mlganey

Newbie would love feedback on making transfer papers

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I just purchased a fusion yesterday (hasn't come in yet).  My plan was to just use Siser and cut my designs on my cutter I have.  Some of our designs are going to be pretty detailed (it's my sister's drawings) so I'm not second guessing all that weeding and thinking transfers may be the way to go now.  I've heard good things about the Epson WF 7620.  Any suggestions as I'm a complete newbie and no nothing except what I'm watching on youtube and reading online.  Do you think this is a smart route to go, good place for inks, transfer papers, etc?  I plan on printing on light & dark shirts.  Any info you think would be helpful and don't mind sharing is greatly appreciated!

 

*Most of our designs will only be one color...once in a while 2 or 3 colors.

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For ink you should check out Cobra Ink - for the Epson WF7620 you'll be looking for the 252XL cartridges - a full set of all 4 refillable cartridges will run you around $50.  Refills are available in bottles ranging from 1 oz. ($5.00 per color) up to 32 oz ($99.50 per color).  You can go ahead and use the Epson cartridges that come with your printer as long as you plan to stick with pigment inks, then swap out for Cobra cartridges whenever you're ready.  I will warn you, I bought a WF4530 for my mom for Mother's Day last year and the Epson starter ink cartridges that came with it didn't even include enough ink to initialize the printer, so I wouldn't wait too long before ordering...

 

You can also upgrade to a CISS kit for $179 which will include 4 oz. of each color ink.  It will save you a lot of messy time spent refilling cartridges.

 

I have the Epson 7520 with one of their CISS kits and their pigment ink and it's pretty flawless.

 

As with any Epson printer you'll need to do weekly print tests to keep the heads from clogging up, but if they do it's a fairly simple process to unclog them if you do forget.

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Those are good directions for printer ink. I use Cobra with great success. Don't be hasty and give up on the Siser. You can do very intricate work with easyweed. I do a little of both depending on the application. The vinyl is very tough and vibrant and works fantastic for simple single or relatively few color type work.   

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Thank you SO much for all that help with cobra OWjones!

 

And Wildgoose, I do plan on still trying siser with some...but our designs are getting pretty detailed...the thought of weeding all of this gives me a headache already.  I've never seen a pigment ink transfer on a garment in person...is it a glossy or matte finish?

post-17316-0-92104100-1420746747_thumb.j

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Thank you SO much for all that help with cobra OWjones!

 

And Wildgoose, I do plan on still trying siser with some...but our designs are getting pretty detailed...the thought of weeding all of this gives me a headache already.  I've never seen a pigment ink transfer on a garment in person...is it a glossy or matte finish?

This would be transfer material for sure unless you invert it so the larger spots are the solids and the smaller are the cuts but still a lot of timely weeding. Jet Pro Soft Stretch on white is really nice and you can barely feel it's there. On darks you have the white base color of the transfer which is basically printable vinyl and it feels pasty IMO. I don't sell too many nor do I push them. Mostly one off family pictures and stuff that people want. They soften up over time and a few clients love them but I don't. On a good note transfers are really effortless and cheap to do so the profit margin can be pretty good. 

 

You may also find that as you begin to actually produce shirts your designs will change to be more cut friendly. All the work I do for clients is skewed toward cutter friendly work. That's a cool crab BTW. Nice work (your sis?)

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Thank You!  Yes, that is one of my sister's she recently drew...she's on a roll and all of her designs are more and more detailed...so I think I need to stick with transfers for sure.  However...(dumb question alert) with the Neenah Jet Pro Soft Stretch, would the center of the crab be the t-shirt showing through?  What I'm going for is for screen printed look (without screen printing).  Is that possible?  I'm thinking we'll stay away from dark color shirts!  I've watched so many youtube videos on this stuff...but I can't find any videos showing one color designs like what I'm wanting to do.... :/

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Yes the color of the shirt will be the white background. You could easily put that image on many lighter colored shirts as long as the color of the design is dark enough to give some contrast. When you print it out on the JPSS you will print it in the mirrored image setting and place it face down on the shirt. I recommend taking an exacto knife and cutting most of the extra away around the outside edges up to within about 1/8 - 1/16 inch of the actual design. This will keep the edges from showing because there is a light polymer base that actually holds and transfers the ink and this can leave a ghost square if you don't trim it off, especially on colored shirts like grey. Once you press for the recommended time/ temp peel the paper off while it's still piping hot and then lightly stretch the design from the sides this will help keep the feel (called hand) lighter and also help keep the design from cracking later in it's lifespan. I have some shirts that have been around for years that still look perfect. 

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Holy smoke, you are my hero!  You have no idea how much I appreciate you being so helpful with this whole start-up! 

 

Okay...so I have the light shirts covered!

 

Now for dark shirts/garments...I'm thinking the goof proof screen printed transfers may be our best option?  I want something high quality.  I want our shirts to look good and don't mind paying whatever it takes for the highest quality.  Anyone have any feedback on transfer express or prefer something different?

