Rhinestone Transfer Maintenance

1332 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by SandyMcC, Aug 11, 2010

BlingItOn

Discussion Starter · Aug 6, 2010

This may be an odd question but I'm curious as to how much maintenance you all do on your rhinestone transfers after they have been made and before you ship your product to your customer? What I mean by this is do you look over your transfers and pull out any chipped, cloudy, odd shaped, air bubbles in the stone or any other rhinestone that may not look right and replace it with a new stone?

I've read posts how some can make 50 designs and press them on shirts in a matter of a couple of days and I'm trying to figure out where I am going wrong because I would allow at least 5-6 days to produce that many designs and that's not even pressing the design. Now that 5-6 days is allowing time for me to work on other orders if I need to but it seems like the maintenance part for me is the most time consuming. Do people care if a not so perfect rhinestone is left in the design?

Typically after I make the design I take the first one and and adjust any rhinestones that may have shifted out of place when I peeled off the transfer tape. To me this is real noticeable especially if the design has straight lines. Then I make a copy of that design so that I have a good pattern of the design. After I have made all of the designs I now go through each design and look for any rhinestones that are chipped, cloudy, odd shaped or anyone that just seems to stand out and not look right. By no means am I pulling out a magnifying glass or anything but any stone that stand out to me I would think it would stand out to my customer. After I have pulled out any misfits I replace them with new ones and adjust any rhinestones that may have shifted when I pulled the design off. This process can add another 5-15 minutes onto my design processing time.

I do buy my rhinestones from Shine Art as do many of you and though they are great looking stones there are still some that have flaws. Am I being to anal? Does anyone else do this same process or do you basically check to see if there is enough glue on the backs of the rhinestones and replace any really bad looking stones and then call it complete? What kind of imperfections do you just let go?

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Leg cramps

· #2 · Aug 6, 2010

bling,
although I have only produced about 20 decals,I find it very time consuming.First of all I have baby powedered my templates actually several times to deal with the glue sticking to the stones.I use the black template from klik n nut.I can compare it almost to the glue on fly catchers that you hang from the ceiling,very very sticky!my problem is that i put my template in the bin and dump my stones on top.then i do cirlce motions with my surline brush.most fall into place,but there are always a few that dont,or I knock them out of place trying to swipe off the extra stones.then I have to get my tweezers out and take off all the extra stones that get cuaght between the set stones and replace stones that did not fall into place.then when I transfer i dont get all the stones sometimes 2 to 6 dont come out of the template.I started cutting my template at 3.5 with my ss10 stones and have increase to 3.51.I was using the back side of my fingernail and now im using the sureline brush that seems to help a little bit.then i have to turn over the tape and straighten the stones that are stuck but kinda turning over and replace the stones that didnt transfer.I think im getting better and faster but not as seamless as I want.i gotta give matt some credit he really has the trick to pumping them out.when I told my partner matt did an order of 35 in 3.5 hrs she was like what are you doing wrong?I dont know I read the posts,I watched the videos,Im just slow I guess.I have not had too many bad stones but I do spend the time to make sure the design looks real nice before i allow it to be a sellable item.made my football mom decal last night bu t something is funky with it,might have to start over with a new design,ill post pict of it on my groove e post later.

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BlingItOn

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 6, 2010 (Edited)

I definitely can relate to what you are going through. When I first started making them with the templates I thought for sure I was going to go back to hand setting the rhinestone because I thought that was a faster method. But I promise you will get better and faster at it the more designs you make. Now making the design is a breeze it's just the maintenance after that can slow me down. I too have some of that black template material and I just don't like it at all. For the longest time I was using a oilboard stencil material which only costs about $0.15 for a 6 x 12 sheet. At that price a made a stencil for everything. Recently I purchased the green rubber from Klick-n-kut and I love it. I think it is the same as the Hartco 425S material but I want to buy a small piece first to try it out. Not as sticky and the rhinestones slide right in and don't slip out when you are brushing them. I cut my holes at 3.4 mm. Sometimes if your hols are too large this will cause the rhinestone to move around more and pop out easier. You may want to try purchase the green material and see if that speeds up your time.

I'm just so amaze at the turn around time that some people have and I wonder what am I doing so differently.

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SandyMcC

· #4 · Aug 6, 2010

Leg cramps said:
bling,
although I have only produced about 20 decals,I find it very time consuming.First of all I have baby powedered my templates actually several times to deal with the glue sticking to the stones.I use the black template from klik n nut.I can compare it almost to the glue on fly catchers that you hang from the ceiling,very very sticky!my problem is that i put my template in the bin and dump my stones on top.then i do cirlce motions with my surline brush.most fall into place,but there are always a few that dont,or I knock them out of place trying to swipe off the extra stones.then I have to get my tweezers out and take off all the extra stones that get cuaght between the set stones and replace stones that did not fall into place.then when I transfer i dont get all the stones sometimes 2 to 6 dont come out of the template.I started cutting my template at 3.5 with my ss10 stones and have increase to 3.51.I was using the back side of my fingernail and now im using the sureline brush that seems to help a little bit.then i have to turn over the tape and straighten the stones that are stuck but kinda turning over and replace the stones that didnt transfer.I think im getting better and faster but not as seamless as I want.i gotta give matt some credit he really has the trick to pumping them out.when I told my partner matt did an order of 35 in 3.5 hrs she was like what are you doing wrong?I dont know I read the posts,I watched the videos,Im just slow I guess.I have not had too many bad stones but I do spend the time to make sure the design looks real nice before i allow it to be a sellable item.made my football mom decal last night bu t something is funky with it,might have to start over with a new design,ill post pict of it on my groove e post later.

