New Business - T-shirt, mug printing - what machine?

[Daniellex3]

Hi there, Im a business graduate and have recently drawn up a business plan for an online business printing tshirts, mugs etc. The designs will be unique and simple 'quirky'. This plan has been approved for a business grant through the government; not much, but enough for me to be out of work for a couple of months to start up. I can also apply for a loan which I have been informed will be granted; however, the amount needs to be justified and I could end up with a hundred or a few thousand, I have established eccomerce , marketing, sales costs and other overheads.
I have no idea on machinery; it will be cheaper and more efficient for me to print the designs at home and although open to outsourcing I would prefer to do this myself, I will be prepared to do any training and research to do this but I'm at a loss on which equipment/machine is best. I don't want loads of companies telling me which one is the best machine and need some real life valuable experience on the essentials to start the business.

I've seen a complete package on heatpressuk (sorry cant post link as a new member) This one seems ideal, but I know how more appealing things look when it's all nicely packaged together and less hassle so would buy separately if advised.

any information or advice will be greatly received, thank you

 

[DavidWH]

We invested in the machinery to do this last year.

Sawgrass printer, with A3+ bypass tray, mug press will be available as a kit from most suppliers, same with a heat press. Bear in mind that there's not a huge amount of choice of mugs, as they need to fit heater filaments and have the necessary coating for dye sublimation to work.

Off the top of my head, it was about £3000 we spent, on printer, heat press, mug press & a little bit of stock.

 

[TylerJay]

We invested in the machinery to do this last year.

Sawgrass printer, with A3+ bypass tray, mug press will be available as a kit from most suppliers, same with a heat press. Bear in mind that there's not a huge amount of choice of mugs, as they need to fit heater filaments and have the necessary coating for dye sublimation to work.

Off the top of my head, it was about £3000 we spent, on printer, heat press, mug press & a little bit of stock.

What about a simple silk screen kit for the t-shirts and a simple print and heat for the mugs? would only cost a few hundred £/$

Let me know your thoughts my friend

 

[DavidWH]

Silk screen will be OK, but you either need to buy in a screen for each colour, or make one. Hence set up costs with screen printing, but are better for higher volumes, you'll need a drier to speed it up a bit.

Dye sub printers are simple, it's just like a desktop printer, but you want a high quality, reliable machine.

You aren't getting for a few hundred quid.

 

[TylerJay]

Silk screen will be OK, but you either need to buy in a screen for each colour, or make one. Hence set up costs with screen printing, but are better for higher volumes, you'll need a drier to speed it up a bit.

Dye sub printers are simple, it's just like a desktop printer, but you want a high quality, reliable machine.

You aren't getting for a few hundred quid.

Thanks for clarifying, i had built a website some time ago for a client, and he had a number of silk presses that was why i bought it up

 

[ADW]

There are specific forums for dye sublimation. Will get a lot more help there....... and you are going to need it if you have no experience. Go to a supplier that can give you the print set up, presses and mugs etc. Easy to ask for help then and not get fobbed off. Specialist forums will give plenty of info though on who is good to deal with.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

On the Sunday 26th to 28th of Feb there is a trade show Printwear and Promotion at the NEC

There are all the major suppliers there for screen print, embroidery, DTG and heat press etc along with software and many trade suppliers of clothing. if you are serious then don't miss it and best thing open on Sunday

 

[Daniellex3]

I've been looking at the Sawgrass virtuoso sg400 a4 printer currently, thanks for all your feedback, I live in the south-east so a bit of a drive but will be attending the show before purchasing anything, thank you for the heads up as I wasn't aware of it.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Whatever you do , do not buy heat presses from the major uk suppliers they are nothing special and far cheaper and just as good from ebay uk suppliers. preferably swing press for shirts etc

 

[Daniellex3]

Whatever you do , do not buy heat presses from the major uk suppliers they are nothing special and far cheaper and just as good from ebay uk suppliers. preferably swing press for shirts etc

Thanks Chris, I am opting for an auto pneumatic mug press, although I am not committing to anything before the show at the end of the month, I am also opting for a Swing press rather than clam providing I get the office space. I am hoping to look for decent suppliers at the show and am just doing some initial research now to get an idea on price. Would you reccoment the Virtuso SG400 for the print or another model?

