[tbtrans]

Hi everybody,new to the forums here,im sure this question has been asked before but hopefully you can help me out. I just set my wife up with a small t shirt business,so far we have a nice heat press,i ordered some shirts,and a bunch of stock heat transfer designs,while that has been fun,what ive noticed is that are friends seem to be asking more for custom shirts with things they want on them,such as their business name etc... im under the impression that you can use a printer to print off designs you make on to transfer paper,then use your heat press to put them on to shirts, im completely new to this so sorry for the newbie questions, but with out completely breaking the bank,what types and makes of printers would be suitable to do this with,and what kind of software (user friendly) would you use to design your own graphics with,and also what inks will work in certain printers,im under the impression the plastisol transfers we buy are the way to go, so anyway without dragging this out to much longer,any help or ideas on the subject would be greatly appreciated, thanks ,Best Regards,Tom

 

[miktoxic]

custom plastisol transfers or invest in a vinyl cutter which is great for one color designs on any color shirt.

you'd need a computer with a graphics program, design the design, send the info to the cutter and it will cut whatever color vinyl you purchase, place on shirt and heat press.

 

[tbtrans]

Hi,thanks for that info,thats not really what I was hoping to do, don't they make some kind of a decent size printer,that might use plastisol ink cartridges in it,and use like 15" X 15" sheets of some type of transfer paper that the printer would print right on to them you could take that transfer and heat press it right on to a shirt? also what would be a good easy to use graphics software ,to design with? hope somebody has some ideas on that thanks for any advice you can give me, regards,Tom

 

[miktoxic]

plastisol transfers are made by silkscreening your design onto a paper.

there are no printer's that use a plastisol ink cartridge. plastisol ink is pretty thick and i don't know why but nothing like that exists to this point.

if you are doing light colored shirts (white-ash) then you can get away with using heat transfer paper for light fabrics. the inkjet transfer paper for darks i wouldn't recommend as your design would have to be within a circle or square for you to easily cut by hand, besides it feels like you stuck a garbage bag on a shirt.

IMO i wouldn't sell either to customers. with the competition online like customink a lot of customers are going in that direction and leaving the mom and pop shops behind.

BUT as i said a vinyl cutter opens up a lot of other doors for you. you can cut numbers for jerseys, cut vinyl for signage. but a pro grade cutter will cost you over 1k.

 

[tbtrans]

Well,like I said ,im trying to research all of the possibilities,and come up with something that might work,within reason,and not totally break the bank,i was even looking at the,anajet direct print to garment machine,pretty cool stuff,but 26K, you gotta sell a lot of t shirts to recoupe,that money, but thanks for your help an ideas, appreciate it, Tom

 

[miktoxic]

if you don't want to invest a lot go the silkscreen route.

i don't know you're living conditions (home or apt etc.) but i print out a one bedroom apt with a table top press.

just need the design software, a printer to print films and the supplies to coat silkscreen frames. depending on how many colors you want to do you can get a nice little set up from $100 - $400.