Glass plate for T-shirt printing?

[waynewes]

Hello
Can anyone help me. I have a 3D sublimation machine, I am trying to print T-shirts on it. When I watch the video's online they are using a glass sheet to keep the image smooth. When I try to find this I cannot find anything suitable. When I have tried printing T-shirts without this I have had poor print quality on certain parts where the image is being pushed over the 'bars' in the base.

Can anyone help please?

[Justin]

Can you post a link to one of these videos. you don't use a 3D machine for printing sublimation t-shirts you need a heat press.....uhm, confused

[FutureProject]

I'm guessing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67qt_y9pR0o

most framers will be able to cut you a piece of glass make sure they also round the edges else you'll cut yourself then bleed all over your shirt you're printing which is also cut to shreds..

seems a lot of hassle and time to print a shirt.

[Deano82]

Could you not use a glass kitchen worktop protector? ?


Something like http://www.longforte.com/glass-cutting-board-28x30cm

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[waynewes]

To be honest I did my usual rush in and buy before doing my research and have some buyer remorse. I saw this new machine that did everything and though that it would be much better than to buy loads of individual machines. The place I got these from (monster group) have been next to useless with helping me with this. They have been very helpful in some ways but I think they are very inexperienced with them and maybe most of their customers do not use it for T-shirt printing.

The problem with the glass is the pressure from the vacuum, I already had some heat tempered glass break in it. Thank you Deano92 but it has 'low pressure' so I fear that would also break.

I also don't like that I have to use poly t-shirts, I just don't think they look very good. Is there any good guides out there on picking the best t-shirt set up? I want something that will give me high quality prints that last (I will be printing slogans and basic images not pictures). Can you guys make any suggestions?

[abacus1983]

I too was interested in this printer and also saw this video, I was thinking kitchen chopping board, but not sure now, mist admit the press looks like it can do it all, but I'm unsure now

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[abacus1983]

Oh there is a poly powder that you can buy and a special paper, when you print to it you smoother the image in the poly powder and then print to a cotton T-shirt, not sure how good it is tho

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[ArtyGamer]

I have to be very blunt, and very honest... this is a ridiculous way to print t-shirts. For a start, you have to tape the print to the shirt, but that doesn't stop the material underneath from moving and stretching, so even if you manage to line up the print perfectly on a flat surface with the glass inside it, you then have to lift it and tuck everything underneath before placing in an OVEN to get the shirt printed. If there's no vacuum pressure applied then the print isn't being pulled against the shirt so there's no guarantee you're going to get perfect coverage. If the vacuum IS being applied, then the tucked-in shirt below will likely be scorched from being sucked against the heating element below, and it'll undoubtedly crease.

If you want to do t-shirts, you need a heat press. A heat press with an actual platen or, if you're going large-scale, one where you at the very least lay the garment out completely flat before placing the print in position. But producing t-shirts in a vacuum press is a ridiculous idea. It's dangerous, for a start, as that glass is going to super-heat much more than any heat press platen would. So when you're done printing the shirt, you'll want to remove the glass and if you place it on a cold surface it'll shatter immediately. Either way, though, it's just not the correct way to print a shirt. I'd honestly ditch that idea completely.

I own one of those vacuum presses and it's great for phone cases, water bottles, hip flasks, mugs, or anything else where the print has to wrap around the subject. The key to this is that the items must be rigid, and that's why phone cases and plastic mugs need jigs - to retain the formed shape. A shirt is too soft, and shouldn't be touching the heating element. There's just far too much that could go wrong. That's why they don't show you the finished shirt coming out of the press.

Start off small if you must, by buying a cheap heat press from China - roughly £120 delivered for a 15" x 15" one like I started off with. Once you've made some money, buy a decent press... you'll never regret it.

There's also nothing wrong with polyester shirts IF you buy decent shirts (the Xpres Subli Plus shirts are about as heavyweight as you'll get, really) and you're using good inks and paper. I've used my DTG machine for white t-shirts and, to be honest, I still prefer using dye-sub for whites. It's MUCH cheaper, for a start... I mean, you're literally looking at around 30p for each sheet of TruPix A3 paper and probably 1-3p for the ink on an inkjet and perhaps 30p on geljet. Sure, you'd be looking at around 6-8p of ink for printing white shirts through DTG because there's no white ink necessary, but they still look better if you pre-treat (between 30p-50p per shirt), and the equipment is vastly more expensive. Unless your designs are simple enough to use vinyl or screen printing, dye sub is definitely a good way to go for white shirts. Plus, if you're using a six or seven-colour printer for them, and a high dpi of 720 or 1200, then you'll get incredible quality.

I'd recommend you ditch the idea of using the vacuum press for shirts and just pick up a cheap Chinese press to get you started. Seriously.

[abacus1983]

Thanks for all this info, I to was looking at the 3d press as an all rounder because of the video, but think I will start with a standard swing away for my first press, also thanks so much for the info about the xpres subli t-shirts, didn't know these excist and they look really good

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