New in Business need help

Are you handy with wood working tools? If so you can make your own screen printing frames. Buy a single roller frame and use it to stretch fabric and then over lay that on wooden frames to attacth the fabric to your own home made frames. Read up on exposure units, you can make your own for burning screens and use a table top set of clamp hinges to begin a screen printing setup. The handier you are with tools the more complex you can become. Later this year i'll be posting on my web site a walk through on how to start a screen print shop for next to nothing and actually do decent prints. I made my own screen printing table many years ago, made my own exposure unit, stretched my own frames even made my own squeegies from left over rubber scraps thrown away at work. If your patient, frugal and clever you can slowly build up a reasonably decent setup in a month or two without spending a lot of money.

I'm going to add my 2cents... though it might not be worth much but this is how I started with a low budget....

I purchased a 15x15 press off of Ebay for $209... here is the link to the seller... NEW 15X15 T-SHIRT HEAT PRESS MACHINE 15 X 15 BLACK HP - eBay (item 280552955132 end time Aug-26-10 16:51:26 PDT). He had a good rating & reputation, so that's why I picked this particular seller, plus he offered "free shipping" with the purchase. Mind you I just bought this press to get me started and intend on buying a bigger swing arm in the near future.

Then I scoured Ebay and scored a like new Epson C120 printer for $37.00 incl. s&h, again a decent printer just to get me started. I decided to not go all out on a printer just yet, because I want to continue to do research on them. With Epson's clogging issues and others saying Ricoh prints just aren't as sharp, I need more time pondering over this important decision.

Transfer Express is a good option if you want to have a company print your custom transfers. Just upload your artwork via their site and they'll work up a quote for you. Bang On t-shirts now has a wholesale program so you can purchase their transfers, but unfortunately their order minimum IS $500.00.

Go to TSC Apparel Collection They have no order minimums on garments and will get you setup with an account right away. They're great! They also provide free shipping on your first order when you call and place it, which is always a plus in my book. Shipping is expensive nowadays.

It may be slow go, but you can get yourself started. Just don't give up, cause it can be done. You shouldn't sacrifice quality, but you don't have to start off with top of the line EVERYTHING because you can always gradually upgrade your equipment once you get started and turning your profit. Good Luck!