screenprintr

Good to know Hocky Girl. I've seen a few forsale on Craigslist. I figured they were a waist of time. Can they cut 8.5 x 11 sheets? If so I'll have to take them more serious.

When you advertise for a low prices, many customers call with orders outside the sale price. So, if I offered $1.50 per square foot, for one color vinyl, on a white banner or plastic sheet, than they come and ask for maybe two or three banners, multiple signs, and two or three colors. I might also have a bunch of extra banners around I need to get rid of. Now this isn't the exact situation just an example. Some advertisers may have a full color for a certain price, but they gamble that you'll want more then one product and come back several times. I sell t-shirts cheap, but they're screen printed. I also charge for the screen, color changes, other locations, etc. If you don't have a lot of overhead or you can produce a bunch of products quickly you'll make more money by filling the space within the hour. It's like cutting hair. If you can cut someones hair in five minutes. You can do twelve hair cuts in an hour. If you charge $5 per hair cut you'll make $60 per hour. Providing you have twelve people of course. With transfers and vinyl you don't have to make screens. Even if you did you can push out several an hour. I know a screen printer that screen printed the signs instead of using vinyl. You don't have to heat cure wood or plastic so he just screened them and let them air dry.

Mr. 300, are those blank transfers or pre-made from Art Brand. We bought Art Brand in the past and some of their transfers were hard to heat press. I believe they have different levels and you have to increase the pressure is that correct? Maybe you can offer tutoring services too. Lol.

Didn't see a coupon, but when I searched for the product it said $29.99.

Jay, that ScreenCast looks like an awesome site.

It looks a little pixellated. Can that be sharpened or use an anti-Aliased? Is the program you used more user friendly than Illustrator or Corel Draw?

Yes if you don't mind putting the time in to adjust the contour cutting. What type of cutter do you have? There are a couple of cutters that have either an Optic Eye or Laser Pointer to help you cut. If you look at this forum, I believe they have a thread for Laser Pointer cutters. The smallest machine US Cutter has is about $500 or less, plus shipping. However, it will save you lots of time. My next machine will be a Laser Point from US Cutter. And no, I don't work for them nor get a percentage. Of course I would gladly take one if they offered it to me. Lol.

That's correct you don't need transfer paper for Vinyl, but if you want to transfer Photos you need to use Heat Tranfers. Don't know if the other members know about heat tranfers or understood your question. I buy heat transfers from Performance Screen. Only because they're down the street, but they have two offices to ship from. They have a Inkjet Transfer paper and a Laserjet. Depending on which one you need they both work well. Follow the instructions and you'll do well. Hope this helps.

Thanks Roger. I actually need one, and we have a Harbor Freight in the town right next to us. Isn't that like the best store? I love two types of stores, Tools, and Book Stores. The Black and Decker Outlet closed, but the Harbor Freight opened up, and they're ten miles closer. Yahoooooo! My wife and/or daughter don't like taking me shopping cause I can't stand it. If they don't have a bookstore in the Mall they might as well forget about me going with them. Of course the Massage Salon, and Starbucks are a close second. Thanks again.

Did they send it free or did you have to pay? With the better US made machines like Hot Tronix and Geo Knight, I only had one problem with Geo, they sent me the product for free, and I had it the next day. Even that was too long. I have a few presses, conveyor dryer and flash dryer. I still prefer the Hot Tronix. It's a work horse.

Forgot to mention that www.t-shirtForums.com has a ProworldInc link and you can ask questions. If you sign up for a free account for t-shirt forum, do a search for Proworld and you'll see a thread. The person from there has great anwers and even gives great customer service. I've even seen him give a free repair to someone who bought a machine from another company. The machine was the same type as he sells. I'm sure that person will buy all his heat presses from proworld from now on. If I buy a new one again, I'll buy from them.

Sunie's are cheap, and you'll have problems with the manual pressure. Hot Tronix from Stahls, and GeoKnight.com presses have digital read outs. Trust me, it'll make all the difference when you're pressing and your vinyl or transfer keeps coming up. Sunie's are light weight and are good to take to a show, but if you're going to do several at a time you want a good machine. ProworldInc.com has a big selection of heat presses. Talk with a saleman about the type of work you're doing. With two or three jobs you'll more than make your money back, and you'll save a lot of time and physical pain.

