Hen

First Shirt Order and Not sure where to start

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Just go check out the Siser Easyweed and compare the prices if you just bought what they offer vs the bundle. I use Siser almost exclusively, it's the bomb. 

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Thank you Wildgoose,

Your a lot of help.  Do you have a good place to buy wholesale shirts.

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6 hours ago, Hen said:

The customer brought me the shirt and I typed up 5 words and applied it.   It was a joke for a friend of his.  I told him 15.00 and he insisted on me taking $40.00 so i came out really good on this shirt.  And got the practice.

 

Good for you, at least you weren't giving it a way to begin with!

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15 hours ago, Hen said:

Thank you Wildgoose,

Your a lot of help.  Do you have a good place to buy wholesale shirts.

If you have a viable business you may be able to set up an account at Sanmar. They are my go-to for most things. Those who aren't collecting taxes usually use Jiffyshirts or similar semi-wholesaler online. Epic sports is another that doesn't care if you are a legit business. 

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On 10/20/2018 at 10:00 AM, Wildgoose said:

If you have a viable business you may be able to set up an account at Sanmar. They are my go-to for most things. Those who aren't collecting taxes usually use Jiffyshirts or similar semi-wholesaler online. Epic sports is another that doesn't care if you are a legit business. 

Thanks again for your help.

I'm going to order the recommended 15" X 15" digital swing arm heat press.  I have researched all weekend and this seems to be the best unless I have a lot more to invest.  I am going to get the one with the HTV Bundle.  It is a better deal than ordering them separate and I can make all of the colors work.  I see where a lot of people use the non stick sheets.  Will I need them or do you recommend them for most of the time?

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2 hours ago, Hen said:

Thanks again for your help.

I'm going to order the recommended 15" X 15" digital swing arm heat press.  I have researched all weekend and this seems to be the best unless I have a lot more to invest.  I am going to get the one with the HTV Bundle.  It is a better deal than ordering them separate and I can make all of the colors work.  I see where a lot of people use the non stick sheets.  Will I need them or do you recommend them for most of the time?

I recommend a lower platen cover. they will help you slide shirts around as you first lay them on and if you have anything on the back side it will keep it from sticking. On top I would recommend just picking up some parchment paper to use as a top sheet. It's cheap and available at your local walmart and you can get hundreds of press cycles with it before it starts to go bad. On my fancy press I finally broke down and bought an upper platen cover as well. and it has been nice to not even have to mess with a cover sheet but not something that I used until recently. If you are pressing a single color item the carrier plastic is sufficient to protect the platen so I usually don't mess with any cover if I am just single color. I used to when I was new but eventually just stopped. You will sooner or later want some heat platen cleaner and scrub your upper platen once in a while. I clean mine right before I do white shirts usually. 

Here is the cleaner: https://www.uscutter.com/EZ-Off-Heat-Press-Platen-Cleaner-5-25-oz-tube

You will most likely need a press pillow as well. I bought a fairly large one (12"x15") and have used it for years. I eventually had to go get some new foam for it. Anytime you have something that has thick seams or collars or hoodies with the front pocket, you need to be careful that they don't hold the shirt up near those seams. My very first failure was a baby onsie that had enough thick seams around the middle that it didn't create good pressure. I have bought a few other options as well over the years but use the pillow most often. Particularly with polo shirts and things with pockets. I have a prefect press pad I bought from stahls but you can use a mouse pad or two and get the same effect and I find that on polyester it leave too much of a defined press mark so I use it only when I have no choice. My little pad is about 4"x5" and just right for left chest sized logo's. A mouse pad could be cut down to the perfect size and stacked two high if needed. I also have a sleeve pillow (6"x18" I think) that I slide into long sleeves or down sweat pants. Must have's that you can build into the price of a specific order that will need them. When you get busy enough to afford a Fusion they have an actual lower platen for sleeves that I use most of the time but occasionally something is too small to fit on it so I fall back to my pillow.

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On 10/21/2018 at 7:07 PM, Wildgoose said:

I recommend a lower platen cover. they will help you slide shirts around as you first lay them on and if you have anything on the back side it will keep it from sticking. On top I would recommend just picking up some parchment paper to use as a top sheet. It's cheap and available at your local walmart and you can get hundreds of press cycles with it before it starts to go bad. On my fancy press I finally broke down and bought an upper platen cover as well. and it has been nice to not even have to mess with a cover sheet but not something that I used until recently. If you are pressing a single color item the carrier plastic is sufficient to protect the platen so I usually don't mess with any cover if I am just single color. I used to when I was new but eventually just stopped. You will sooner or later want some heat platen cleaner and scrub your upper platen once in a while. I clean mine right before I do white shirts usually. 

Here is the cleaner: https://www.uscutter.com/EZ-Off-Heat-Press-Platen-Cleaner-5-25-oz-tube

You will most likely need a press pillow as well. I bought a fairly large one (12"x15") and have used it for years. I eventually had to go get some new foam for it. Anytime you have something that has thick seams or collars or hoodies with the front pocket, you need to be careful that they don't hold the shirt up near those seams. My very first failure was a baby onsie that had enough thick seams around the middle that it didn't create good pressure. I have bought a few other options as well over the years but use the pillow most often. Particularly with polo shirts and things with pockets. I have a prefect press pad I bought from stahls but you can use a mouse pad or two and get the same effect and I find that on polyester it leave too much of a defined press mark so I use it only when I have no choice. My little pad is about 4"x5" and just right for left chest sized logo's. A mouse pad could be cut down to the perfect size and stacked two high if needed. I also have a sleeve pillow (6"x18" I think) that I slide into long sleeves or down sweat pants. Must have's that you can build into the price of a specific order that will need them. When you get busy enough to afford a Fusion they have an actual lower platen for sleeves that I use most of the time but occasionally something is too small to fit on it so I fall back to my pillow.

Thanks again for all of your help!  I have my cutter cutting great, my press is perfect for what I need and I was really surprised on how heavy and well built that the press was.  I have made a few of our company shirts and they all turned out great except for a few of the first ones.  I washed them inside out and the problem with them is that when they came out of the wash, the vinyl was wrinkled looking.  I hung them to dry and then decided what did I have to loose but to throw them in the dryer and just see what the outcome would be and they actually turned out good.    

I'm not sure if you know anything about the program vinylmaster ltr but I have posted in the program area and no one has commented. It may be a crazy question but I'm stuck and can't move forward.  I created some projects and cut and saved them but when I went back into the program later and wanted to make some changes to the text.  It won't let me.  The text shows as curve instead of artistic text now.  It will let me delete it and retype it but I have to match the fonts up the sizes up and everything again and try to guess what the font was that I used because it wont show me anything.  

Maybe you can help me or tell me which direction to go to get help.

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   Really?   2 people answered your question.  I was one of them.  I replied 6 minutes after you posted the question. :huh:

 

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