depending on the design and effect you want, other fabric colors are possible, but probably not what you want). All of those methods have decent options for printing on white/light garments. More tradeoffs and complications arise when it comes to printing on black garments. YMMV. There is a subsection of this forum about the different types of transfers. You might want to look that over. There are pros and cons to all methods, and a learning curve.

 

[NoXid]

Thanks for responding. Are you saying that in lieu of a flash dryer, I can buy a heat press which will cure waterbase and maybe plasticol inks?. I would also be able to do sublimation as well then, correct? Any recommendation on the heat press?

You need a flash unit to flash between layers/colors of ink. The heat press is instead of a conveyor dryer to cure the ink after it is off the press. Some people cure with their flash unit on press, but there are a lot of downsides to that, especially with waterbase.

 

[sben763]

I will tell you, from experience, I am doing the exact opposite - I am going from sublimation to screen printing. Sublimation is so darn limited or your stuck with a heavy transfer. It's so time consuming to do sublimation on a transfer - and then run it through the cutter and hope the cut comes out good. I have wasted more time and money trying to make sublimation work for me than I spent on my press. As far as the plastisol transfer goes - they do have a place. I make a crap ton of stock shirts where all I need to do is change the name of a department and the rest stays the same. I can burn off 200 transfers (without a name) - burn one screen - put 4 different departments on it - and boom I can bust out 200 shirts, for 4 different departments in no time flat on demand.

You are not doing sublimation if you get a heavy transfer and running though a cutter. Your doing inkjet transfers. Sublimation has zero hand requires no cutting. It does have its limitations though. White or light colors only and the light colors will affect the out come. Done right the colors are very vibrant. There is all over sublimation that can make any color garment you want but requires a larg heat press.


For the op. There are air dry and catalyst water based inks. I use union ink with catalyst and flash and stack. You can run though dryer a few hours later. Can’t remember but I think it says it will cure on its own. There is another brand that is 100% air dry but can’t remember name at the moment.

 

[into the T]

for a heat press, are you eastern or western canada?