You've been thinking about getting into
sublimation and its all so confusing and you don't know where to
really start. You aren't even sure what all you will need. I am here
to break it down I'm going to tell you what are the necessities and
even tell you exactly what I'm using.Some links are affiliate links and if you purchase I get a small portion back at no extra cost to you. These are the products that I currently use.
First and foremost you need a printer.
I'll go into more details about options and costs in another post but
unless you are going to buy transfers from someone you're going to
need a way to print your designs. I use this exact printer. It has
been converted from printing regular ink to printing sublimation ink.
You'll need sublimation ink. There are
lots of good brands that we'll go into later but this is the ink Iuse.
You'll need sublimation paper. It is
what helps the magic happen. Just a heads up don't freak out that the
image color looks faint. Once it heats up on the substrate it looks
bright. Here is the paper I use.
Here is the paper fresh off the printer and a picture of a shirt fresh off the press.
You'll need a substrate (fancy word for
sublimation blank) Remember your substrate has to be a high poly
count or have a poly coating.
Blow out paper. If you are coming over
from vinyl you know you cover the item you are pressing with a teflon
sheet. You don't use teflon in sublimation because it traps in the
moisture and moisture is the enemy of sublimation. I use packing
paper from walmart its in the section with the bubble wrap
boxes. I put one on the base of my
press and one over the item that im pressing. The bottom one is not
mandatory but I just like the extra protection. I don't change that
one after every press. The top sheet I change after every press.
A heat press. You have to heat the ink
to 400 degrees. In some cases you can get away with 380 the press has
to be uniform so an iron really won't work to get a good image.
If you are wanting to pres on mugs you
will either need a mug press or a convection oven and mug wraps. This
is the convection oven that I use.
Heat Tape and/or repositioning spray. I
use heat tape 99% of the time It hold your paper down and keeps it
from shifting and causing uneven printing and ghosting. I also
sometimes use 505 spray. Its available in the sewing section at
walmart. This is the tape I use.
There you go the necessities of
sublimation and the exact materials that I use. If you have any topic
that you want me to cover leave them in the
comments.
