[missneriss]

G'day,

I'm looking at buying a heat-press and printing t-shirts from home. Is anyone able to fill me in on what's required for starting out?

From what I can gather I need a printer of some description, special inks and the actual transfer paper to print onto? HELP... If you hadn't noticed I'm somewhat clueless about all this.

Any advice would be MUCHLY appreciated!!

 

[badalou]

Then I will help you. Printer. Epson.. C86 cheapest with pigment ink, press I just got a mighty press 15 x 15 love it Go to Coastal Business for great service and price. paper.. I use Iron all from New Milford.. love it, love it.. Opaque for darks. Need more info write me directly and I can help you. John at New Milford is now calling me the king of "Iron All"

 

[Decal_Designs]

Welcome to the forums missneriss.

Basically you have it right.

You need a good heat press and most of us would recommend a 15 x 15 or larger name brand press.

A printer, and it is usually recommended that it be an Epson with pigment based ink as opposed to dye based ink.

You will need some transfer paper and probably the most recommended is Transjet 2 or Magicjet depending on where you buy it. You would use opaque transfer sheets for darks, or order some Plastisol transfers.

You will also need some software to create your designs with. There are many programs you could use depending on what type of designs you wish to focus on.

You will learn a lot by reading some of the other posts in the forum, and I'm sure you will have many questions too.

What kind of t-shirt designs are you interested in creating?
Let us know more about what you have in mind, and you are sure to get plenty of help to get you started.

 

[Solmu]

Go to Coastal Business for great service and price.

If I was in the market for a heat press or supplies I'd also check out how Imprintables Warehouse measures up. Josh from there is very helpful on these forums, and apparently they offer discounts to forum members (I've never bought from them and I'm not saying I'd still go there if they didn't measure up against other companies, but it would seem crazy not to check them out against the competition).

 

[missneriss]

Thanks everyone!

I'm in Australia so may have slight logistical problems with the suppliers mentioned! From what I can gather there is a heat press supplier here in Melbourne - Roxcell - who seem to be pretty good.

I'm planning on creating designs with Illustrator. With this method, it's better to print dark designs on pale fabric, right?

Any suggestions on a good model of Espon?

Thanks again,
Nerissa

 

[Solmu]

From what I can gather there is a heat press supplier here in Melbourne - Roxcell

Ah, yet another Melbourne person

Yes, Roxcell are in Chadstone I think. I also have contact details somewhere for another company in NSW and one in QLD I can probably dig up if they don't work out.

With this method, it's better to print dark designs on pale fabric, right?

Better, yes.