NEWBIE

[Samantha1105 0]

My family and I are considering starting a t-shirt making business I have a few questions I'm hoping someone can answer. What brand of cutter would you recommend? We have been looking at a package on the us cutter site. Also the heat press? Do have a suggestions on clothing distributors? I've been doing some online research and have found ts between $1.50-3 and hoodies $8-13 is this good pricing for buying in bulk? What is a good vinyl? And distributor? All suggestions and other helpful info is welcome

[rdrgrafix2 30]

Hi Samantha and welcome to the forum.  Are you looking at just doing heat press vinyl tshirts and are you looking at going into signs and stuff at all? Cause if your focusing on shirts I would say screenprinting sounds more like the route you want to go

[Samantha1105 0]

In the beginning our focus will be clothing but we are planning on doing sign banners magnets ect

[mabscotthandyman 1,410]

Buy the best you can afford at least a 24 inch cutter . There are three levels of cutters hobby , semi professional and professional cutters . Just about any will do what you want but like I said buy the best you can afford . Do some research on the cutters before you decide .

Dan

[Markk077 21]

Welcome, Samantha.

[Samantha1105 0]

We are looking at the business package for $999 what is your opinion on the quality of what's included?

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

Welcome and on packages they are usually the items that maket he seller the most money and seldom a real advantage to the buyer - buy the items you need and skip the ones you don't  - siser for the heat press material - sunie for a cheap heat press that works well, cutter, copam at the least but something along the line of a gcc expert24 for a value cutter, You can start with something like a pcut and work your way up as you make money.  get a tsquare-it for alligning graphic on the t-shirt

[Samantha1105 0]

Thanks

[Markk077 21]

Agree with Dakota.

 

If you're going to be a professional, you have to hand-pick every tool you own.

 

Same with materials. Know what you love to work with, and tell a customer so.  Price accordingly. It's easy to to adjust downward, never so much upward.

 

Good Luck and take care, Mark

[dwp99 283]

Hello and Welcome

[OWJones 1,981]

Don't cheap out and cheat yourself on the size of your heat press, either - look at what kind of designs you are wanting to do and get one that is big enough to cover the entire design.   If you're planning to do a LOT of shirts just bam, bam, bam, one right after another, look at a swing-away style press vs. a clam shell as that will get the hot platen out of your way and your less likely to end up with burns on the backs of your hands.  Of course, if you're going to be doing that many shirts at a time, you're probably better off with screen printing like Rdrgrafix2 suggested...

 

Also, the 87-in-1 heat presses that do hats and shirts and coffee mugs and frisbees and doggie diapers, etc. are generally speaking not as well built or as high of quality as the single function "heat press" or "hat press" or "mug press" systems are.  

 

Be sure to order a color guide with your order so you can compare actual samples of colors - backlit representations on a color monitor are never quite spot on, plus it gives you a better feel for the actual materials.  The Siser heat press vinyl color guide is only $5, the Oracal vinyl color guide is $10 and they're both worth every cent.

 

I'm a big fan of US Cutter and recommend buying from them, but don't hesitate to check Craigslist, Bookoo.com and other classified item sites for your area - I got my Geo Knight 16x20" swing away press with stand for about half of retail price from a small town sporting goods store that went out of business...