John G wrote:Hi Phil, I've been looking at your new dryer - the element part is very small, are you sure your going to get enough heat to semi dry your transfers. I do a fair bit of t'shirt printing but have never done transfers so it will be interesting to hear how you get on. Also how are you going to keep themn flat going through the heat?.
Hi John,
I have a theory

Most of my designs are quite small (slogans) so this bit of kit should be ok for these. If I need to do larger prints it maybe back to the Heat Gun
As for keeping them flat going through the machine, I have been doing a little studying

If you heat my trasfers from below they curl like a b@gger! but if you place them in a heat press (heat from above) they flatten out

If my plan comes together I will be a happy bunny

If not, mince pies up to christmas then pizzas afterwards
I print my transfers onto Baking Parchment Paper which although very flimsey is readily available and cheap

You can also use Greaseproof Paper for 'Hot-Split' Transfers, as the plastisol ink sticks to this paper, this paper achieves a more retro/distressed print.
The beauty of the transfer method of printing shirts is that you can print a shirt on demand. We stock various colour shirts, when a customer comes in the shop there is a huge choice open to them. Firstly they choose a design then the colour and size shirt they would like, I then simply heat press the design to the shirt.
This method is also great if you have a regular customer who comes in from time to time and orders X shirts, just bring out the pre-made transfers and print up the shirts.
Also for events, when you don't know how many of each design you are going to sell, take loads of transfers and a heat press and print to order. It literally takes seconds to produce a shirt using this method. And no real waste too!
Phil