[Stitch-Up]

I know this has been asked before, but that was back in 2008.

Just wondering whether any of you guys purchase shirts already pretreated?

Is this a market opportunity for someone who invests in a pretreating machine? What premium would you expect to pay for the service?

 

[equipmentzone]

There is no one, to my knowledge, selling pretreated garments.

That was an idea we had 3 years ago. We even constructed a monster of a machine (20 foot long x 15 foot wide) that sprayed the shirts and pressed them automatically. The machine worked but the more we thought about it and the logistics of people sending us their shirts or us supplying the shirts and did we do just the front or also the backs and if someone needed sleeves sprayed and if the shirt didn't print well would we be blamed for not properly pretreating and so on and so on - we decided it just wasn't a viable business idea. In fact, that is what got us started designing the SpeedTreater Automatic Pretreater. In the end, we decided that the best idea was for each individual printer to have their own pretreater and have everything under their own control.

Harry
Equipment Zone

 

[selanac]

You know I was thinking the same thing the other day. Is there someone who supplies Pre-treated t-shirts.

Harry has a good point, but what would be the best way to handle Harry's concerns.

Do you offer a list of pre-treatment locations like we do for screen printed t-shirts?
Do you than recommend how to screen print them and pre-heat them for best results?
Do you give a disclaimer that says we're not responsible idiots doing the previous step wrong?

I think if you provided the pre-treating t-shirts with a list of does and don'ts we'd be responsible for the final screen print or we just wouldn't buy them pre-treated.

Maybe you can dip the whole t-shirt in a pre-treated solution and throw it on the conveyor dryer.

 

[Printzilla]

The only way it will be possible is if the end user accepts the reality that if a shirt does not print correctly you are just out of luck. Jerid Hill is also tossing this idea around. I would do it for people, but can take no responsibility for the end product. The reason is that I never have issues with my shirts, it would be hard to convince me that all of sudden the shirts were bad. I would always think it was an issue with the end user, especially considering they were getting them from me instead of doing it themselves.

 

[WholesalePrint]

There is many issues with this. First and most important is shelf life. We find that printing immediately after pretreating gives best results.

 

[Printzilla]

That is not universally the case. I know of one high volume user who has seen great results on old scrap shirts 6months after they were originally pretreated.

 

[WholesalePrint]

Don't what machine he has but we notice if you take to long to print on a pretreated shirt you run the risk of the fibers coming back up.

We have a 782

 

[Printzilla]

He runs Epson based machines. He represses them before printing. After hearing this from him, I pretreated six shirts and am going to print on them 1 month part for the next six months just to test it out for fun.

 

[WholesalePrint]

We know it will print fine but the hairs become the issue for us. As well as the pretreat glass sheen falls off.

 

[Stitch-Up]

We know it will print fine but the hairs become the issue for us. As well as the pretreat glass sheen falls off.

That's interesing. We're printing on shirts that were pretreated several months ago and we get this issue with 'hairs/fibres' showing up.

Time to get pretreating our own shirts I think

 

[JeridHill]

That's interesing. We're printing on shirts that were pretreated several months ago and we get this issue with 'hairs/fibres' showing up.

Time to get pretreating our own shirts I think

Try using a spray bottle and mist some water on the (pre)pretreated shirt, then heat press until the steam lifts. This should matte down any fibers again.

 

[WholesalePrint]

Brother pretreat isn't like Dupont. Dupont pretreat almost feels like a liquid glue to us. My observation.

 

[TahoeTomahawk]

There is many issues with this. First and most important is shelf life. We find that printing immediately after pretreating gives best results.

We find that letting them sit after pre-treating anywhere from an hour to a day yeilds better results than printing immediatly after.

We try to pre-treat ahead now.

 

[FatKat Printz]

Yeah, we started doing that too..makes the day run faster and smoother having pretreated shirts ahead of time.

we just pretreat a dozen or so of each size we need before we leave for the day and in the morning you are ready to go.. its nice!!

 

[WholesalePrint]

huh interesting. what you guys running for machines? cause brother pretreat we find the opposite.

 

[FatKat Printz]

DTG Kiosk 2

 

[TahoeTomahawk]

huh interesting. what you guys running for machines? cause brother pretreat we find the opposite.

MOD1 and Kiosk 2.

Probably something to do with the dupont product not the machine.

 

[ehas0430]

We currently do sell them, if you message me i can give you more information.

 

[DTGPRINTERPARTS]

We find that letting them sit after pre-treating anywhere from an hour to a day yeilds better results than printing immediatly after.

We try to pre-treat ahead now.

I've noticed this too. I found out that it's because if you let it dry it takes all the moisture out so you get a better bond with the ink. BTW d I thought Chuck at DTGReady sells pretreated shirts

 

[DTGPRINTERPARTS]

We currently do sell them, if you message me i can give you more information.

Where are you located?