I'm an embroidery and I'm thinking about addig sublimation and/or chromablast. Any info is greatly appreciated
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
Joined
·
9,955 Posts
they both suck. chromablast will crack after a few washes and will leave hand where the paper hits the garment that has no ink on it. dye sub is expensive for the inks, paper, and blanks.
if you are going to make a choice, pick screen printing. not sexy, but makes money.
if you are going to make a choice, pick screen printing. not sexy, but makes money.
Joined
·
1,474 Posts
I have to disagree with binki, I don't think sublimation sucks. It take practice and the dye sub ink is not cheap, but if you have the market for dye sub products you can make good money with it (you can do way more than just garments). But I would stay away from Chromablast my self.
DTG or screen printing are profitable if done right and marketed right but cost significantly more to purchase quality equipment to get started. And screen printing is a steep and long learning curve.
DTG or screen printing are profitable if done right and marketed right but cost significantly more to purchase quality equipment to get started. And screen printing is a steep and long learning curve.
Joined
·
1,276 Posts
Hmmm. That's kinda strong...
I am a dye sublimation printer. Sublimation makes money for me. I can't say it sucks
You just have to offer it to a different market.
For most of my clients screen printing would not be an option - either becasue of number of colours and complexity/size of the designs, or because sublimation is a better option for sports apparel and active wear than screen printing.
I have nothing against screen printing or vinyl or heat transfers - I believe they all have their place in the apparel decorating business, all depends on what market you are catering to.
Joined
·
9,955 Posts
Yes it is strong and I have been doing it for 5 years.
The natural and traditional compliment to embroidery is screen printing.
Here is why dyesub sucks.
- Ink costs are high. $145 for 110ML in bag and double that for the gels.
- Constant head clogs or keep the printer on and constant head cleanings wasting ink.
- Price of blanks is high. Vapor shirts are $4.50 each. Mugs are $3 each. Most of the other dyesub items are inexpensive but the products are cheap. Cheap looking, cheap feeling, irregular in sizes (mostly ceramics) and just poor quality.
- The format most get into is small format so high value items take more time and effort to do. Large format dye sub can be a money maker but you need a lot of volume for it. By large format I mean at least a 24" stand up printer made for dye sub, not a table top converted printer
- The paper is expensive, $1 sheet with shipping.
- Constant changes in technology means your printer may not be supported in the future
- High repair costs for printer if you don't get one that has been modified for dyesub (waste ink fills up and printer stops)
For the money, screen printing will produce more income and less headaches than dye sub and it is a better compliment to embroidery than any other garment decorating method.
DTG is NOT the way to go either. Entry to DTG is high compared to screen printing. You will have the same issues with DTG as with dye sub, head clogs, maintenance up the arse, high ink costs, poor results without a boat load of work and effort.
If you really want to do dyesub, find someone to outsource to but jumping into it is a mistake if you don't offer other high volume alternatives such as screen printing.
thanks for making my point
The natural and traditional compliment to embroidery is screen printing.
Here is why dyesub sucks.
- Ink costs are high. $145 for 110ML in bag and double that for the gels.
- Constant head clogs or keep the printer on and constant head cleanings wasting ink.
- Price of blanks is high. Vapor shirts are $4.50 each. Mugs are $3 each. Most of the other dyesub items are inexpensive but the products are cheap. Cheap looking, cheap feeling, irregular in sizes (mostly ceramics) and just poor quality.
- The format most get into is small format so high value items take more time and effort to do. Large format dye sub can be a money maker but you need a lot of volume for it. By large format I mean at least a 24" stand up printer made for dye sub, not a table top converted printer
- The paper is expensive, $1 sheet with shipping.
- Constant changes in technology means your printer may not be supported in the future
- High repair costs for printer if you don't get one that has been modified for dyesub (waste ink fills up and printer stops)
For the money, screen printing will produce more income and less headaches than dye sub and it is a better compliment to embroidery than any other garment decorating method.
DTG is NOT the way to go either. Entry to DTG is high compared to screen printing. You will have the same issues with DTG as with dye sub, head clogs, maintenance up the arse, high ink costs, poor results without a boat load of work and effort.
If you really want to do dyesub, find someone to outsource to but jumping into it is a mistake if you don't offer other high volume alternatives such as screen printing.
Not really. you can buy a yudu and be printing in an afternoon. Not the best way to go but not hard to do. Spot Color screen printing is pretty simple.
Joined
·
1,474 Posts
I guess the real point of all this Stitch is that you can make money with all the different printing methods if you have the right market for what you are doing. All the different methods have their positives and negatives. I don't like Chromablast, binki does not like dye sub, others on this forum don't like DTG, and still others won't go near screen printing.
