Custom T-Shirts

[Paul B.]

heads upstairs for bread?

[HeroInBlack]

The word "heads" above the quarter kinda ruins it.

[2/325Falcon]

Easter Island Heads >>>> Quarters

[anklebreaker]

There are a bunch of places (B&M and online) you can do this.
Here are two budget sites:
$2 Tees
VistaPrint (from fatwallet)

[SuitedSixes]

Hi Sam,

I can answer your questions, I own a screen printing business. The process of decorating a t-shirt is more complicatd and expensive than most people realize.

The positive needs to be created, usually on a laser printer. You can't just use any laser printer, because most printers work in shades of gray, you have to have one that has been modified to ONLY print in black. The printer modification is about $1500, the special toner is $25, and each waterproof sheet costs $1.50.

Before a screen can be made it has to be de-greased and then coated with a photo-emulsion. The emulsion is about $25 a quart, and you can do about 10 screens with a quart. This process takes about an hour. The screen then has to be exposed and washed out. Depending on your setup this can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and a half.

Once the screen is done it has to be taped off, lined up and placed on the press. This takes another 5 to 15 minutes depending on how complicated the design is.

Then you're ready to put the ink on the shirt it takes about 15 seconds, but you have to send it through a dryer that will get the ink to 300 degrees which costs alot in electricity. You have to run that for 15 minutes before to get it to the right temperature and then 15 minutes afterwards to cool it down.

Then in order to reclaim that screen you have to use some sort of chemical to remove the ink (you can't just wash it off), then you need another chemical to take off the emulsion so you can repeat the process all over again. Reclaiming a screen probably takes 20 minutes to half an hour.

You have to have a place to house all of this, and you have to get used to the fact that your hands and clothes will always be stained and you are working with some very nasty chemicals.

With ALL this in mind, you can see that the average printer is not going to make you one shirt without charging you a ton of money. This is all assuming the easiest print in the world which is a dark ink on a light shirt. If you reverse that, it takes twice as long because you have to make a second screen that you will print in white (an underbase) just so the ink will show up on the shirt.

So companies like CafePress can use one of two solutions. They can use an inkjet printer and make an iron-on transfer that will last 4 or 5 washings, or they can do a process called sublimation where a transfer is made using an inkjet printer and special ink that vaporizes and dyes within the fabric. The drawback of sublimation is that it can't be done on 100% cotton, which is what 99% of the public wants their t-shirts made out of.

So you have to look realistically at the people who offer a shirt for $2 and wonder how they can do all that for $2, and you have to wonder how CafePress can keep thousands of screens ready to print one shirt for you on demand (they don't).

The newset technology is direct to garment printing which is a printer that physically prints on the shirt like an ink jet. These machines are extremely costly and not very reliable yet (especially on dark shirts). This is probably your best bet (look for T-Jet printers) and will run you about $20 a shirt.

The industry standard for a screen printed t-shirt is $40 for one color, and $16 for every additional color.

If you, or anyone else, has an idea for a shirt that would appeal to the 2p2 community let me know and I'd be glad to make them and then find a way to make them availble to the 2p2 community. I have made several shirts for the STTF crowd, and they've gone over very well.

[Mr_Donktastic]

OK here's a better version...gogogogogogo.

[SuitedSixes]

[ QUOTE ]
EMBROIDERY

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong. Embroidery is a pain in the ass if you want to do anything other than stock fonts. Having an image digitized for embroidery is very costly, and no one is going to do just one for you for anyhing less than $100.

If you're able to compile something from stock fonts and clip-art that may be the way to go.

[React1oN]

haha donk. That's awesome.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you are just wanting to do simple text you could buy a screen and some inks and do it yourself, its pretty simple. The quality wont be super awesome, but it will be good enough, you may even enjoy making them. If you want to do complicated stuff like multiple colors and images, your only option is to have someone print them for you. Just google custom tshirts and find the place that will do one shirt the cheapest

[/ QUOTE ]

I googled this topic before posting here, and "silk screening" seems awfully complex. It requires a dark room, photochemicals, etc. Is this what you are talking about?



[/ QUOTE ]

Naw, you don't need all that [censored]. The process is actually retardedly simple. If you wanna make professional stuff then yeah theres a lot to it. But if you just wanna dick around on your own and make a few shirts all you need is a wooden screen, and a few supplies. Like I said it wont make top shelf work, but it may be something you enjoy doing (or conversely absolutely hate doing, but its like any "Hobby" different strokes for different folks). Are you interested in making them yourself, or do you just wanna fork over some $$ for someone else to put your ideas on the shirt?

[samjjones]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Sam,

I can answer your questions, I own a screen printing business. The process of decorating a t-shirt is more complicatd and expensive than most people realize.

The positive needs to be created, usually on a laser printer. You can't just use any laser printer, because most printers work in shades of gray, you have to have one that has been modified to ONLY print in black. The printer modification is about $1500, the special toner is $25, and each waterproof sheet costs $1.50.

Before a screen can be made it has to be de-greased and then coated with a photo-emulsion. The emulsion is about $25 a quart, and you can do about 10 screens with a quart. This process takes about an hour. The screen then has to be exposed and washed out. Depending on your setup this can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and a half.

Once the screen is done it has to be taped off, lined up and placed on the press. This takes another 5 to 15 minutes depending on how complicated the design is.

Then you're ready to put the ink on the shirt it takes about 15 seconds, but you have to send it through a dryer that will get the ink to 300 degrees which costs alot in electricity. You have to run that for 15 minutes before to get it to the right temperature and then 15 minutes afterwards to cool it down.

Then in order to reclaim that screen you have to use some sort of chemical to remove the ink (you can't just wash it off), then you need another chemical to take off the emulsion so you can repeat the process all over again. Reclaiming a screen probably takes 20 minutes to half an hour.

You have to have a place to house all of this, and you have to get used to the fact that your hands and clothes will always be stained and you are working with some very nasty chemicals.

With ALL this in mind, you can see that the average printer is not going to make you one shirt without charging you a ton of money. This is all assuming the easiest print in the world which is a dark ink on a light shirt. If you reverse that, it takes twice as long because you have to make a second screen that you will print in white (an underbase) just so the ink will show up on the shirt.

So companies like CafePress can use one of two solutions. They can use an inkjet printer and make an iron-on transfer that will last 4 or 5 washings, or they can do a process called sublimation where a transfer is made using an inkjet printer and special ink that vaporizes and dyes within the fabric. The drawback of sublimation is that it can't be done on 100% cotton, which is what 99% of the public wants their t-shirts made out of.

So you have to look realistically at the people who offer a shirt for $2 and wonder how they can do all that for $2, and you have to wonder how CafePress can keep thousands of screens ready to print one shirt for you on demand (they don't).

The newset technology is direct to garment printing which is a printer that physically prints on the shirt like an ink jet. These machines are extremely costly and not very reliable yet (especially on dark shirts). This is probably your best bet (look for T-Jet printers) and will run you about $20 a shirt.

The industry standard for a screen printed t-shirt is $40 for one color, and $16 for every additional color.

If you, or anyone else, has an idea for a shirt that would appeal to the 2p2 community let me know and I'd be glad to make them and then find a way to make them availble to the 2p2 community. I have made several shirts for the STTF crowd, and they've gone over very well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the detailed info. I have a lot of ideas for shirts, although I'm not sure how mass marketable they are. I do think 2+2 might be interested in a few ideas, though. Perhaps I'll PM you to discuss further.