Okay I Am Space. Will wait to see your results. I'm sure everything will work out.

I use Transfers, Easyweed, and screen printing. Would prefer screen printing over all three.

San Mar offers free shipping with any order over $200. Bodek and Rhodes offer free shipping with orders of $150 right now. May change later. Both companies have weekly specials. I usually get an email from one of them every day with a special going on. Both of them also require a resale license. San Mar also requires that you buy at least 10,000 or more garments a year for Case pricing. I don't know what Bodek and Rhodes requires, but we make the minimums for both. And yes, we sometimes order from other vendors without making the minimums. They still give us Case pricing. The original poster said they were only part time. We're part time too and we get wholesale and have a resale license.

There's another product you can get to cut down on the Emulsion process. It's called Capallary I think. Basically, you wet the screen, place the Capallary Film on the screen, and use the squeege to smooth it out. Let it dry, then expose your design on it. I hate the emulsion process too. To tell you the truth I hate washing out the screen after exposing it. It seems like you have to run the water for a few minutes and than the emulsion starts coming out in the spots it's suppose to come out of. Every now and then, like yesterday, I forget a step and wonder why it's not washing out. I was so close to finishing the washout and a few small lines just wouldn't wash out. I had to start all over, and now I have to go back and re-expose the screen and wash it out, Argg! There's another company called EZscreenprint.com that sells the sheet with the emulsion already in it. It looks almost like Capallary, but the screens already there. You just tape it to a frame. The problem is that it's too short, and you can't get as many prints cause it'll fall off. Maybe you can see if they have larger sheets.

I didn't know Michaels sold Vinyl. I would by from a sign supply shop or US Cutters themselves. If you're just starting out I don't think the cutter matters much. With one job it's possible to make enough to pay for your first cutter. I don't think Vinyl comes in 25 inches anyways. So, it really doesn't matter which you buy, 24 or 25. At least the 25 is wider. One thing to keep in mind is your next step. When you get into t-shirts you eventually will make tranfers and print them on your ink or laser jet. You than have to cut around the transfer to make it look good before heat pressing it on your t-shirt. Some vinyl cutters can contour cut, and save you hours of cutting around the transfer not to mention pain in your four arm and hands. The Laser point has a laser pointer that follows the design and cuts around it. The cost of a 24 inch cost about the same as an MH-871 and would save you a lot of time.

I haven't but you can check with the manufacture of the silk ties. Also, buy a few silk ties and try it. With screen printing I have to do a wash test for every new product I haven't used before to make sure the ink doesn't wash out. It's the cost of doing business.

I looked at the site and saw the Gildan 5,000 for $1.49 for white t-shirts. That's a pretty good price. Are you screen printing them yourself or do you need a screen printer or transfers? We buy quite a bit of t-shirts per year and pay around the same from companies that say they're giving us wholesale or case price. 50 shirts one time won't get you wholesale pricing though. Your question doesn't tell us if you're buying one time or in the t-shirt business.

Not a bad deal for $350 to $400. I think the go for over a $1,000. Mine is a Swinger also.

I wouldn't want another business mad at me either. We're in business to make money, and if we're upsetting possible businesses, that could reflect on us badly too. Big Mike has no idea who you're talking about, but everyone in town only knows of one Big Mikes which is the deli.

You can get a low cost heat press used or on ebay, but save yourself a lot of time and buy a little better machine. I like Hot Tronics. I've had three heat presses, and we bought the Hot Tronics used and it works great, and the best of all three machines. Work a few extra hours, find a part time job or market the heck out of yourself to pay for a better heat press. In my humble opinion of course.

Hello Joey. Welcome. I have a friend that owns a Powder Coating business in California. I think it's Hytech or something like that. Another way to find your answer since it's related to Powder Coating is to call some Powder Coating businesses or look for a powder coating forum.

Welcome to the site. Do you do Vinyl lettering for t-shirts, cars, trucks, windows, signs, etc.?

Yes you do have to spend money to make money, but hopefully not much.