Of all of the printing methods out there, screen printing is the most widely used method. No matter what anybody says though, it is not easy if you are going to try and offer the types of sophisticated printing customers want today that use detailed half tones and specialty inks. A good spot color separation is not easy either, it takes an expensive program or very good skills in your design software of choice.
binki mentions the crappy blank substrates that permeate the dye sub industry. It is the same type of thing with all the printing methods including screen printing. The cheapo screen printing equipment will give you a crappy, and in my opinion, boring little print.
Obviously you want to expand your business. Depending on what part of the world you are in, it could be that an industry trade show is coming up near you very soon. You might go to one of those and see all the equipment and supplies involved in each of the different ways you could go. Don't pay much attention to the people who sell the stuff and their hype. (You know their stuff is the easiest and best out there of course!) But look at what you can produce with their equipment and how much of an investment it will take to get started. Think about what your customers might have already been asking you for, think about what competition you might have in your area and what they offer. Do you want to go head to head against another company in your area, or do you want to offer things they don't offer. Take your time and think this through, and don't think the few answers you got here are near enough to make a decision with.
Of all of the printing methods out there, screen printing is the most widely used method. No matter what anybody says though, it is not easy if you are going to try and offer the types of sophisticated printing customers want today that use detailed half tones and specialty inks. A good spot color separation is not easy either, it takes an expensive program or very good skills in your design software of choice.
binki mentions the crappy blank substrates that permeate the dye sub industry. It is the same type of thing with all the printing methods including screen printing. The cheapo screen printing equipment will give you a crappy, and in my opinion, boring little print.
Obviously you want to expand your business. Depending on what part of the world you are in, it could be that an industry trade show is coming up near you very soon. You might go to one of those and see all the equipment and supplies involved in each of the different ways you could go. Don't pay much attention to the people who sell the stuff and their hype. (You know their stuff is the easiest and best out there of course!) But look at what you can produce with their equipment and how much of an investment it will take to get started. Think about what your customers might have already been asking you for, think about what competition you might have in your area and what they offer. Do you want to go head to head against another company in your area, or do you want to offer things they don't offer. Take your time and think this through, and don't think the few answers you got here are near enough to make a decision with.
Joined
·
261 Posts
I do both embroidery and sublimation. I do more embroidery, but have, on occasion done as many as 100+ shirts in sublimation. The nice thing about sublimation is that you can use the process on a number of different items including awards, plaques and I recently sublimated some metal signs. I have also done wedding photos and other interesting things like custom purses.
You can also sublimate your design and add embroidery or rhinestones for a really cool effect.
With sublimation you are limited to 100% polyester and there are not a lot of fashion forward clothing items out there wholesale. The biggies have that stuff and do the "all over" sublimation that is so popular right now in big department stores. But you can certainly do some very neat things with your designs, just not too many options besides regular crew tees.
I used to use the epson printers for sublimation, but switched to the Ricoh GX7000 with gel based dye sub inks and will never look back. Epsons are notorious for clogging up and print heads drying. I went through 3 printers. This Richoh is perfect for me because I don't use it a whole lot. Even if it sits a month, I run a print check, one or two cleanings and it's ready to go. Oh, yeah, the ink lasts and lasts.
Bottom line, if you get out there and sell it and all the things you can print, the sublimation will make you money. It's not cheap to get into but not outta sight either. Check with Conde, they are who I deal with and are very fast getting the products out the door.
I also agree with Mark, go to a tradeshow to see all the products before you buy if you can, and educate yourself. There will be a learning curve with any of these processes.
You can also sublimate your design and add embroidery or rhinestones for a really cool effect.
With sublimation you are limited to 100% polyester and there are not a lot of fashion forward clothing items out there wholesale. The biggies have that stuff and do the "all over" sublimation that is so popular right now in big department stores. But you can certainly do some very neat things with your designs, just not too many options besides regular crew tees.
I used to use the epson printers for sublimation, but switched to the Ricoh GX7000 with gel based dye sub inks and will never look back. Epsons are notorious for clogging up and print heads drying. I went through 3 printers. This Richoh is perfect for me because I don't use it a whole lot. Even if it sits a month, I run a print check, one or two cleanings and it's ready to go. Oh, yeah, the ink lasts and lasts.
Bottom line, if you get out there and sell it and all the things you can print, the sublimation will make you money. It's not cheap to get into but not outta sight either. Check with Conde, they are who I deal with and are very fast getting the products out the door.
I also agree with Mark, go to a tradeshow to see all the products before you buy if you can, and educate yourself. There will be a learning curve with any of these processes.
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
