badbird said:
Hello again ... I was wondering what all different uses there were for the cutter/plotters as far as producing shirts and other imprintable items.
There are so many things you can do with a good quality 24" vinyl cutter. The main use for t-shirts though, will be cutting thermal vinyl so that it can then be applied to a shirt with a heat press.
I would like to look into one for customer lettering and text, but I was wondering if there were more uses for the item than just for text ?
Text is one of the big pluses of using thermal vinyl for making t-shirts, as there is nothing transfered to the garment other than what you want transfered. This makes it very good for making dark garments. However text is definitely not the only thing you can do. You can make multi-colored designs of almost anything imaginable except for photo realistic type designs. The vinyls are solid colors. There are a few special vinyls like camo and stuff, but the point is the colors are solid, and you create different designs with multiple solid colors. Most text, logos, cartoon characters etc. are based on solid colors.
Here is an example of a shirt I'm making for a local band using 3 colors of ThermoFlex vinyl on black shirts. It's an example of something you could do with a good cutter and heat press.
I'm very new to this kind of item right now, but I am looking for any way to expand our business to make more different, unique, and personalized items.
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If you were to get a good cutter, and learned how to use it and the software to work with vector based graphics that are "vinyl ready", you would not only be able to make t-shirts, you will also be fully capable of creating signs and decals for your customer. I don't mean that you have to do big lit up signs, but some nice banners and yard signs. That might not be what you want to focus on, but at least you could.
For example, a customer is starting, or has a small business. They come to you for some t-shirts. They want nice black t-shirts with their company name and logo on them. They are a small company, so they will only need 10 shirts. This is too small a quantity to screen print them, and dark shirts are not the easiest thing to do with ink jet transfers. This is perfect for thermal vinyl. While your at it, you could easily offer them some lettering or graphics for their vehicles or store front, or some signs to help promote their business. (Different type of vinyl, but the same software and cutter.) These are just some very real possibilities. You may wish to stick with just t-shirts.
By the way, that t-shirt design for the band that I linked to above, will also be cut using
sign vinyl to be applied to the bass drum head, and will also be cut to make banners for the band and lettering for their van. All possible because I was able to make them some t-shirts.
