Can all Screen Printers Make Plastisol Transfers

They can in that they certainly have the equipment to do it. But most do not bother. 1, it does take a little more effort. And 2, making transfers means you are not making the additional income that comes with also supplying the shirt for printing.

Yeah, any printer in theory can do it, it's whether they want to.

It's the same process as printing a t-shirt, except you're printing on a special paper and instead of fully curing it, you partially cure it so that it's dry to the touch (and can be stacked for transport) and heat transferred onto a shirt later.

Schools do it a lot so that students can come in, pick from a handful of designs and then pick the type (and color) shirt they want. I've done it before. The profit isn't as much as standard printing (as mentioned above) but if you can sell them the shirts AND the transfers then it's usually a pretty good deal if the volumes right.

If they have their own supply for shirts, it's probably not worth the time, but that's your call.

Good luck!

Hello,

I am not intersted in making them myself but am interested in possibly finding a person or two that can make them for me on the side. with the larger companies, overhead is such a big factor in their pricing. I live close to Transfer Express and have been in their building. They are a real class act to say the least with I believe over 150 employees. That is some serious overhead,

Can a guy in his home operation get good results while keeping the costs down.

Rick

Thanks, I do not screen print but do alot of promo shirts. I am looking for a screen person who has the time to moonlite for us. Is this even on the right track.

Thanks

Rick

You don't have to resort to the moonlighting home operation to get reasonable transfers. With dowling, for example, you can get 25 1 color transfers done for $31. Prices go down from there in volume.

thanks for the info, I got a pricelist from one close to me and it threw me out of being even close to competitive.

rick

How about artwork, setup and freight. One thing with my niche is i have alot of art changes. an order of 500 pcs may have 20 different company sponsors. what is average for artwork charges. I encounter the same doing mini fballs but we laser our pad printing plates in-house so it isn't an issue there.

rick

rick

leadergrafx said:

How about artwork, setup and freight. One thing with my niche is i have alot of art changes. an order of 500 pcs may have 20 different company sponsors. what is average for artwork charges. I encounter the same doing mini fballs but we laser our pad printing plates in-house so it isn't an issue there.

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Whether you screen print or use transfers, you are going to have a lot of screen charges if you need 20 different designs.

Have you considered direct-to-garment printing?

Seems like DTG still has some development coming, as with anything else, how about image-clip. I have had a dificult time getting image clip to respond to my efforts but the samples I picked up in Atlanta transfered awesome. I have a Samsung laser and it goes through good but I am wondering if that prodoct was developed to get top performance with the OKI. Any experience with this.

Rick

jus a few questions. i know i need transfer paper for the inks but do i need special inks? or can i jus use any fabric screenprinting ink and have it done?

If you are using transfer paper for t-shirts, you need to use pigment inks.

Tip for saving on Setup.
Depending on your design...
If you can cluster some of your sponsors onto a single page (or less pages than you would if you did them separately), then cut them apart yourself. You will save on setup fees and costs, but you will be increasing your labour.
Also, remember some transfer folks have larger sheets for their transfers than the shirt area you are using. So throw extra pieces of art into that space.

Do some companies have larger base sheets to group artwork on. another quick questions - what is the average size of a the average size of a print for the back of a shirt and can you group when you are doing large prints. Who is the best to use.

Rick

I keep my art within 8.5 x 8.5 most of the time, but will expand to 10 x 10 if needed.
My screener does sheets up to 13x22 I think. I could be wrong on that, but I know it was much larger than the space I need.
You will need to talk to your local suppliers to find out what is available in your area. Only then will you know how you can layout your design.
And whoever you go with... get proper heat & time settings from them. I did some work for someone else and they didn't do that. Well, their guess work sucked and the shirts turned out like crap. Ask the questions and plan for a couple test runs just to be sure. Remember you can cut your test sheets smaller if all you are testing is settings.

leadergrafx said:

... interested in possibly finding a person or two that can make them for me on the side. with the larger companies, overhead is such a big factor in their pricing. I live close to Transfer Express...

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There is also economy of scale with larger companies, meaning that because they do large amounts of transfers and specialize in transfers, they can print them cheaper and at higher quality than most small shops.

Transfer Express is a bad example because they are dramatically more expensive than most companies. The most cost effective companies in order from cheapest to most expensive are: First Edition, F&M, & Dowling. Universal is inexpensive for single color and full color digital, but their multicolor pricing is very high. Ace & Howard have multiple price levels, their lowest being middle of the road while their highest is very high. I use F&M because of their affordable price and quick turnaround.

leadergrafx said:

thanks for the info, I got a pricelist from one close to me and it threw me out of being even close to competitive.

rick

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I've found the same thing. It's not too hard these days to find a screen printer who will direct print the job providing the shirt for about what the transfers cost you. Can't be any way near competitive using plastisol transfers.

wormil said:

The most cost effective companies in order from cheapest to most expensive are: First Edition, F&M, & Dowling.

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Rick,

This will depend a lot on your individual business model. If I am doing a multi color (3 or less) limited edition small run, Dowling is cheapest followed by F&M, then First Edition.

On larger runs (500+) it's your order above.

splathead said:

Rick,

This will depend a lot on your individual business model. If I am doing a multi color (3 or less) limited edition small run, Dowling is cheapest followed by F&M, then First Edition.

On larger runs (500+) it's your order above.

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Can you give me a specific example job? According to all my price sheets, First Edition and F&M are cheaper on small runs. What I do is create sample jobs and then price them with each vendor and put them in a spreadsheet, then I average the price of the four jobs and sort them. I do have one sample job (2dz - 3c) where Dowling is cheaper by a dollar.

I would use Dowling but their turnaround (10-14 days) is too long for custom work. I asked for samples and they sent me what looks like their stock transfers. Does their custom work look like that?

wormil said:

Can you give me a specific example job? According to all my price sheets, First Edition and F&M are cheaper on small runs. What I do is create sample jobs and then price them with each vendor and put them in a spreadsheet, then I average the price of the four jobs and sort them. I do have one sample job (2dz - 3c) where Dowling is cheaper by a dollar.

I would use Dowling but their turnaround (10-14 days) is too long for custom work. I asked for samples and they sent me what looks like their stock transfers. Does their custom work look like that?

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The price lists I have show the following for 25 (dowlings minimum) 3color transfers (all as close to a page size that I could get):

First Ed. $4.89
F&M $4.87
Dowling $2.30

I don't have anymore custom transfers from them otherwise I would send you one.