-
Heat press printer advice and material please
Hi guys, looking to get a heat press and wanted to know the best large format printer that I can print the heat transfer paper on a roll( if it’s available in that form), then cut out the individual designs with a guillotine, also what is the best supplier and paper to use for mass production ( say 1000 prints per design etc),
Thinking about going for Adkins but have also seen the atlas 15-15 clamshell auto open ? Any advice please,
Also saw this on one and wondered why they have some black material wrapped around too platen?
One last thing how do you make sure each tshirt etc u do that the design is in the same place as previous ?
Thanks in advance for help and advice, this is new to us so any advise would help.
-
21 Replies
-
Shawn
can’t help with the material side of things but press the black thing looks to be a teflon sheet held on to the heat platen which is easier that putting a loose sheet in each. If you are looking at doing high quantity then maybe an air press twin bed would be better suited. with the twin bed you set 1 shirt whilst pressing the other not cheap but pressing a 1000 shirts is a lot of work
Attachments:
-
I’m no expert, but I would imagine if you’re doing run’s of 1000’s screen printing would be quicker & cheaper.
-
Cheers Kev and david, reason I need to heat press is designs on each one are bespoke so they pick what they want on there hoodie at events etc, I was looking at material on the roll as I can then print multiples of the same design and cut them out, have seen it done and was reverse printed on paper and just heat pressed on and ready in minutes, so wanted to go down same route.
-
Hi Shawn,
Garments is our main side of the business.
Printed in reverse then applied in a digital print is either clear print (only suitable for white garments) or sublimation which is not so quick, limited garment choices and colours but no weeding.Personal we run a VS-540. We buy our print from Grafityp of victory. Had plenty of other samples. None as good.
We run just a single swing press from magic touch.As for line up everything is done by eye. It’s a getting used to thing. Time wise to get through things quickly it’s all down the preson. I press of a top for 15 seconds. If I have 20 tops to do, I line the first one up, then it’s in the press, line the second one up, it’s now good to go as i lift the press, out the 1st comes, straight in goes the second and repeat. Effectively all pressed and boxed in less that 10 minutes. Weeding is the time killer.
These big fancy presses have never done much for me. In younger years had 2 side by side and would run the both at the same time. Bit old for that now, it’s back busting stuff. All the demos I see with these fancy air presses etc.. just seem slow.
There are the laser printer options also. Removes weeding. But to me seems a good way to burn some cash that can just be invest in a DTG machine.
Back to the reverse thing. It’s could be pre-bought transfers from the likes or miracle emblems or similar. From speaking the rep I believe they screen each design onto a transfer paper. Costly for short runs, penny’s for long runs. Could be something along these lines. Only ever seen it once in the flesh when working for someone else. We struggling to get it to take a hi vis vest. Really did not work well at all.
Hope that helps.
-
Hi Chris this has been a great help thank u
-
quote Chris Wilson:Hi Shawn,Garments is our main side of the business.
Printed in reverse then applied in a digital print is either clear print (only suitable for white garments) or sublimation which is not so quick, limited garment choices and colours but no weeding.Personal we run a VS-540. We buy our print from Grafityp of victory. Had plenty of other samples. None as good.
We run just a single swing press from magic touch.As for line up everything is done by eye. It’s a getting used to thing. Time wise to get through things quickly it’s all down the preson. I press of a top for 15 seconds. If I have 20 tops to do, I line the first one up, then it’s in the press, line the second one up, it’s now good to go as i lift the press, out the 1st comes, straight in goes the second and repeat. Effectively all pressed and boxed in less that 10 minutes. Weeding is the time killer.
Chris
Is this a hot peel transfer?? I had a run to do for my daughters school and used the Xpres super flex as it is quite thin, the image was an A4 rectangle and any thicker I feel is to heavy on the Tshirts at that size. I found with the hot peel that as I took it off the press the peel the edge/corner that I lifted from lifted the vinyl as well. If you left it maybe 5 secs to cool slightly then lift the transfer tape it over stretched the vinyl and left it looking saggy on the Tshirt.Back to the original post, if it is just garments you are pressing then a clam press would suffice.
-
quote Iain George:quote Chris Wilson:Hi Shawn,
Garments is our main side of the business.
Printed in reverse then applied in a digital print is either clear print (only suitable for white garments) or sublimation which is not so quick, limited garment choices and colours but no weeding.Personal we run a VS-540. We buy our print from Grafityp of victory. Had plenty of other samples. None as good.
We run just a single swing press from magic touch.As for line up everything is done by eye. It’s a getting used to thing. Time wise to get through things quickly it’s all down the preson. I press of a top for 15 seconds. If I have 20 tops to do, I line the first one up, then it’s in the press, line the second one up, it’s now good to go as i lift the press, out the 1st comes, straight in goes the second and repeat. Effectively all pressed and boxed in less that 10 minutes. Weeding is the time killer.