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You might even consider outsourcing the darks if they are too fine detailed for vinyl at least until you get your business up and running strong. Screen prints are cheap if you are doing a lot of them. 

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You may even wat to check out out sourcing to screen printed transfers. Stahls does a good job as well as Ace I believe? You can get them printed in bulk then use with a heat press to put on the shirts when needed. Just an option.

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You may even want to check out out sourcing to screen printed transfers. Stahls does a good job as well as Ace I believe? You can get them printed in bulk then use with a heat press to put on the shirts when needed. Just an option.

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On 1/8/2015 at 8:44 AM, Wildgoose said:

Those are good directions for printer ink. I use Cobra with great success. Don't be hasty and give up on the Siser. You can do very intricate work with easyweed. I do a little of both depending on the application. The vinyl is very tough and vibrant and works fantastic for simple single or relatively few color type work.   

What is the rough life span of using the cobra ink when printing versus having them printed outsourced? Are they pretty good or so so.Will they last more than like 50 washes if you know what i mean?

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I have a couple old shirts I did for myself that I have had around for years with the logo still on there. Have no idea how many wash cycles exactly but probably 30 at least. The white shirt starts to look old and dingy before the JPSS has any issues. This is NOT the same results with the 3G style for darks. They will fade out over time. With the 3G the ink sits on top and the JPSS you print in reverse on the underside of the polymer so as long as it's pigment it last pretty darn good. 

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2 minutes ago, Wildgoose said:

I have a couple old shirts I did for myself that I have had around for years with the logo still on there. Have no idea how many wash cycles exactly but probably 30 at least. The white shirt starts to look old and dingy before the JPSS has any issues. This is NOT the same results with the 3G style for darks. They will fade out over time. With the 3G the ink sits on top and the JPSS you print in reverse on the underside of the polymer so as long as it's pigment it last pretty darn good. 

Im hoping this will help answer questions for the new guy also and myself lol .Soooo when i print a design on the Jpss paper do i need to trim or contour cut around the image before i press or is it different when doing this process?Im starting to look into whatever the best epson system is out there with the best cobra ink setup you suggest to go with.. Thanks WG

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I won't make a suggestion on which cobra set-up is best for you. I did a converted WF30 with tanks my first go (only able to print 8.5" wide. When I upgraded to my 7610 and 7620 printers I tried out the carts. My thoughts on the carts were that the gentle swishing motion that the print head goes though while printing would help keep the suspended solids mixed up like they should be. They suggest swishing your tanks around from time to time to accomplish this. The potential for a clogged head being what it is I have felt like I wanted to be able to just hop printers if I have a problem. I see that Epson is offering a new tank system right from the factory. Expensive but another possible option. That one probably has some codes within it that will keep it from running out on you. That has always been my beef with the carts and tanks alike. The printer still thinks it's run out of ink even when it is full so it will screw you right in the middle of a job more often than not. I have wasted many sheets of paper because if this flaw. You just have to reset the head in a tank system with a little squeeze button or pull your carts up and stick them back in so the printer brain thinks it got a refill but it won't run the rest of whatever you were printing out before it does this. It just stops and then that print is fried. If you aren't paying attention and kill the print job it will then proceed to print eh rest of the page out after you refill and ruin a second sheet. 

For the JPSS you will want to trim around the edge of your print. I like to get within about 1/8" where it is easy to do that. If you have open text then just make it swoosh in a little where it's easy to do so in a effort to avoid a straight line in open unprinted areas. The straight line will catch the eye whereas a curved area doesn't. Some do this with a cutter on contour cut and I have done that but it's more work than it's worth and you have to leave area around everything for the cutter. I get multiple copies a lot of time on one sheet by stacking things in nice and tight. I think it takes me about 20-30 seconds to trim out a typical design with an X-acto knife. 

Attached pic shows a rough (stress the rough) idea of what I would trim off on this job. I would trim closer and better than my scrawled line in the pick but this should help you visualize. 

Screen Shot 2017-03-05 at 6.26.35 PM.png

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So when you trim around the design,will it leave a outline of ( lets say white for example of this design you showed) around the image?

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The polymer or whatever holds the ink is clear on JPSS and on white shirts you really can't see it at all. About any other color of shirt you can see a slight darkening where this occurs. If I am using JPSS on a grey shirt for example I will generally build the file so it has something around the whole design like a large oval or a square that is easy to trim to and will contain the effect so it isn't noticeable.

I share all this stuff with you guys because the info is not really out there easy to find. I had to learn most of it through trial and error. More error than anything; maybe I can save you a few test shirts. If you have an Epson printer and a heat press I would absolutely keep some JPSS on hand and probably some 3G although I hate that stuff it's probably the best product available for dark shirts. You will be surprised how many one off shirts you will sell especially if they are ok with a white shirt. The JPSS can turn out awesome. Just last fall one of the high school coaches freaked out when they won a football game and one of the kids took a still photo of his face in the middle of celebrating and I ended up putting in on a whole bunch of white shirts for the football team and then a second wave after the rest of the school kids saw them wearing it.

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