About a year ago I purchased the printing company I was working at and in order to focus on the business I decided to sell my vinyl cutter and sign making equipment.
We print mostly paper products (business cards, invoices, etc.), however, since taking over I have added other services such as signage and large format printing (both of which I currently sub out to someone I know in the next town). While it has been nice to offer those services to our customers, the demand isn't at a level to purchase our own equipment...I am more than happy to continue to source that stuff out.
What I am considering doing now though is purchasing a heat press in order to offer small runs of t-shirt and other promotional items to customers. We get asked all the time about this and I think there is a decent market for it where we are and I feel it will be a nice addition for the business.
I contacted Stahls about what I'd like to do and they have recommended the Maxx Heat Press. After doing some searching on here I see that others have this press and are happy with it.
The Maxx Heat Press comes in 3 sizes...11" x 15", 15" x 15" and 16" x 20" with the price difference being $460 between the smallest and largest press.
My question is...what size should I be thinking about? As I said, my intention is to simply be able to offer very small runs of t-shirts for customers...I have no illusions that the press will be running non-stop all day/every day. I am thinking more along the lines of 10 - 15 shirts a month kind of thing (if that much).
That being the case, I would like to keep the cost down as much as possible...do you think the 11" x 15" will be big enough?
Also, I assume I am also going to have to purchase a new vinyl cutter as well correct? Any suggestions on a decent lower end vinyl cutter that would be good to go along with the heat press?
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
We print mostly paper products (business cards, invoices, etc.), however, since taking over I have added other services such as signage and large format printing (both of which I currently sub out to someone I know in the next town). While it has been nice to offer those services to our customers, the demand isn't at a level to purchase our own equipment...I am more than happy to continue to source that stuff out.
What I am considering doing now though is purchasing a heat press in order to offer small runs of t-shirt and other promotional items to customers. We get asked all the time about this and I think there is a decent market for it where we are and I feel it will be a nice addition for the business.
I contacted Stahls about what I'd like to do and they have recommended the Maxx Heat Press. After doing some searching on here I see that others have this press and are happy with it.
The Maxx Heat Press comes in 3 sizes...11" x 15", 15" x 15" and 16" x 20" with the price difference being $460 between the smallest and largest press.
My question is...what size should I be thinking about? As I said, my intention is to simply be able to offer very small runs of t-shirts for customers...I have no illusions that the press will be running non-stop all day/every day. I am thinking more along the lines of 10 - 15 shirts a month kind of thing (if that much).
That being the case, I would like to keep the cost down as much as possible...do you think the 11" x 15" will be big enough?
Also, I assume I am also going to have to purchase a new vinyl cutter as well correct? Any suggestions on a decent lower end vinyl cutter that would be good to go along with the heat press?
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