 

[DavidWH]

We went to the show last year, with a supplier of ours, who told me what we needed, and introduced us to some suppliers.

If you can stretch to it, I would for an A3, or A3+ printer, as they'll do A4, but the A4 won't do A3 or A3+, you'll regret it at some point.

The show is well worth visiting, and we may attend again this year work permitting.

 

[ADW]

If you are totally new stick to a Ricoh printer. Pneumatic is a waste of time for what you require out of a press. Stick to manual.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Don't forget there are other means of doing t-shirts using things like wow paper where you use a laser printer that prints in White and other colours for use on dark coloured garments with no weeding. Sublimation is a good method but there are more ways to skin a cat. Mugs are quite a time consuming way of making money and quite a hard sell compared to garments

Dont forget the competition is vast, every town probably already has many small companies doing the same and t-shirts if you do a search on the internet you will find big companies selling printed t-shirts at prices a individual could not live off

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Thanks Chris, I am opting for an auto pneumatic mug press, although I am not committing to anything before the show at the end of the month, I am also opting for a Swing press rather than clam providing I get the office space. I am hoping to look for decent suppliers at the show and am just doing some initial research now to get an idea on price. Would you reccoment the Virtuso SG400 for the print or another model?

Keep it simple and low cost until you find out what your market really wants, you may find after you start that your customers want Embroidery or just mugs or something else and as the start up costs are so small in real terms you can always upgrade things like heat press at a later date to the all singing version. few companies have the ability to start up like printwear at probably under £1,000 to give it a go

 

[LizzyPizzy]

I bought Richo 3110 machine and it came with a ink for my mug and sublimation business. What do I need to do to get a better quality image. Also how do I ensure my logo is positioned on the mug correctly as it's currently printing on reverse on the mug. Help is needed urgently. New to business!!

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Sublimation is a tricky business to learn the right settings and use the right material for sublimation as its very poor on some materials

Most software had a revers print facility which you must be using for your t-shirts

Consider WOW paper prints where you can use white so good for dark items, a bit more cost but very fast and can be up to A3, you can make it cheaper by making multiple prints like 4 on a A4 sheet if just a breast logo and keep the other three for the future

A cheap cutting machine will enable vinyl printing onto goods another cheap way of printing items

Many mug and other sublimation goods are now using £300 vacuum presses as seen on EBay and can also be used on Phone cases this opens up many options

Try http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/ and https://www.xpres.co.uk for supplies and goods, Also some good training documents on both sites

Look up youtube.co.uk for hundreds of video's on all things to do with sublimation and other print market help

Hope I am not telling you to suck eggs like granny

Good luck

 

[ADW]

I bought Richo 3110 machine and it came with a ink for my mug and sublimation business. What do I need to do to get a better quality image. Also how do I ensure my logo is positioned on the mug correctly as it's currently printing on reverse on the mug. Help is needed urgently. New to business!!

If you are still at the point of working out how to flip the image you are going to be on a long learning curve. I would suggest going to a sublimation specific forum. You are going to need a lot of help. Google dsf as a starting point.

 

[LizzyPizzy]

Thanks a lot @Chris Ashdown
I find the reverse option in my Corel Draw software so the image is now coming up nice.
I will check out the WOW paper as well.

 

[asuleman]

You may want to check out Print House corporation online.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Makes you wonder how they got on, lots of competition but also lots of niche areas if you think out of the box, A friend of mine just works full time for one band, low cost but high volume

 

[Fuzzy]

Hello, I just wanted to give you my thoughts on this. We used to (10 years ago) print in house using various heat presses on mugs, tshirts, aprons and cards etc. We found it a very difficult process and very time consuming aswell as expensive. We then switched to outsourcing the printing and haven't looked back. I guess it depends on quantities and whether you can be bothered to fix the darn machines if they go wrong and deal with the hassle. Good luck !

 

[DavidWH]

Still the same. We can do it in house, but I loath doing it, we can make far better margins on other things.

The time is a killer, and supplying & printing t-shirts for £5 just doesn't work for us.