Help With adding Heat transfer to Existing Business

For starters, a 16X20 press will serve you quite nicely. Stahl's is a good brand. To price them out, find the best price on th model you want, you can start by using the vendor links to the left, and continue with a Yahoo search.

Gildan is the brand of shirt that I use most. I use either their style 2000 or 5000. The 5.6 oz shirt is fine for printing. The 6.1 oz shirt is good when your customer want a slightly heavier shirt. Gildan is available through many, many vendors. I usually use Sanmar or Golden State Activewear (the latter is close to me, and I can will call). I also like the Port Authority T-Shirt; that is sold through Sanmar.

Again, there are many, many shirt styles available, and I would do a search and check out what's available. This way, when your cusotmer asks for a specific style or color shirt, you have a head start.

If you want to start with stock transfers, check out ProWorld.

If you're going to add custom transfers printed with your inkjet printer, the most popular papers (and my new favs) are JPSS (JetProSoftStretch) for lights, and Everlast or Ironall for darks. Both of these papers are available at heatpressessntials.com.

As for printer and ink specs for the printers:

it's really best to use a pigment ink for the opaque paper for dark shirts. I use the Epson C120 for this -- I purchased it directly from Epson when they were doing a sale of refurbished models for $39.

Most will tell you that you need pigment ink for lights as well. While that may be the preferred method for mos, I have found that the JPSS paper works quite well with the dye inks. I use my HP printer with those.

There is so much good information on this board, if you continue to do searches, and read new posts, you're going to found out more about the specifics.

Hi Carolyn and welcome to the forum.

Michele and Rick gave you great info... I can only add that you can cut your ink costs after you buy your printer by buying 3rd party inks, either re-fill carts or bulk ink systems. There are suppliers like inkjetcart.us, shopdyesub.com, and inkjetfly. There are more, but these names I see quite frequently on the forum.

If you choose JetproSofstretch paper, the price can vary greatly. Some additional suppliers that have excellent pricing are tshirtsupplies.com and New Milford Paper. Sign up with all the suppliers for their newsletter, so when they run a sale, you'll be the first to know. It's nice to never pay full price.

I use Ironall Dark as well. I like it bc it is stretchy, but some folks don't like the textured surface. I buy it at New Milford. There is a second paper that folks on the forum really like, it is called JetWear, that is at tshirtsupplies.com and it is the same paper that people like that is called Alpha Gold for Darks, which is from Alpha Supply.

Accessories you might want to add to your heat press supplies are a teflon sheet to keep your upper platen clean, a fitted teflon pad to keep your lower platen clean. A mess on your upper or lower platen can be a bear to clean off. These sheets make clean up a breeze. Parchment paper can be substituted for teflon on the top. If you do get a big mess, EZ Off is a cleaner for the upper platen. It's not the EZ off for Ovens in your home, it is different, and made for platens.

A lint roller. I won't press without mine. I use the sticky tape kind because it grabs those little loose fibers, and then I peel it and throw it away. Those pesky fibers show up after I press... they glare at me post press, haha, when I couldn't even see them before I pressed.

If your press doesn't have a built in timer, a stand alone timer is great. It beats watching and counting the seconds on the clock.

Some mouse pads to raise the material above the seams when pressing. I happened to have mouse pads here that worked. I just cut them to size with a scissor. They are awesome. Uncorrogated cardboard does the same job.

For lining up the transfers... I spent $11 on a June Taylor Fringe Cut. It was from Walmart. It's clear, lined and numbered. Some others here use this too. It's a big rectangle, and very sturdy.

Store your transfer paper stock in the plastic bags it comes in, or your own, but keep them in plastic as they can be finicky about the humidity in the environment.

Lastly, for you, I have a post about how to press step by step instructions, the how and whys included. Good luck to you and your husband, hope you enjoy this process:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/inkjet-heat-transfer-paper/t39007.html#post229735

Okay.. gotta run, I"m late... haha... okay have fun!!!