A couple of suggestions:

(1) Make sure you are brushing long enough... don't give up too soon. And brush with a lighter touch rather than a heavier touch.

(2) You might want to make a testing template to find out the optimum hole diameter for YOUR rhinestones (since rhinestone sizing will vary from one supplier to the next). I made a sizing template for a customer that consisted of, as I recall, 4 sets of ~25 circles each: 3.2mm 3.3mm 3.4mm and 3.5mm. The idea is to see which size is easiest/quickest to fill and then use that size for your designs. Because they are so close, you should be able to proportionately resize any of your existing designs without the need to recreate your patterns.

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sjidohair

· #5 · Aug 11, 2010

Leg cramps said:
bling,
although I have only produced about 20 decals,I find it very time consuming.First of all I have baby powedered my templates actually several times to deal with the glue sticking to the stones.I use the black template from klik n nut.I can compare it almost to the glue on fly catchers that you hang from the ceiling,very very sticky!my problem is that i put my template in the bin and dump my stones on top.then i do cirlce motions with my surline brush.most fall into place,but there are always a few that dont,or I knock them out of place trying to swipe off the extra stones.then I have to get my tweezers out and take off all the extra stones that get cuaght between the set stones and replace stones that did not fall into place.then when I transfer i dont get all the stones sometimes 2 to 6 dont come out of the template.I started cutting my template at 3.5 with my ss10 stones and have increase to 3.51.I was using the back side of my fingernail and now im using the sureline brush that seems to help a little bit.then i have to turn over the tape and straighten the stones that are stuck but kinda turning over and replace the stones that didnt transfer.I think im getting better and faster but not as seamless as I want.i gotta give matt some credit he really has the trick to pumping them out.when I told my partner matt did an order of 35 in 3.5 hrs she was like what are you doing wrong?I dont know I read the posts,I watched the videos,Im just slow I guess.I have not had too many bad stones but I do spend the time to make sure the design looks real nice before i allow it to be a sellable item.made my football mom decal last night bu t something is funky with it,might have to start over with a new design,ill post pict of it on my groove e post later.

Eric,,
It is the glue on the back of the template material you are using,,,
the glue is oozing out the holes and holding the stones in place,, so when you are ready to lift them it is holding them in.

I just did 50 transfers in a very fast run,, under a hour.
You have to get that glue under control at this time of year,,
What material are you using?
cutting on a matt of off?

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mfatty500

· #6 · Aug 11, 2010

BlingItOn said:
I definitely can relate to what you are going through. When I first started making them with the templates I thought for sure I was going to go back to hand setting the rhinestone because I thought that was a faster method. But I promise you will get better and faster at it the more designs you make. Now making the design is a breeze it's just the maintenance after that can slow me down. I too have some of that black template material and I just don't like it at all. For the longest time I was using a oilboard stencil material which only costs about $0.15 for a 6 x 12 sheet. At that price a made a stencil for everything. Recently I purchased the green rubber from Klick-n-kut and I love it. I think it is the same as the Hartco 425S material but I want to buy a small piece first to try it out. Not as sticky and the rhinestones slide right in and don't slip out when you are brushing them. I cut my holes at 3.4 mm. Sometimes if your hols are too large this will cause the rhinestone to move around more and pop out easier. You may want to try purchase the green material and see if that speeds up your time.

I'm just so amaze at the turn around time that some people have and I wonder what am I doing so differently.

I'm just bought template material product from Supply Hut and cut 1 template from it and it worked good, stickier (if that's a word) than the stuff I got from Accugraphics, but I made less passes, only 2. I'm using a Graphtec 5000, I too have have been using shine art stones and I only cut mine at 3.1 mm, and still have backer board showing around the the stone. And my spacing is at 3.9, on my ACS system (thanks Sandy).

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SandyMcC

· #7 · Aug 11, 2010 (Edited)

mfatty500 said:
I'm just bought template material product from Supply Hut and cut 1 template from it and it worked good, stickier (if that's a word) than the stuff I got from Accugraphics, but I made less passes, only 2. I'm using a Graphtec 5000, I too have have been using shine art stones and I only cut mine at 3.1 mm, and still have backer board showing around the the stone. And my spacing is at 3.9, on my ACS system (thanks Sandy).

You're welcome, Mike!

Also, the spacing is technically 0.8 mm BETWEEN the stones. In ACS, when you enter the spacing number, it includes the size of the circles you are using, too.

You're doing it perfectly correct... just didn't want anyone here thinking that your circles are spaced 3.9 mm apart. KWIM?

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