[GlitterbombZ]

I manage a campground. At the beginning of the season we placed an order for tshirts and sweatshirts with a local screen printer. After reading these forums I can now see that they did a really bad job. The screen's are very splotchy, and it isn't a very crisp image.

I will purchasing a heat press for doing rhinestone shirts and I have suggested to the owner of the campground that next year we just do our own shirts. From what I have read, I could use plastisol transfers and achieve almost the same effect. Am I correct or would you suggest a different method?

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Roxy~

 

[Masterkoin]

Really depends on the quantities you need. If you are doing a few designs in quantities of over 100, then plastisol transfers might work great for you. Another great thing about plastisol transfers is you can order a bunch of blanks and just press as you need. With a little planning you shouldn't have to run out of stock. If you are dealing in lower quantities then I'd probably recommend outsourcing the work. Maybe use an online company that is more competitive than your local shop.

 

[Girlzndollz]

What are you putting on the shirts and hoodies? Campground name and logo? How many designs do you have? How many shirts do you sell?

The great thing about plastisols is, yes, you can order them, and they come on individual tranfer sheets. (If you ask, alot of places will cut them for you for free and ship them like that, ready to use). Otherwise you may get a few on a sheet and you have to cut them yourself before you press them.

Plastisols are the same quality as plastisol screen printing. Same ink, just instead of screening onto a shirt, they screen onto the transfer paper.

You can order the plastisols designs, keep them in stock, order some shirts, etc... and when you need a shirt, grab it, press it, and you are done.

Beats having to order all the sizes ahead of time, not knowing what will sell. You can do your campground a big favor bringing this in house, as long as they don't mind someone manning a press instead of doing something else.

Usually it's when you get to the higher quantities, you outsource to screen printing, because the labor and expense involved with plastisols reaches a point where the price break/qty discount and no labor of outsourcing screen printing for a large quantity of shirts works out to a better price per piece. Screen printing low quanitites is more costly than screening large quantities.

But if you are doing a dozen or few dozen shirts a day... plastisols can be a great avenue for you. They are quick, easy to work with, great quality...

If you need to find plastisol suppliers, search terms "plastisol 8" and "plastisols where do you buy", you will get 2 great threads on that.

Good idea on your part, good job deciding to stop overpaying for poor quality. You deserve a raise.. lol. (hey, get them to order you an auto open press... ) Good luck to you... Kelly

 

[GlitterbombZ]

What are you putting on the shirts and hoodies? Campground name and logo? How many designs do you have? How many shirts do you sell?

The great thing about plastisols is, yes, you can order them, and they come on individual tranfer sheets. (If you ask, alot of places will cut them for you for free and ship them like that, ready to use). Otherwise you may get a few on a sheet and you have to cut them yourself before you press them.

Plastisols are the same quality as plastisol screen printing. Same ink, just instead of screening onto a shirt, they screen onto the transfer paper.

You can order the plastisols designs, keep them in stock, order some shirts, etc... and when you need a shirt, grab it, press it, and you are done.

Beats having to order all the sizes ahead of time, not knowing what will sell. You can do your campground a big favor bringing this in house, as long as they don't mind someone manning a press instead of doing something else.

Usually it's when you get to the higher quantities, you outsource to screen printing, because the labor and expense involved with plastisols reaches a point where the price break/qty discount and no labor of outsourcing screen printing for a large quantity of shirts works out to a better price per piece. Screen printing low quanitites is more costly than screening large quantities.

But if you are doing a dozen or few dozen shirts a day... plastisols can be a great avenue for you. They are quick, easy to work with, great quality...

If you need to find plastisol suppliers, search terms "plastisol 8" and "plastisols where do you buy", you will get 2 great threads on that.

Good idea on your part, good job deciding to stop overpaying for poor quality. You deserve a raise.. lol. (hey, get them to order you an auto open press... ) Good luck to you... Kelly

Thanks Kelly! The logo we have now has the name in it, but if we do decide on making our own shirts, we will probaby do something like having the small name on the front, with the logo on the back. And there is always the possibility that we will rework the design.

I would have to pull the paper work, but I think we order somethng like 200-ish shirts at the beginning of the season. We sold a large quanity of those, but could have sold more if we had the proper sizes left. We are also planning on selling the shirts on our website.

Personally, I think its something that would benefit us...now I just need to sell the idea to the boss. LOL

Roxy~

 

[Jrs4life1]

So you could use Plastisol on heat transfers? I was told that Plastisols are just for screenprinting only and that I cant use them for Printing using a Heat Press and Printer

 

[Girlzndollz]

So you could use Plastisol on heat transfers? I was told that Plastisols are just for screenprinting only and that I cant use them for Printing using a Heat Press and Printer

Plastisols are heat transfers. Inkjet heat transfers are also heat transfers, but plastisols and inkjet heat tranfers are completely different processes from each other.

Think of plastisol as indirect screen printing. They are made the same way you screen print on a shirt, except instead of a shirt, it is a piece of transfer release paper.

You cannot make plastisols at home using a printer. You can make them at home if you own screen printing equipment.

To decorate shirts with plastisols, you need a shirt, the plastisol transfer, and a press. You are golden.

To make an inkjet heat transfer you need a shirt, an inkjet printer with pigment ink, preferably, inkjet heat transfer paper, and a press (usually, some papers can be hand ironed.)

Does that help explain it?

 

[Jrs4life1]

Yes! Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. I love this Forum. You guys are very helpful and quick to jump in and help others. I'm glad to know this is not a Business where there is so much Competition that no one wants to help each other.There is plenty of work to go around. Hell, everyone where clothes!!!!! SMILE

 

[Girlzndollz]

You might find that mindset other places, but here, it's a very nice forum, filled with alot of good kind people. Glad to have you aboard, Stacey... I'm sure you'll fit right in.