what shirts are everyone using?brands and what colors can be sublimated yellow,red etc..?where are you getting shirts at? what am i doing wrong i am getting a box around image when i do shirt, i have it set at 396 degrees and do it for 45 seconds?thanks for help
What t-shirt brand and colors are you using for dye sublimation? How do I get rid of the box on the t-shirt?
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Re: sublimation help
I normally only use Vapor Apparel ...pricey but good...you must use 100% polyester...sublimation will not work on cotton...it will wash off..Best results are on white or very light pastel...with pastels you will get a color shift..like when you put yellow color on a red color... any dark colors...red, navy, black, orange etc will not work. I press at 400F for 60 seconds
I normally only use Vapor Apparel ...pricey but good...you must use 100% polyester...sublimation will not work on cotton...it will wash off..Best results are on white or very light pastel...with pastels you will get a color shift..like when you put yellow color on a red color... any dark colors...red, navy, black, orange etc will not work. I press at 400F for 60 seconds
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Re: sublimation help
As Debz said - using a teflon pillow or foam insert that is slightly smaller than your transfer will help to eliminate paper lines as the transfer edges will be hanging over the pillow/insert and will not get pressed.
If your box is not from paper lines, but from heat press upper platen - try dropping down the pressure. Generally, with most fabrics light to medium pressure should give you good results. You may need to increase your pressing time to compensate for lower pressure. I usually do the shirts for 60 sec at 200C.
If you need true colour representation of your designs (i.e. logos, sports club colours, particular Pantone colours you are trying to match) - it's better to stick with white shirts.
You will get very good results of light coloured pastels, but as Charles mentioned - there will be a slight colour shift: blue print on yellow shirt will have green-ish hue, red colour on yellow shirt will have orange hue etc.
On darker shirts like red, orange, blue you can still print with dye-sub, but only very dark coloured designs and black prints will stand out.
As Debz said - using a teflon pillow or foam insert that is slightly smaller than your transfer will help to eliminate paper lines as the transfer edges will be hanging over the pillow/insert and will not get pressed.
If your box is not from paper lines, but from heat press upper platen - try dropping down the pressure. Generally, with most fabrics light to medium pressure should give you good results. You may need to increase your pressing time to compensate for lower pressure. I usually do the shirts for 60 sec at 200C.
If you need true colour representation of your designs (i.e. logos, sports club colours, particular Pantone colours you are trying to match) - it's better to stick with white shirts.
You will get very good results of light coloured pastels, but as Charles mentioned - there will be a slight colour shift: blue print on yellow shirt will have green-ish hue, red colour on yellow shirt will have orange hue etc.
On darker shirts like red, orange, blue you can still print with dye-sub, but only very dark coloured designs and black prints will stand out.
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This is where I bought them Transfer Paper, Heat Press, Heat Transfer Vinyl, Sublimation - Coastal Business - Search
we have learned through many screw ups not all polyester shirts are good for sublimation ,with that said we only use vapor shirts and minus white shirts we have never had that boxxy mark on vapors.With the white ones we just lighten the pressure up and knock on wood have been getting by with out buying the Teflon pillow.We sublimate on every color pretty much but black when doing the darker shirts you are forced to use a darker ink then the shirt color to make it show up can be a challenge some times but is fun to play with.In our shop we do a lot of one off printing and nine times out of ten we use sublamation but that could be just because were are comfortable with it so we push it more.Good luck cainer77 !!!
Your pressure should be very light. It should be just enough to prevent you from pulling the transfer sheet out.
Also, you should have a piece of heat resistant foam underneath your garment that is smaller than the transfer. You should leave at least a .75" margin around your image on the transfer sheet to accommodate the foam sheet.
Finally if you are still getting a box on the shirt lower your temperature and adjust the time you are pressing. We've successfully sublimated down to 350F with increased time. We usually recommend that our transfers be pressed at 370F.
One last item of note, I've never seen a heat press with an accurate temp gauge. Use a laser and find out what your internal temp actually is. One of our heat presses hits an internal of 430F if we set it for 385F.... Find out what your actual internal temps are and create a chart to cross reference the gauge temps with the actual temps.
Good luck!
Also, you should have a piece of heat resistant foam underneath your garment that is smaller than the transfer. You should leave at least a .75" margin around your image on the transfer sheet to accommodate the foam sheet.
Finally if you are still getting a box on the shirt lower your temperature and adjust the time you are pressing. We've successfully sublimated down to 350F with increased time. We usually recommend that our transfers be pressed at 370F.
One last item of note, I've never seen a heat press with an accurate temp gauge. Use a laser and find out what your internal temp actually is. One of our heat presses hits an internal of 430F if we set it for 385F.... Find out what your actual internal temps are and create a chart to cross reference the gauge temps with the actual temps.
Good luck!
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