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T-shirts???

Sticky Signs

Sticky Signs

New Member
I'm thinking about buying a heat press for making t-shirts. Can't remember the brand right now but it's 16"x20" with an auto release feature. I haven't looked at many presses but out of the ones I've seen so far, this one looks pretty good and it has the biggest platen. About 1700$ Canadian .
I don't have people calling everyday for T-shirts however it has come up several times in the past. There's lots of materials available that are compatible with my Roland Pro III so I figure what the heck.

A few questions;
How many of you are doing this?
Are you/your clients satisfied with the results?
What's your preferred media?
Any pros/cons to doing this in-house?

One of my local suppliers carries these medias - http://ags.allgraphicsupplies.com/Media_EcoSolvent.aspx
Anything stand out as being good?

Cheers
 
washingtonsignguy

washingtonsignguy

New Member
I dont think you can go wrong with a heat press. I got one have had a lot of fun with it. Make sure you dont try to compete with screen printing on larger orders, it is a completly different process. Any order that is more than 15 i screen print, but for the smaller orders i heat press. Customers are satisfied, most of them that only want a few shirts, are willling to pay alittle more per piece and understand. I use the hotmark 70, although i havent tried any other types, it works well. I have heard siser isnt bad. Heat presses are realativly cheap and you should get your money back fairly quickly if your selling it and price it right. Mine bought itself within the first year. It is not my favorite thing to do ( time consuming sometimes) but it brings in new customers, that will eventually order more from you.
 
chopper

chopper

New Member
I use the siser heat press material for printing and thermalflex for the cut stuff.. but as far as the press goes I was looking at the phoenix but you can find them a lot cheaper used on fleabay that is what I did i ended up with a geo knight swing press also got the hat attachment witch I never thought I would use but I seem to use it more than the flat platen....
if you are not running a shirt shack I would go with a used name brand press...
//chopper
 
Sticky Signs

Sticky Signs

New Member
Thanks guys
Malkin, I can't access that link. No permission
Chopper - Can you tell me more about your press and the Hat attachement.
Tx
 
M

Mike_Koval

New Member
Adding a heat press is a nice way to add a couple of extra bucks in your pocket. In no way shape or form will you be trying to compete with a screen printer or doing bulk orders, but where you can fit in are with those folks who what 1-15 shirts. Nice thing about that is you can charge a premium price to someone who wants something unique or 1 or 2.

You can also press nylon, performance gear, poly pro bags, etc.
 
WDP

WDP

New Member
You might want to check out GEO Knight. If your thinking about the long run DTG for shirts is a very comfortable area for short runs and large even Screen print for longer runs. Screen print equipment comes in many small investment packages. Something to consider. If your stuck on a heat press certain brands make a difference and worth paying extra for.
 
S

Steve C.

New Member
Pat White said:
The one thing I never got used to was centering the graphics on the shirts....any body know if they sell grids or something to make registration easier??
Click to expand...

My wife folds the shirt vertically and presses a crease to get the center
then measured down from the sholder seams to level.

We've had a press for about 5 years. Have not gotten a lot of business from
it but it has paid for it's self. I think we are using Hotmark vinyls and Roland
transfer for printed. Maybe its just our area of town, I don't know, but not
many who ask about shirt are takers. A few customers love it and come back
from time to time, but most of the time when anyone ask about shirts it's
like this..."How much are tshirts?' "Depends on how many and what you
want to put on them, If you bring in the shirt usually $25 for the first one
and $12 for each after". Their eyes get big..."$25 for a tshirt?!" "If you
furnish the shirt, We don't stock all styles, sizes and colors, but we can get
the shirt for another $5." "OK, can I get a business card....thanks".
 
binki

binki

New Member
For centering you can use a tool like the TSquareIt http://www.heatpressessentials.com/

As for adding a dtg printer, they are more trouble than they are worth

You can sell a lot of cut apparel vinyl and also if you have a solvent printer, printed apparel vinyl for the shirts. We do 100's of shirts with cut vinyl and the one-offs can go for $15 to $25
 
M

Mike_Koval

New Member
A t-square or a ruler is what i would use. Once you get into doing shirts, you will start eyeballing it.

there is no doubt that one-offs can go for 15-25 easy. There are alot of unique things you can do with heat press vinyl from glitters, foils, metallics, etc. I put together a website...pimpashirt.com showing some of the neat things you can do.
 
F

Finishline Signs

New Member
We started doing shirts about 3 years ago when I bought a use Geo Knight JP 12. Started out with our own stuff and gradually started doing stuff for customers. We then bought a cheap chinese 15" x 15" press and used it with great sucess for about 16 month. Our shirt sales increased enough to purchase a Geo Knight DK20S 16" x 20" swinger. This is a great machine and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Now shirts acount for over 1/3rd of our sales every year. We still use our chinese press when we go to craft sales selling shirts.

I would also recommend using Eco Film from Mike at Imprintables. We switched this year and will never use any other heat press film again.
 
S

Supertprinting

New Member
Sticky Signs said:
Some good info guys. Thanks
I'm still wondering what Malkin's link is about. Anyone know?
Click to expand...

It is in the premium section and talks about the profitability or lack thereof of doing t-shirts. Premium memberships are available and presently 1/2 the price will go to help one of the members here. $7.50 for a month $17.50 for 3 months, $30 for 6 months and $50 for a year.

The premium sections offers access to a greater level of information and posters are willing to share in greater detail.
 
Malkin

Malkin

New Member
Sorry about that, I forgot to check to see if it was "premium".

Also, that thread dealt more with larger qty screenprint orders, sounds like you are after a different market anyways.
 
G-Artist

G-Artist

New Member
If you are going to do any value-aded stuff like apply names/letters to textiles then
I strongly urge you to spend the extra $$ for a swing-away model. Wish someone had told me that before buying our first press.
 
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