lablover 218 Posted February 14, 2015 So, got started on that order today.....Ummm yea, it's not like when you do one shirt at a time I started by cutting one....weed....apply...way to slow. The I went to cut, and while I weed cut another then apply. Nope. Then I figured, hey, I'll cut them all in one long shot! This is what I learned. STATIC....WOW, I never realized it when I was cutting one at a time. I could of lit a city with the static! My wonderful Graphtec does polling right!!! Do I bother to see if the roll I have left is enough to get the job done......Nope. Cutter stops on the last decal with about 3 inches left to do...not enough vinyl. Good thing it was on the upper part that was just txt. I had a scrap piece to make it work. Too funny, a 10 yard roll and a 5 yard roll and I get bit by like 3 inches... Now I'm thinking, Crap, didn't I read that you shouldn't let cut HTV sit around..Oh really, I need to weed all these now. Can't remember if I really read that...LOL Oh yea, that heat press starts to get the room hot in no time...WOW...Wife comes in and sees my silly A$$ in shorts...laughs and walks away. so I get cruzin pretty good now and find the house littered with t-shirts cooling off...LMAO this one was hilarious, let alone all the weeded HTV..where the heck you put that stuff!! So anyway, I have to say there is a list a mile long of other stuff but I'll keep it short. Not like you veterans don't know what I'm talking about. I will say that by the end of the night I was knocking em out pretty quick. And thats only because of the tips I learned on here in the last few months......Fold the shirt in half long ways to find the center was a HUGE help. I can see why a top end heat press is a nice thing to have in the long run...Maybe a few more of these size jobs and I can get the Limo! And after all that time...And I'm not telling how long...................................I'm not even done....... Good news, not one mistake ...........YET Joe 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kcross47601 13 Posted February 14, 2015 Depending on where you are at Joe, Running around the house in shorts may be alright. Here, We are expecting snow today and I'm in my fleece PJ's. Not looking forward to a big 4x8 sign I have to install this afternoon. Kris 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gwynyr 13 Posted February 14, 2015 Ive had success with carefully stacking weeded HTV on top of each other (obviously not sticky side to sticky stide.) I'd test it first of course. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lablover 218 Posted February 14, 2015 Depending on where you are at Joe, Running around the house in shorts may be alright. Here, We are expecting snow today and I'm in my fleece PJ's. Not looking forward to a big 4x8 sign I have to install this afternoon. Kris Its like 8 deg outside.... And shorts I mean Boxer Briefs.........LMAO 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sue2 920 Posted February 14, 2015 No matter how you figure it....heat transfer vinyl t-shirts are time & labor intensive....and a bunch of them takes a bit of planning ahead! Best to do in stages like you found out. Cut em...weed em...stick em...fold em...package em Shirts cooling off??? I just stack them up and fold later. Sue2 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lablover 218 Posted February 14, 2015 No matter how you figure it....heat transfer vinyl t-shirts aretime & labor intensive....and a bunch of them takes a bit of planning ahead! Best to do in stages like you found out. Cut em...weed em...stick em...fold em...package em Shirts cooling off??? I just stack them up and fold later. Sue2 I mean cool off enough before I set another on top of it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jaybyrd 3,770 Posted February 14, 2015 Straight out of the press and stacked on the last one. Never had an issue with them being hot. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sue2 920 Posted February 14, 2015 I mean cool off enough before I set another on top of it. They are cool enough right off the press no need to spread them around. Really, you can't be THAT fast. Sue2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wildgoose 4,200 Posted February 14, 2015 Ha ha! Nice job. You are now learning the value of Siser where you can remove the carrier immediately too. Try some of the other brands that have very specific "warm" or "cold" peel carriers and you have to figure out another way to keep production going. If you weren't a Siser lover already you probably would be after the comparison. I cut everything and keep about 0.1inch between the individual designs and weed off all the excess leaving the squares and then cut them up right then so they are all nice and uniform and then I weed them whenever. You have heard about not waiting but that was regular vinyl. HTV doesn't matter if you wait. I sit at the tv or something and weed and stack until I have all the pieces in nice little (or large) stacks then start pressing. Sister carriers are sticky enough that you have to be a little careful when stacking that you can still get them apart. Another tip: On truly large jobs which I actually do a lot of (hundreds) I arrange each color of a multi-color design on it's own cut file and stack them in really tight to save a LOT of vinyl. HTV doesn't need any certain amount of clear space or registration marks. Doing this precludes the above mode of making a whole bunch of little individual boxes prior to weeding and you have to weed the whole sheet and then hack each one apart with an xacto knife but in certain circumstances it can really save you yards and yards of vinyl. Sometimes doesn't save enough to worry about just depending on the job. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jaybyrd 3,770 Posted February 14, 2015 Also if you have a swingaway press let the lower get a little warm then move the heat away and weed on the platen. the heat makes it much easier but if there are a lot of small pieces they can lift on you so this works best with bigger designs. I don't recommend this with a clamshell because it's just to easy to become permanently scarred by that heating element. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lablover 218 Posted February 14, 2015 WOW, tons of more good info...wooohooooo Goose, thanks for clearing that up about cutting and waiting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lady_VI 45 Posted February 14, 2015 I save some pieces of the paper backing from my regular vinyl. Then when I have a lot of T-shirt decals weeded I place them on the paper and it keeps them nice and clean until ready to be applied to the shirt. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sue2 920 Posted February 14, 2015 I save some pieces of the paper backing from my regular vinyl. Then when I have a lot of T-shirt decals weeded I place them on the paper and it keeps them nice and clean until ready to be applied to the shirt. Me too.... When I'm weeding a large quantity of HTV decals I cut sheets of the regular vinyl backing paper and slip them between each design so they don't stick together and keep clean. Sue2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted February 14, 2015 when I have a lot of htv weeding to to I trap Stacey in a room 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Go-C Graphics 856 Posted February 15, 2015 I've cut up a whole roll of parchment paper into 15"x15" squares. I then stacked them and stapled one edge. Now I have a book where I can slide all the graphics for one shirt into a page of my parchment book. Each shirt gets it's own slot and nothing sticks together. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lablover 218 Posted February 15, 2015 I've cut up a whole roll of parchment paper into 15"x15" squares. I then stacked them and stapled one edge. Now I have a book where I can slide all the graphics for one shirt into a page of my parchment book. Each shirt gets it's own slot and nothing sticks together. Yup..That there is a slick idea!!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
