My main suspicion would be with your press. Especially when you rotate and get those results.
And, yes. I do believe that the transfers have a shelf life. Also you don't know if they were properly stored before you got them. But, that being said, the fact that you're getting consistant results by rotating makes me think that your heatpress' downward plate is not applying even pressure. With some of those cheap Chinese presses, you're going to get bad wiring, potential warped plates, etc.
You may want to go to a local shop that does heatpress transfers and buy a transfer from them, one that you know is fresh, and test it with your press.
Then, you could start to eliminate possibilities.

 

I've now been in the business for one year, so I'm still learning. I got a new hix's press and I'm glad to have a average or better press back when I got a bad batch of heat transfers. Clyde kept saying it was my cheap press... well the press works great on other transfers so the problem was the transfers. Shelf life I'm told is fairly long if taken care of but poor craftsmen ship or just plan mistakes on the making of transfers will happen. I found out that cheap transfers cost me $1k when they flaked off the shirts and ABC stopped talking and left me out to die.
If you want some good transfers to play with I'm sure if you post wanting to buy transfers from certain comanies there must be surplus of tranfers on other's shelf. Myself I'd have some from Silver Mountain, Sealy Graphics, Ace Transfer, ABC (which won't last), and I'm sure some Versatran's. Also most companies will send you samples too, good luck.

 

I have had very good success with Airwaves transfers. They peel like butter. Also, there is Proworldinc that has good transfers. There is also the ones from transferexpress. The Goof-Proof, and the Hot splits are really really good. As far as Heat Presses go, that is a very personal thing. I like the one from my good friends over at Heatpressinc.com. They have a drawer press with an Auto Open. What a great machine too. Over the Platen adjustment. And the cost is way, way less than the STAHL"S one you pay over 1850.00 dollars for. So, proworldinc, airwaves, and heatpressinc. You really can't go wrong. And don't buy from EBAY Didn't I teach you anything? LOL

 

im pretty new with the heat transfers printing myself, but i been doing it along along time trial by error. for along time i had my printers going bad on me and i went thru hell. i went down the same route. i purchased a bs heat press and i was working with epson 1400 but never had success. Turns out wasnt the printer nor the ink because i was using claria ink which is good for transfers or pigment dye base inks. It was the paper, i had also bought cheap paper like 100 sheets for 35 or so. I now have great results since i have switch papers to jpss jet pro soft stretch. I am now using a epson workforce 1100 printer with the druabrite inks. My shirts are washer and dryer proof with no special settings. can wash with hot or cold water inside out or not dont matter. I am now looking into using pigment dye inks with cis. hope to have success. Def switch paper up. I use 225 degrees f and pressure i guess since i got a cheap press and i press for 30 sec. I have also read 325f at 8 seconds is good. I preffer COLDPEEL.

 

Just to clear things up for you.. claria ink is dye based ink and is NOT good for heat transfers because it bleeds in the wash and comes off. Durabrite ink is pigment ink which is what is the best for heat transfers. You could turn your 1400 into a pigment printer by replacing your ink carts with refillable carts and pigment ink from cobra ink.

 

here are some factors to consider:

uneven heat that can be caused by:
1) platen not heated properly
2) lower platen not perfectly flat
3) pressure not enough

You can solve some of these by using a tefon pillow and increasing you pressure but you cannot solve the problem with the upper platen having uneven heat.

hint here. buy professional equipment for a professional job. A 20x24 press for 3 benji's is nothing more than a grilled cheese sandwich press.

 

I've been doing Heat Applied Graphics for a very long time. Before I could afford a laser printer, I would use a Canon BJC 1000 wide format printer. It only had 2 cartridges. I bbinelack and one color.(the 3 colors combined) I would use an 11x17 paper from conde systems. Fast forward and I"m using a very good and expensive color laser copier from Oki Data. It is the C830N. I've tried all of the papers out there from Joto Paropy CL Trim-Free to Digital Heat FX Papers to One Step, to Neenah's papers. They are all good though my machine. I have a 16x20 Heat Press from Heat Press Nation. I perfer the One Step High Tempt Weed-less boarder papers. If I want to purchase Transfers that are Plastisol based I use Airwaves.com or Proworldinc transfers or transfer magic. They all are great transfers if I'm going after a certain market. You can transfer their designs to black shirts as well as light shirts. They release like butter. Transfer Magics Transfers are famous for ease of use, from Goof-Proof, to Hot Split. They work best.

