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  1. #1
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    New guy with basic questions from the get go

    Hi all, please be patient with me. I have been looking at quite a few videos and trying to learn as much as I can. I intend to start a small business sublimating designs on t shirts and to from there.

    I'm thinking working from home it'll need to be fairly size conscious in terms of equipment and I don't want to spend loads to start with as it will only be a small operation until we grow.

    We've seen some sublimation bundles on inkexperts and monstershop which we are thinking of going with.

    My real issue lies with sublimating onto dark fabrics. Plenty of videos and places say it can't be done. Then I see videos saying "how to sublimate onto dark fabrics" but it doesn't seem like they break down the steps for a complete noob like myself.

    Like, what do I need to do differently?
    Is there any different machinery/equipment I would need to buy?

    I don't think I can run a t shirt business and only offer light coloured t shirts for sale. Outsourcing is a possibility but takes away profits.

    If anyone can guide me with a little hand holding I would be eternally grateful and happy to offer pc/computing assistance in return as that is my forte and where I can actually show some skill.

    Thanks again

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sublim8 View Post
    My real issue lies with sublimating onto dark fabrics. Plenty of videos and places say it can't be done.
    Thanks again
    The bit above is correct, if you sub on to dark clothing nothing shows up. There are methods to work around this, it's not straight-forward sublimation. When I started out, I found the market for white T's and other flat sublimation blanks was big enough without looking at any process I had to subcontract out.

    I don't know anything about a monstershop, but Ink Experts support this forum, for £10 forum yearly subscription, you get a 10% discount on certain items with Ink Express and other main suppliers, some of the adverts are at the top and side

    Good luck

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to knightweb For This Useful Post:

    Sublim8 (20-04-2021)

  4. #3
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    You cannot sublimate effectively onto dark fabrics - the process work in theory but in practice the inks don't show over the fabric colour.

    What you can do is subimate onto a variety of vinyls, flocks and papers and apply those to the fabric. That can sometimes be effective, but you will not be truly sublimating onto dark fabric.
    There are a number of media you can use to do this, but most have limitations and drawbacks. The biggest problem is the thickness of the media when pressed onto the garment. OK for outerwear and at a pinch hoodies, but no good for t-shirts.

  5. The Following User Says Thank You to pw66 For This Useful Post:

    Sublim8 (20-04-2021)

  6. #4
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    Hey,

    Probably not what you're going to want to hear, however from my failed attempt to give this a go, what I learned was that Direct-To-Garment printers will price you out of the market for what you're trying to achieve

    It can be done, but with all the work involved and the specialist materials needed, someone with a DTG machine (Shirt Monkey etc) can get a better job done for half the time and effort.

    Might not be nice advice, but it's genuine.

  7. #5
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    Thank you all for the advice. Although budgets are tight because we are only starting out. I have been learning information form this forum and around the web.

    We invested in a Roland BT12 dtg printer for light garments only and will stay with that realm with a view to looking in to other options such as vinyl and plastisol prints later down the line. If it grows big enough, once we get the hand of dtg printing and proper maintenance, then we may look at a dtg machine that is more capable and can do darker coloured t shirts but this package should definitely set us off in the right direction.


    Thanks to all who responded here
    Last edited by Sublim8; 26-04-2021 at 02:04 PM.

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