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Heat Press operation help please
He guys, just taken delivery of my new xpress swing away heat press, very impressed with the build quality, was hard enough work getting it out the box and on to my worktop, glad i joined the gym now, lol. Anyway, now its there ready to use, and I have some questions, Im going to be using cut vinyl mainly, and maybe a bit of tshirt paper, printed by my printer, just for odd jobs and my own comical value, lol.
But I understand the whole pressing process, I just dont understand how i get my cut poliflex t shirt vinyl from my cutter and onto the t shirt. I guess i cut as normal , then weed, then apply application tape of some sort, can i use my normal application tape, or is there a special way of doing this. Hope you can help, Matt -
10 Replies
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I’m no expert in this area but im pretty sure you mirror your design and cut it. Then you place it on the tshirt vinyl side down. You need a sheet of teflon(i think it is. its brown) you place this over the plastic side and press. After its pressed let it cool down then peel the plastic off. The vinyl should stay on the tshirt.
I do this with my iron and not a heat press.
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Hi Matt,
Cut your t’shirt vinyl in reverse (Mirror Image) and weed. Place T’shirt onto heat press and your vinyl ontop (No need for application tape). Place a sheet of grease proof paper ontop of this then press for desired time. Some t’shirt vinyl requires you to peel the backing sheet when hot – some when cold. Be careful when pulling the backing sheet off.
When backing sheet is off press again for approx: 10 seconds.Hope this helps
John
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Hi Matt,
Cut your t’shirt vinyl in reverse (Mirror Image) and weed. Place T’shirt onto heat press and your vinyl ontop (No need for application tape). Place a sheet of grease proof paper ontop of this then press for desired time. Some t’shirt vinyl requires you to peel the backing sheet when hot – some when cold. Be careful when pulling the backing sheet off.
When backing sheet is off press again for approx: 10 seconds.Hope this helps
John
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Hiya,
We pretty do what John advises however we press the shirt for about 10 seconds before applying the Flex, I’ve heard this helps to remove any moisture in the cotton.
Don’t mean to hi-jack the thread but can someone please advise how to do multi coloured layers of flex? For example a Diamond shape outline in red with green text in the middle, however throughout the green text would be red circles, something like below?
Cheers
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hijackers eh, tut tut, lol, only joking,
I know you can get stackable poliflex vinyl from hexis, dont know if that is any help to you.Thanks for your help guys, it has now become a whole lot clearer for me, just wait for me vinyl delivery to arrive, then im gonna go press crazy, haha. Cant wait, oh and i suppose i better do some real work too, lol.
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Hi Matt, as has been said, nothing to add, although heat-press tape can be VERY useful for stopping graphics movingas you lower the press head, if you are using non-sticky film.
Garrie, you can buy thin textile stuff which is able to be layered (Grafytip, Victory), I’d do the red 1st, then green. Have layered before with no problems (Don’t use Metamark’s though, it doesn’t like it!)
Lorraine
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Thanks Lorraine, so I would heat press the red first, remove the clear backing, stick the green down and press again?
Would this cause any effect to the red I already pressed, as the red in this example wouldn’t be covered with the clear plastic, or do I put the clear plastic over the whole lot? Does that make sense, lol
Sorry again
Garrie -
Hi Garrie
Yes, do the red, peel, place the green, cover the whole lot with a teflon sheet, if you have one, or the piece of backing from the red. (Make sure the red goes in exactly the same place, as I have done this with flock before, and put marks on the garment where they shouldn’t be!
I haven’t tried the greaseproof paper idea, so can’t comment on that. -
Thanks again Lorraine, massive help, thanks. I always press with a Teflon sheet so that’s sorted.
I owe you a *drink*
Ta
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I use T shirt flex/flock from xpres mostly, dorotape do a nice hot peel one and their prices are better than most at xpres for t shirt vinyls, If you are going to be a regular customer ask for roll prices on flock and flex, it will add up to a decent saving.
Garrie as for which colour to lay down first, with that design it wont matter, nothing is touching or overlapping, I would do the red then the green personally but it wont matter which way you do it.
Xpres flex and flock will overlay with no problems and you can have flex/flock mixes too, I have overlayed 4 colours before and they’re still fine, its excellent stuff even the glitter flex will stick to it.
As for applying the flex, I use silicon sheets, 1000 sheets I think is £30 but you can re use them loads of times each, whereas teflon sheets are about £8 each or so, if they get damaged you need another one, greaseproof works ok too but if you do dye sublimation it gets expensive as you only use it once.
hope this helps
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