Announcement

**jjones9774** · 10-19-2007, 08:17 PM

You may want to think twice about getting into screen printing. It's a messy business to do and takes up considerable floor space. If you are lucky enough to have a dependable screenprinter near by, it's my suggestion that you contract with him for those jobs and look at possibly adding sublimation and vinyl cutting for your shop. We have been embroidering for about 12 years and this area of our business is our mainstay.
We have a cutter/plotter for vinyl applications and a 1280 Epson printer for sublimation. These two items cover most of our requests and when we need a hundred sweatshirts for a school, our nearby screenprinter does that work for us. We are content with our $2 or so profit per item on jobs like that.
We bought a swinger press from Stahls about 10 years ago and it still works great. Our sublimation business is perfect for small runs on tees and sweats.
Frankly, we do not have the floor space for a screenprinter plus the necessary screen-making and drying equipment.
Hope this helps.

Jimmie Jones
TJ's Designs
Vallejo CA

**levelbest** · 10-19-2007, 10:05 PM

Things to look into...

Heat Press - with transfers from transferexpress, looks just as good as screen printing without the mess. Costs a tiny bit more.

Sublimination and ChromaBlast - best of both worlds. Sub materials and white/lite cottons.

Digital Cutter such as the Rolland GX-24. Great for 10-20 items. You cut the designs and press them onto tee's, sport jerseys, polos, twill shirts using heat pressable vinyl. Just did some purple twill shirts with gold metallic vinyl... holy moly. Looked way better than what I could have embroidered! Seriously! Clean crisp lines, fine details. Awesome.

**levelbest** · 10-19-2007, 10:06 PM

BTW, I just did 200 t's with the heat press. With multi ganging the images, I got the cost down to about a buck fitty wholesale including the transfer and the shirt. And that was for a front left chest and back design.

**Image Embroidery** · 10-20-2007, 01:36 PM

I'll jump in here and share my experiences with expanding the business. Started with one Amaya, within a year added a heat press, vinyl cutter, TJET and second Amaya!
I am now in my third year and quite honestly would love to have another XT!
The heat press paid for itself with the first few jobs I did. Midwest is awesome with transfers. I have done 200 shirt orders with both heat press transfers and my TJET.
The vinyl cutter is also a great addition to my business.
I made the decision to add the heat press for doing transfers after having a few really bad experiences farming out screenprinting jobs.
Good luck...I can honestly say that adding a heat press is a low cost investment for high profit return.
LuAnn

**Dorothy Compton** · 10-20-2007, 03:43 PM

I agree with John and LuAnn. My 15 x 15 swing-away press paid for itself within 6 months. You could buy a 16 x 20 which would be better but costs quite a bit more and the small press will do 95% of the jobs. There are 3 types: clam, draw and swing. the swing press takes more room (for the platen to "swing" away) but can do thicker items, e.g. mousepads. I use Transfer Express (www.txpress.com) for my screen transfers. I use laser transfer paper for mouse pads and some full-color onesies on light colored fabric (note longevitiy is not high but I fully inform the customer). One thing you can market with using screen-printed transfers is the ability to buy in bulk and use in smaller quantities. This is great for schools who don't want to have a lot of stock that ends up not selling due to wrong sizes.

The other really good purchase I made was a vinyl cutter. The Roland GX24 is great but is in the $1500-$2000 price range.

Having several methods available allows you to meet the customer's need based on garment type, price, quantity, lasting power, graphic size, number of colors, etc. You can also mix your embellishment (embroidery front chest, vinyl on the back).

One other nice thing about having this all in house is quality control and any problems can be corrected by you!

Dorothy Compton, Owner
Bee Embroidered
www.BeeEmbroidered.com
916-635-7467

**signman** · 10-21-2007, 10:35 AM

Here's my 2¢ worth...I went the opposite route. Started with teeshirt transfers and a heat press, 30 years ago...moved into screenprinting, then sign making and engraving...dropped the transfers for direct screening...then with the sign making found the vinyl cutter also did heat transfer vinyls so back came the heat press. Then the embroidery, then digital printing/die cutting.
With the digital printer (Roland Versacamm) I can do full color die cut iron on decals-and now I can combine screenprinting with embroidery, embroidery with iron on, etc.
I've done sublimation-and don't go by the 'advertising'...you can sublimate on almost ALL products-any textile with 50% or more poly blend takes sublimation great-but only the whites or very light colors. Your sublimation 'ink' is transparent-so if you sublimate on colored items the design colors will go crazy. On 100% canvas tote bags-there ARE sublimation inks that will work but your normal run of the press sublimation inks won't adhere (sublimate) properly. I've sublimated on clothing, textiles, aluminum plates, plastic...sometimes just to play around and see what takes it and what doesn't.
The diecut and/or digital print iron vinyls make the biggest bucks per shirt-you can add 'football number' and the name over it on the back of a sweatshirt, for example-and get $15-$20 PER SHIRT above and beyond the cost of the shirt. A good parent support group can get tons of orders for you-set up a fund raising deal with them. Full 'retail' price of individual custom shirts, the group gets $5 of each shirt (ordered AND PAID IN ADVANCE) and you do the product. NO investment for them, good business for you.
For screenprinting-figure $5,000 bare bones minimum and 500 sq. feet of space needed, along with 'blackout' or darkroom, wash out sink, chemical (ink washout) sink, and more. So much easier to find a small screenprinter that will do the jobs for you and allow you 25% commission or so.
Keeps me busy doing a couple orders a month from other Amaya owners around the country!
Roland

**SkyLinePrints** · 10-22-2007, 02:57 PM

Boing! I'll jump in...