Chris
Is this a hot peel transfer?? I had a run to do for my daughters school and used the Xpres super flex as it is quite thin, the image was an A4 rectangle and any thicker I feel is to heavy on the Tshirts at that size. I found with the hot peel that as I took it off the press the peel the edge/corner that I lifted from lifted the vinyl as well. If you left it maybe 5 secs to cool slightly then lift the transfer tape it over stretched the vinyl and left it looking saggy on the Tshirt.Back to the original post, if it is just garments you are pressing then a clam press would suffice.
Hi Iain,
It is a hot peel.
The xpres stuff could of been cold peel. This is why we avoid.Films we use are not super thin, but not as thick as the xpres samples I have had. I think Grafityp have a thin film but never used it. Certainly don’t have any peeling on corners or stretching when taking the tape off.
Not to knock xpres. Everyone has there own thing going on. But for me it doesn’t work. Life span is also poor
-
The red heat press which is shown in the pic is a secabo. I also have this and 4 years of heavy work and its not had any issues, one thing i like about it is the automatic opening, so once your times done it opens.
I use siser ps films now, they are great but before this i used flex from victory design which was also good.
I print with my mutoh and cut with ce 6000 when needed and also have a sawgrass sub printer which is good for large runs on white polyster shirts only.
-
cheers martin, am i right in saying that with the sublimation printing i don’t need to weed or anything, the set up i saw was printed direct onto transfer paper and heat pressed onto clothing with no weeding etc?. tia
-
quote Shawn Bentley:cheers martin, am i right in saying that with the sublimation printing i don’t need to weed or anything, the set up i saw was printed direct onto transfer paper and heat pressed onto clothing with no weeding etc?. tia
Yes correct. Print onto sublimation paper, its reverse printed. place onto garment face down, press and its all done. No weeding or drying time. Like i say only works on polyster tho white or very light colours. Ive actually done dark logos onto hi viz bibs and it worked really well. Ink goes into the fibres so to touch there is nothing.
-
will it work on hoodies ok?
-
quote Shawn Bentley:will it work on hoodies ok?
Only works on 100 % polyester garments any less then the finished look is washed out. So a 60/40 poly cotton will be a faded washed look. Also with Sublimation you need a dedicated printer and Sublimation inks with a ICC profile for your specific inks and papers
-
To be honest I was thinking of going down the sublimation printer route with the Epson as don’t want the whole weeding process so hopefully will make it easier lol, any recommendations would be appreciated tia
-
seen this done with sublimation print, is this colour ok? Tia -
We have a ricoh 3100dn printer that we use for sublimation work. Great wee printer, super reliable. Had an Epson previously with a bulk feeder. Had so much trouble with it I actually opened the door one night in anger and threw it down the yard!!! Expensive & childish temper tantrum but was so glad to see the back of it. Got the ricoh from bms Printer owners. Buy good paper if you go that route for richer colours. Bms sell a4+ which is 215mm wide, makes it good for mug which are generally a 90 x 210mm print area. You’ll also need a specific profile for your graphics program. You get these from saw grass when you register the printer. If I can help at all just ask.
-
Cheers David was thinking of this printer?.
-
I’d be wary with just a sublimation machine. Removes the weeding but very limited market. Very few garments to print on. And white tees are very thin, the cheap ones see through before there even wet.
Maybe it’s just us but we use the printer for mugs, mouse mats, beer mats etc.. the odd things we sell. Not so much garments.. however we did pick up and order for 100 the other day
-
Lol, ours is just a toy compared to that! Looks the job for definite. Tend to agree with Chris though, definitely limited market for sublimation garments. Have you looked at all at the magic touch range of white ink printers? Seen some garments done on them and the results were brilliant. There are heavy t-shirts available called "sublisoft" for sublimation work but from memory they are quite expensive
-
I think all these machines have there place and can make money but none of them have a broad range apart from flock/digital prints and DTG. I’ve seen the white toners, print looks great, but again we supply digital prints at trade for various outfits and one of them has a white toner and hate using it. Anything more than 10 items and it comes to us.
I’d get sublimation samples from someone first or go and see the machines. They do have there place, but I find it hard to sell to customers.
-
Im with david on this, i also have the a4 sawgrass (newer version than the ricoh but same printer) in my opinion its the only option. They also do an a3 version which may be better for you. The epson your looking at is certainly a piece of kit but my thinking is it may be overkill. I would start off with a desktop and see how it goes, packages are around 500.00 so if it doesnt work out your not really at a loss. Sublimation printers can be a nightmare, as david said he had problems with his epson and a bulk ink system. Each to their own but i would stay away from bulk inks, in the long run they only seem to give you problems. My printer has been running best part of 3 years now, ive done polyester bibs, tshirts and also mugs.
-
Cheers all Some good advice there thank u, we are aiming a lot more at the hoodie market and saw this done by a company in Spain last week who were sublimation printing then straight onto the hoodies (we bought one) and results were great, reason looking at larger printer is some we could do runs of artwork then cut by hand ?
Log in to reply.