Hi Louis, I’ll try to explain what I know about making heat transfers in a
little bit plainer terms. in college what we used for a screen press was a piece
of plywood, two door hinges, and a wooden framed screen. We used double
sided tape to hold the paper down to the board (this was the early 80s).
So imagine the board being replaced by a 15”x15”x2” tall box of clear
plexiglass. Instead of door hinges use hinge clamps (available at any screen
supply company). The hinge clamps will hold any frame and make it much
easier to change out the screens. On the top of the plexi box drill tiny holes
every 1/4” and a hole just big enough on the bottom to slip the hose attachment
from your vacuum in it snugly.
When you turn the vacuum on air will be sucked thru all those tiny holes and
if you put a piece of heat transfer paper on this vacuum box (platen), it will
be stuck firmly in place. If there is a light under the platen you will be able to
see thru the paper (backlit).
So first take a film of your design to register the paper with and tape it to the
platen. A keyline is just like a cartoon without any of the colors. So if the design
has any lettering, use outlines of the letters as a keyline. If there is any line work
use that. If not just use registration marks, a circle with a cross hair in each corner.
Poke holes thru the film where the vacuum holes are. Now you can put a piece
of heat transfer paper on the platen, turn on the vacuum, and using the backlight
see the design thru the paper which is stuck firmly in place.
Put your first color screen in the hinge clamps, don’t tighten all the way, and move
it around until it lines up perfectly with the keyline on the platen.
The design will have to be mirrored, and printed in the opposite order that you
would normally. You can underbase as a last color so your transfers will work
on dark shirts.
So line up your first screen, put a piece of paper on the platen, turn on the vacuum,
print your first color, turn off the vacuum, gel the ink.
You don’t want to completely cure the ink hard, just heat it enough to be solid. You
should be able to roll a ball of it between your fingers like dough. It’s easiest
and fastest to do this with a dryer but it can be done quite well with a flash cure unit.
After you have printed all of the transfers you want, change out the screen for the
second color and register. Using your backlit keyline put the one color transfer
on the platen, using the keyline, line up the paper with design perfectly, and print
the second color. repeat until finished.
After the transfer has been printed, just use a heat press to transfer the design onto
the t shirt.
I would love to visit your home, I hope this is a little easier to understand, John S.