Screenprinting is messy and has a pretty good size learning curve. If you are looking to expand into this world, I would start with:

Vinyl
Heat Transfers
DTG

Let's do a bit more explaining....

Vinyl:

I added this to my business back in the spring. (thanks to Roland and John for their sound advice) I bought a Roland GX-24 and havent looked back. This has allowed me to do dark shirts that I couldnt do before since I can now profitably due 1 - 11 without screening.

Not only can I vinyl shirts, but there is the whole vinyl market for signs, stickers, window decals, and on and on.... To keep it simple, I just do window decals and banners.

I've also lettered my store front windows and vehicle. I figure just between those two things the cutter paid for itself.

Heat Transfers:

I would recommend Sheryl over at Mustang Graphics (828 606-6261 tell her Skyline referred u please) for heat transfers. She custom makes them and I find them a lot more affordable than Transfer Express. Dont get me wrong, Transfer Express is very good and I like their clipart book that you can show to your customers. Very good service but for complete custom work, Mustang is better.

DTG:

I added a Brother GT-541 to my embroidery business about 2 years ago. This machine has LONG since paid for itself. Probably the best investment I've made. Allows me to do 1 - xxxx number of shirts. Design in Corel then send to printer. Easy peasy... Over 11,000 shirts printed and not 1 problem. This machine is a work horse. Wont do dark garments but I either vinyl or screen those.

Good luck!

**Body Cover** · 10-22-2007, 03:53 PM

Can't resist chiming in also. As a Screenprinter for the last 19 years I agree with all that has been said, I got tired of subbing out our Embroidery which is why I got involved but, as far as screenprinting goes, it is messy it does take a lot of equipment (to do right) and it takes space. but MOST of all it is a physical work that isn't something everything can do, it requires upper arm strength and a good strong grip. I am not saying you can't do it without these things, but if you are standing in front of a press for a few hours and you are pulling a squeegee, you are going to feel it. Not to mention the process contains at least 15 to 20 steps or so along the way. and to be competitive you are going to work off of margins that are very small compared to embroidery only. I suggest like has been said and find a good local printer that can make your deadlines. (trust me its something to check out) and then be satisfied to mark up the shirts and send them to your printer and mark up the print an extra dollar or so a shirt and be happy to make a profit while doing no work. If you charge a lot more than this you will be providing a service for your customer and making things easier with one stop shopping but if they start checking prices then you will quickly find yourself out of the market in regards to pricing. you have less conrol as far as scheduling and how to handle problems that arise, but you also have less headaches and a good printer can work with you on deadlines and changes. the NEw inkjet technology (T-Jets and others) are a great small run alternative but also require a learning curve and a lot of supplies, not to mention a good grasp of graphic design.
Anyway, Good Luck with your success.
Ron

**oldkush** · 10-22-2007, 05:41 PM

Unfortunately problems, disappointment and frustration seem to come all to frequently with direct to garment printers .... except for the Brother GT-541.

I belong to a couple of large printer groups and the only negative I have ever heard about the Brother DTG printer is that fact that it only prints on lights / whites. The Brother 541 has a reputation as a very reliable workhorse .... and you certainly can't say that for some of the other brands out there.

For anyone looking to purchase a DTG printer, do plenty of research and choose wisely.

Of course, the king of the DTG printers is the Kornit ... but be prepared to spend big dollars on one of those.

Bob

**Barbara** · 10-23-2007, 08:03 PM

I would be interested in the web address for your printer groups. I have been considering the Anajet sold by Melco or the Direct Advantage developed by Sawgrass. Know anything about either of these?

Barbara G.
Stiches and Tees

**oldkush** · 10-23-2007, 09:55 PM

Barbara

Check out:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/
http://www.screenprinters.net/

Both groups are very large and you will be able to search the archives for info on direct to garment printers. There are plenty of other groups on the net also.

Another option would be to go to www.groups.yahoo.com and do a search to find groups specific to the machines you may be interested in.

Take your time, do your research and in the end, choose the machine which you feel will be best for you.

Good luck

Bob

**SkyLinePrints** · 10-24-2007, 01:14 PM

For DTG info, goto:

http://www.screenprintinguniversity.com/

Most if not all DTG machines are represented.

Announcement

Expanding my business

Expanding my business

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment