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I use F&M exclusively at this point. They have various products and their website will walk you though most of your questions. Order a sample kit and it will give you samples of all the stuff they do. I was originally concerned with product lifespan but I used them on some of my construction guys tee's and paid attention to how they wear and they held up really well. Probably not quite as lang as HTV but it's a close second and the price saving for clients is really impressive. On any kind of volume I actually do less work and make more per shirt so I basically doubled my output in the same amount of time. You already have a press so you're good to go. HTV will always have it's place and things like specific numbers or any kind of custom work or higher quality work like on nice jackets or polo's is probably better with HTV. I'm a small mom an pop shop and work from my living room so being efficient is key for me. I do my designs in AI but they will accept PS or Corel Draw as well. Basically you pick your product (I mostly use the Athletic formula because it resists dye migration the best). Pick your color count and size of transfer sheet. If single color you basically get two choices for the cheap deal. Can't gang two images on the $0.15 program but it's so cheap it doesn't matter anyway. If you are doing 2,3 or full color then you have to decide if it's priced best to go with a certain size sheet or gang a bunch up on a larger sheet. I build an AI file with the different sizes offered and decide by crunching numbers which one makes the most sense bearing in mind gang sheets with ,utile logo's you will have to cut apart yourself. Leave enough room that you can cut several at once with a paper cutter board and it goes pretty good. Sometimes a lot of little ones are cheaper than a few large sheets (min order on gang sheets is 8 I think) Most of the time it's cheaper to use the XL sheet and stack a bunch on there when doing 2 or 3 colors. I have done some full color work and it turns out great too.

I jumped in with both feet and bought the graphtec, just finished putting the stand together as it's been in boxes in my basement for the last 2 weeks because my day job takes over my life this time of year. Hopefully I'll be cutting some trial runs this weekend.

Hi! I’m brand new and looking for advice on a machine to purchase; I’m thinking that it’s come down to the Titan 3 or the Graphtec ce6000. I am very familiar with design software (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.) and have used a Cricut Maker and Air 2 (not sure if that’s opening me me up to ridicule on these forums or not, lol) but I’m looking to expand and be able to do more. Thanks in advance.

Wow that’s amazing I’m going to have to order a sample sheet and start looking into it more now. I work a 9-5 so after work when I have big orders it takes me a few days to get it completed that’s if the design isn’t so crazy. I’d worry about selling this product cause your basically trusting another company for your self but I’m hearing more good then bad and it dosnt hurt to order some for myself and wash test it and all and go from there. Thank you for your feedback with this company I’m definitely going to try them out.. I also use AI so I shouldn’t have any problems with sending them over my files so that’s awesome to know as well.

Graphtec all day long. You won't be sorry. Not to mention a lot of the members here have it, and can do some pretty awesome troubleshooting if necessary.

I am like Dakota. I have grown to need high quantities often and use plastisol transfers. There are several outfits that sell them and they make it affordable to compete with the screen print shops. You can't quite get the same hand that true screen print will (which I find sort of rough) but I have had good luck with them and utilizing my now heat press.

Welcome from Idaho. I lived in FL for a couple years. I don't miss the heat though. Or the bugs. I'm a fellow Illustrator user. The Graphtec is pretty much the fan favorite if you have the funds. They have a free plug-in for Illustrator that lets you just cut right from the program. I think there is also a free offering of Graphtec Pro Studio with some machines.

Welcome aboard. Nice work!

If you can afford the Graphtec CE6000, go with it and don't look back. I have a couple Graphtecs, and bought 2 for my kids. Great cutters and no problems. They hold their resale, if you decide to sell later. Great tracking, cutting detailed designs, great memory very quiet and accurate.

Here is a proper link, https://www.howardct.com/

I'm a Howard Custom Transfer guy, plus the fact they are only 30 minutes from me, I have the option of picking them up if need be, and great customer service if you ever need it

Graphtec for me also

Welcome from Central FL

The Graphtec is a CUT above...

Another strong Graphtec fan here - have had 2 ce6000-60's - I just upgraded the first one after 3 years on general principle as I have always updated equipment regularly

Cut vinyl definitely rules the custom one off market. The only issues I ever have are when someone wants a gradient or distressed flag or something that's just too intricate to be buildable. I have done a few that I shouldn't have. One distressed job took a half hour on the cutter and an hour to weed. Those are work the cost of a screen set up even for just a couple.

Playing around with screen printing is what bought me here. Shelled out about $100 on materials and built a couple wood screens. They work really well and I have 2 screens currently set up to be used on a press I built but it's only for bulk runs of stuff and of course everyone that wants to buy some of my stuff wants it customized, which is what lead me to buy a vinyl cutter. I'll probably keep up screen printing a little but I'm guessing my focus is going to go more towards cutting if/when I finally have some time to get my cutter running. The trends I see with people right now is customized everything and anything.

I bought all the screen printing stuff and sold it before I burned my first screen - - I just order plastisol transfers from howard sportswear when I get an order over 25 shirts - quick and painless without the mess and space taken up by all that in my house

Put some Siser easyweed through your cutter and use a heat press to transfer those decals onto T-shirts or hoodies. Unless you are doing really large quantities, silk screening seems more hassle than it's worth. Also, the online providers of garment silkscreen work are really cheap enough.

I was gonna say what Mz. Skeeter said, but she beat me to it. Can I have her Beer? Need my address?

I tried many different things and then finally just decided to go spend the money on illustrator and I’m super happy I did. I don’t do crazy volume but it makes my life so much easier and super easy to learn. I never used it up till the day I decided to buy & after a few hours and some you tube I was able to figure it out. I’m not the greatest with curving the nodes but it’s all trial and error. Won’t learn till you try. The trace tool works but sometimes it can be a super pain.

I'm probably too picky to answer you because I almost never use the auto trace function. I run Adobe Illustrator and have inkscape and VM pro as well but have never been comfortable with the results and end up spending just as much time cleaning and fixing as just recreating it from scratch or hand tracing. Granted it took a few years to become proficient. There is a forum member (Skarekrow) who is super freaky fast with a Photo Shop clean-up and then auto trace in AI workflow that hands down cleans my clock on a time factor. I've seen him bust out some complicated designs in mere minutes that I would have spent an hour on. I can get around ok in PS but not good enough to make that work for me. I started into this craft doing vector conversions for a few of the shops in my area so I am a little extreme on the detail, maybe more than I should be but if I recreate a file I try to get it as exact as I can. Auto trace won't do that. Most of my clients had old logo's long forgotten and only an old business card or pic of the front of their store to go from. If the font is hard to find I generally ask them how close it needs to be to gauge how much time I have to spend on it.