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how does everyone line up print onto t-shirts?
This is a simple question and one that perhaps with my experience of heat pressing T-shirts you would think I’d know the answer to! But I don’t!!
When you screenprint T-shirts, (or even when you Heat Press) how do you line up the print? Do you do it by Eye, by a template, or by measuring each item?
I measure most stuff which is time consuming but I never cease to amaze myself just how far out I can be when doing freehand!!
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12 Replies
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registration marks mate…
cant think where on the boards the subjects come up but i know phill used them in his demo recently…
the one with multi-layers of vinyl… -
I’m thinking more of T-shirts Rob. You lay it on the platen, take your transfer and………well I measure….but does everyone?
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not sure mate.. ive seen scree printers and the like use reg marks.. not sure about t-shirts mate. i just thought it maybe the same method.. 🙄 🙄
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Martin,
We use a template to give a central position for the transfer, placing by eye can be misleading and measuring each one time consuming.
James -
Hi Martin.
As you said, you slip it over a platen. The platen also slides on an arm that comes off the carasell (spelt nothing like that). I have various sized platens to go with various size shirts. I have 4 differant sizes. For extra large we use the largest, kids we use the smallest. etc. I try to use the biggest as possible for the shirt. So basiclly when you slip on the shirt, pull it so the shoulders of the shirt touch the begining of the platen, then you pull tought the sleeves, so you can see the edge of the platen, that way you can see if the shirt has been put on straight. You adjust as nessecery. Your art work as been leveled agaist the platen, so it prints in the middle and is level. If you are printing a smaller shirt, I would then undo the platen clamp, slide it off, and replace it with a smaller platen and start printing again, making sure the print will fit in the area of the platen. You can slide the platen up and down to raise or lower the print.
cheers Kev
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i’ve obviously got this totaly wrong in my head… i think ill crawl into a corner and die for now 😮
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As kevin says, with screen printing you have platens that you slide the shirts onto, if your doing multi coloured stuff you would as rob say’s have registration marks in order to line all the screens up in the right possition.
But its a little harder when doing transfers as the platen is generally oblong and you have no idea if you have the t-shirt on the platen centrally, so then when you place the transfer centrally to the platern it might not be central to the shirt.
one method i’ve often thought about but never got round to really testing is to have a manequin type torso, you can buy half plastic ones from the magictouch, which you would put the t-shirt on then stick your transfer to it using heat resistant tape tape, then onto the press this could be done while the previous t-shirt is pressing.
I don’t know if it would work well, i’ll let you know when i finally get round to trying it out
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Lorraine would it not be possible to make a flat template that went inside the “T” shirt? maybe out of a bit of plywood or something like that. So when the shirt was slide over it the seams on the shirt would line up with the edges, you would need different sized templates for different sized shirts obviously. Would something like that work or should I just shut up ?
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Ive airbrushed shirts using regular vinyl as a mask,with them i slid a piece of MDF inside , centralised it and clamped the material using market style clamps
worked a treat -
Thanks all,
I do use a template with a neck cutaway for the front breast and this works well. Never done it for the back though. Must try it and report back.
I kinda thought I was being too fussy and that the shirts were just levelled as good as possible on the platen and printed from there!!
Just a little thing I picked up only a few weeks ago is that Xpres Flock CAN be printed colour on colour. Really opens up the possibilities for some classy prints.
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Matin
Your idea is good in threary, but the heat from the heat press would worp the wood. Don`t forget we are using temps between 160-200 degrees.With the heatpress, we use a foam pad, when the garment will not fit over the platen. eg kids. The t shirts are fine with out, but polos, due to them having buttons, these get in the way. So the foam pad alows the heat press to heat the shirt evenly, the buttons sink into the foam. This is when we are pressing the rear of the garment.
becky
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quote Martin C:This is a simple question and one that perhaps with my experience of heat pressing T-shirts you would think I’d know the answer to! But I don’t!!When you screenprint T-shirts, (or even when you Heat Press) how do you line up the print? Do you do it by Eye, by a template, or by measuring each item?
I measure most stuff which is time consuming but I never cease to amaze myself just how far out I can be when doing freehand!!
Hi
for large orders of one transfer design, i have a shirt tried on by someone sort the best location of the logo (very important when doing womens shrirts) and tape the transfer in place. When the shirt is removed i lay it flat and make a template of the position either using the arm seams or neck etc its best if you can make the template stretch the full width of the garment (this method does not work with cheap badly made shirts). You can use the template on your heat press if you have a large enough platen or tape the designs on whilst laid out on a flat surface and heat press one after another which saves having your press on whilst fiddling with positioning. we use this process on all garments but remember to adjust for size, the same template will not work for a range from small to xxxl etc, i normally make he template for the biggest and mark adjustment lines on for small shirts.Regards
KTF
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