 

My first thought is that the heat press is the problem. Is that a brand new heat press for $350?

I have personally tested these entry level "Cheap" presses, and I can tell you that at a platen size of 20 X 24, you should not count on them to deliver a constant pressure across a platen of that size.

Also, yes, if you are sure you have plastisol transfers, they certainly have a shelf life, and that is also likely to be a contributing factor to your problem.

Here's what I have
- I bought a low end entry level 20x24 heat press for $350
- I bought 120 transfers clearance off of ebay for $35.
- I have a teflon cover an both the lower and upper.

I bought the transfers as they were cheap just to learn, I have some low cost white tshirts. I cannot get a consistently good an uniform transfer to happen. Here is what I have tried:

-Temp: 350 - 400 (385 seems to work the best), I have a digital thermo-guage and the pateen is reading ~3-5 degees from center to all 4 corners. It seems pretty even.

-Pressure: I've tried light, all kinds of mid, and very heavy. There was one print which seemed to be smoother as I turned down the pressure on one run but it was a smaller print.

-Time: these transfers just seem to laugh if you try anything less than 60 seconds. This is the part that seems far off the norm to me, if I let it run really long I get better results.

I have 2 specific questions
1) Do plastisol prints go bad over time, in that maybe these clearance ones are just not very printable anymore?

2) Is my heat press the problem/Pressure? When I rotate or change the direction of the transfer the part that looks good/bad rotates as well. It does have a silicone pad on the lower.

My Question is open, anything you have to help would be appreciated.

And thanks for taking the time to read and reply !

[media]http://home.regalweb.com/forum/IMG_0329.JPG[/media]
[media]http://home.regalweb.com/forum/IMG_0330.JPG[/media]

 

Thanks all for giving me some valuable feedback. I wanted to post what I did to fix this and well none of it is reall Ah Hah, but

1) I wrote the person on ebay I bought them from and made sure I was using the right parameters
2) I bought a reputable heat press: HotTronics Fusion. Its not for everybody but the $300 Chinese ones just aren't going to do it. Mainly its engineering, they are center loaded fixed where the "american" presses are center loaded but on a gimble which ensures a flat press.
3) I stopped buying $0.35 transfers on ebay and started buying from name brand providers (see the vendors for ideas).

All in all It's OK I sold my press for $200 and burned a few tees with some cheap transfers to practice. It was good experience and so was reading these replies.

If I had to give advice to anyone else starting out it would be spend the $1K + on a name brand press out of the gate. The fancier ones have pressure sensors and settings and can be invaluable for someone new.

 

cheap press + cheap transfer = cheap product
very simple


Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums app - ddante

 

Here's what I have
- I bought a low end entry level 20x24 heat press for $350
- I bought 120 transfers clearance off of ebay for $35.
- I have a teflon cover an both the lower and upper.

I bought the transfers as they were cheap just to learn, I have some low cost white tshirts. I cannot get a consistently good an uniform transfer to happen. Here is what I have tried:

-Temp: 350 - 400 (385 seems to work the best), I have a digital thermo-guage and the pateen is reading ~3-5 degees from center to all 4 corners. It seems pretty even.

-Pressure: I've tried light, all kinds of mid, and very heavy. There was one print which seemed to be smoother as I turned down the pressure on one run but it was a smaller print.

-Time: these transfers just seem to laugh if you try anything less than 60 seconds. This is the part that seems far off the norm to me, if I let it run really long I get better results.

I have 2 specific questions
1) Do plastisol prints go bad over time, in that maybe these clearance ones are just not very printable anymore?

2) Is my heat press the problem/Pressure? When I rotate or change the direction of the transfer the part that looks good/bad rotates as well. It does have a silicone pad on the lower.

My Question is open, anything you have to help would be appreciated.

And thanks for taking the time to read and reply !

[media]http://home.regalweb.com/forum/IMG_0329.JPG[/media]
[media]http://home.regalweb.com/forum/IMG_0330.JPG[/media]

bhart726,

I bet it is the transfers. When we close out transfers some and older and may not work. All you need to do is ask for sample packets from all the companies. Please call me if you like. I have 45 years at this.

Larry@dowlinggraphics.com

 

Rather than buy another press I don't see why you cannot have the one you have skimmed up
If its not pressing evenly all the way round . If it was mine had take it to work and just pop it on the surface grinder . Happy days .