dvddvd

Not sure which way to go?

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I want to print onto some tshirts more hobbiest at the moment.

After reading up on best way to go, it seems i have a few options.

 

Ink jet printer:

Printing onto special inkjet transfer paper, quite cheap to set up but always the chance of nozzles blocking due to me not printing everyday?

 

Laser printer:

Printing onto special laser transfer paper, quite cheap to set up and no chance of the nozzles blocking? (ive owned a mono laser printer before and was impressed on how easier and trouble free it was but unsure about quality in t shirt printing)

 

Sublimation printing:

Printing onto special sublimation transfer paper, quite cheap to set up and again could get blocked nozzles? But seems to give best results?

 

Solvent printers

Out of my price range

 

So how do I choose which one? I would be spending around £300 which would let me buy any of the top 3. As I stated i would be only using it now and then so dont want to buy one and its stood for a few weeks and then the heads blocked ( Ive owned so many printers in the past)

Which would give me the best results? Which is most trouble free? Which is cheapest to run in inks etc ?

 

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You can buy a brand new photo quality inkjet printer for under $80 US Dollars (whatever that comes to in GBP).
Those cartridges do not fail even if sitting unused for months.

A 12-pak of iron-on heat transfers is about $10.

 

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I have an Epson ET2550 eco tank printer sat next to me with a dodgy print head, ( it leaves lines in the black print)

Every printer ive owned seems to die on me after a few years with streaky heads?

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1 hour ago, dvddvd said:

I have an Epson ET2550 eco tank printer sat next to me with a dodgy print head, ( it leaves lines in the black print)

Every printer ive owned seems to die on me after a few years with streaky heads?

That is why many of us went with Ricoh and their gel ink

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Having a read up on them all, one downside I see is sublimation printing has to be done on white t shirts?

Not really a fan of white t shirts I can see it been great in promotional wear. Cheap and cheerful.

But for t shirts that you would want to wear yourself in different colours it seems limited also the t shirt having to be polyester and not as much choice as cotton in different styles?

After reading up on them all it seems laser is winning at the moment. 

 

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Still trying to get my head around it all..

So laser and ink jet basically print onto a vinyl and the vinyl sticks to the fabric?

Does the inkjet laser paper have to be a solid piece? I know you can contour cut around the edge but what if the design has places where the t shirt fabric is seen through the design? Would a vinyl cutter cut those pieces out as in a normal HTV vinyl. For example a letter O ? Would it be able to cut out the centre of the O or would it be left white inkjet/laser vinyl ?

While sublimation prints onto a sublimation paper and it's just the ink/dye that transfers over?

 

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Inkjet is what they call a transfer and yes it prints on a solid piece. You CAN contour around the outside and inside of open spaces although you'll probably want a cutter with optical eye to be precise enough to do a clean job. I can't remember what cutter you are running. I have experience with this type of transfer and can tell you that the "hand" (feel) of the transfer is sucky on every one I have ever found. They also don't have a very long lifespan even with pigment based inks. But it IS as option that works on dark shirts. If you happen to be printing on white cotton or blends Jet Pro Soft Stretch usually shortened to JPSS is really good and has a light hand. It is just some sort of polymer that you print in mirror. Trim around the edges and apply according to the directions and they look great on white. As long as you don't leave straight edges to your trim job you can't really see where the polymer is on a pure white tee and people DO tend to wear white cotton at least a LITTLE more agreeably than the sublimation polyester. 

A further complication with the transfer for dark option is most cutters with an optical eye require the registration alignment marks to be outside the design with a margin of clearance. This means your available design space is limited. You can combat this by getting a larger format printer that will print on an 11x17 but you definitely burn up excess transfer space. A comparison with the JPSS you can squeeze all sorts of prints on the page and just leave the smallest of margins and trim around them with an exacto in a few seconds and get a lot more prints per page. 

In short the inkjet option is ok (just ok) for occasional darks and wonderful and inexpensive for white shirts. I recommend using a pigment based printer though because the regular dye based inks will wash out or fade much faster. If you have designs that are solid colors and do not need to be actual printed then HTV is far far superior for longevity, appearance and hand. I do a LOT of apparel and most of it I use HTV or pre-built plastisol transfers. If you have volume enough you can buy prebuilt transfers in full color and they work fine. Also not a great hand but at least you don't have to invest in a special printer and can spend you time just pressing them on. Might be a viable option for you. IF it's just one here and there then that doesn't pencil out. 

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Many thanks.

I have a Liyu cutter with ARMS.

Im leaning towards a laser printer. Their prices seem to have dropped a lot?

No more blocked heads etc

Was looking at a xerox 6510 which can be bought for £140 

Full colour laser A4 printer with 1200 x 2400 dpi resolution

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16 minutes ago, dvddvd said:

Many thanks.

I have a Liyu cutter with ARMS.

Im leaning towards a laser printer. Their prices seem to have dropped a lot?

No more blocked heads etc

Was looking at a xerox 6510 which can be bought for £140 

Full colour laser A4 printer with 1200 x 2400 dpi resolution

how much are the toner refills on the laser printer?

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If bought from ebay so not Xerox they are £49.00 for a set of 4.

With a black page yield of 5500 and colour 2400.

You do get a set of toners with the printer but half the size yields.

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