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godstrong1

heat press queston!!!!1

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i was thinking about weather i wanted to start doing t-shirts, so i bought a heat press on ebay and started that, while i was searching for prices on heat press vinyl, i found out that t-shirt vinyl is way more expensive than regular decal vinyl,you can bairly make a profit off of vinyl t-shirts, what do you guys think? is it better to get into screen printing t-shirts reather than heat pressing them? it seems to me that the ink is cheaper than the heat press vinyl, and can do alot more shirts from a bucket of ink , what is your guys opinion on this,which is more profitable!!! any advice is welcome!!!! :lol:

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heat press for custom jobs of 10 shirts or less.. screen print if you are going to do large quantities.

Yeah,the heat press vinyl is expensive,but you don't use all that much per shirt if you lay it out right,and you learn not to waste it.

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I second John's advice.

We like the durability of the vinyl on shirts over screen printing, but that's just my opinion.

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I know I should probably post this on the tshirt forum... but since I'm here.... and... I know people from that forum are here as well....and people are asking questions.... has anybody done any "direct to garment" printing? I don't have a heat press yet so I was checking out my options. A local guy tells me he can print a  shirt, front and back for $10 each. That price includes the shirt. Is that a good price? How does the "DTG" hold up compared to the heat press vinyl?

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Guest fivestar

Yes I found out "the hard way" after I bought my heat press that there is not nearly as much $$$$ in t-shirts with vinyl then there is decals, signs and banners.  But if you "land" a nice size job, I recommend ordering plastisol transfers and pressing those as it only takes around 10 seconds to press and you don't have to cut or weed anything.  T-shirt vinyl is great for custom shirts but for large quanity orders I definitely recommend plastisol.

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i thouht i read something on here a while back that you can use the vinyl cutter for screen printing,i think what you do is cut out a logo on regular vinyl, and you weed it and use the outer vinyl as a stencil, i never tried it but it sounds like it would work,has any one tried this!

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Someone posted a link to a video they did on using the vinyl for a silk screen stencil but i don't remember what section it was in. It may have been in the "how to" section.

Found it:

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The DTG machines for imprinting directly on garments is very, very expensive. It may be relatively cheap per sheet, but the upfront cost is huge compared to screen print or vinyl. The DTG's run anywhere from about 12-15K to 100K and more for the top-of-the-line. They are also susceptible to printing problems, because many use an Epson engine which is notorious for printhead clogging. Some of the units have a proprietary printing head, but these are not error free by any means.

With respect to vinyl vs. screen print, when you factor in the time to prepare and clean screens, the cost between the two narrows (assuming your feel your time is worth something). On a large run this isn't an issue, but for short runs cleaning screens for small orders becomes an issue. This is especially true if you treat your waste products as they should be treated - hazardous waste. If you use solvent inks and you soak up the residue in paper/rags, this is considered hazardous material. The cost to get rid of it is large compared to vinyl waste.

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A local guy tells me he can print a  shirt, front and back for $10 each. That price includes the shirt. Is that a good price?

If that is his retail price it sounds like a pretty good deal to me, full color front and back including the shirt, if you just needed a few done.  I just don't think the DTG print looks as good as a screen print or vinyl.  Its looks dull to me and it just keeps on getting duller the more you wash it.  At least that is my experience with the samples that I have received.

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Yeah, just looking for a few for my brother in law to advertise his company. I guess at $10 it's worth a shot to hold him over till I get a heat press for work shirts. Since his business is small and plans to keep it that way I'm trying to keep everything in full color and cost effective. So his business cards, letterhead, van, etc are all the same. This is so he just doesn't look like joe blow went out, bought a van and decided to do plaster and drywall repairs.

For his logo I found another local guy that does wraps and he quoted me $50 ea. for a 24"x36" full color decal

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I do some sublimation - and that is expensive, relatively speaking.  The ink is insane, the paper is costly, and if there's the slightest air bubble in the tube, you get lines.  Very frustrating when you just want to pop out a shirt.  I thought of buying a silk screening system - but I'll do that next year after the construction is finished in my house and I'll have a place for it.  I don't mind if the vinyl is a little costly -- it will save me time and aggravation - and that's priceless.  I can play around and try to have as little waste as possible. 

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I also do sublimation, but got very frustrated with clogged printheads and ink lines. I went to dye sub toner - much more expensive initially, but soooo nice to be able to shut it down and know that it will perform next time without cleaning, purging, etc., etc. The Epsons simply don't do a good job with sub inks, at least not the early models like the 1280. I hear people with the newer 4800, etc. say it works well for them. The vinyl is a nice addition when you have simple designs and limited color images. Not necessary to dye sub at $5 per polyester shirt; you can use cheaper shirts and the end product is much less expensive than dye sub.

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i did that video and creating a negitive stencil with vinyl to screen print is the way to go ! Very easy ..no mess and durable ....no chemicals .....very very easy

Beardown

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I have a

i did that video and creating a negitive stencil with vinyl to screen print is the way to go ! Very easy ..no mess and durable ....no chemicals .....very very easy

Beardown

What kind of ink do you use to screen print.  Plastisol which is the only screen printing that I have used requires a flash or conveyor dryer and chemical clean up.

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i have a buddy that owns a sign shop,were i get my vinyl from,and he does a screen printing also,he told me he uses (UV ink) i never heard of this kind of ink . has any one used this ink before?

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If you are screen printing onto t-shirts or the like, you dont want to use uv ink.

Plastisol is the way to go and yes you need heat to cure, usually 320 degrees is the

curing point for most inks. You can print it and then use your heat press to cure it,

but it gives it a different texture. Depending on how you do it you can get different

results. I would highly reccomend trying before offering it.

I do both screen printing and vinyl for shirts. There is a lot of money to be made, depends

on what you are selling them for. I can get from $15-25 for a shirt made with

vinyl. Just depends on your market/customer.

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