Printing neck tags

[ericheartsu]

i'd like to clarify, we only use transfers on small orders. The majority of our clients that want screened tags are ordering small amounts of tees. If it was a huge run say something like 300 tees per size, then that's something different, but when there are 5 tees per size, transfers make it way easier.

[BeerCityInc]

Its 600 total with different colors needed. I started some R&D last night  using squeegee pressure and speed to get it to sit more on top of the garment. Turned out pretty decent, only paint is switching these things in side out. The things we do to make our big customers happy.lol Thanks for all the help

[JBLUE]

Do not switch them inside out. Put the image on the screen so it is at the end of the sleeve pallet. Put the collar up where you need it and pull the neck down and under the pallet. Print the label and lay it on the dryer with the label exposed. You will be done in half the time.When it falls in the bin just pull it out and stack as normal. You are doing two unneeded steps. 1. turning it inside out and 2. having to turn it back. 1 person should be able to label all 600 of those through 6 sizes in just over half a day if that. Use 429 C as it is a standard label color that most retail guys use and it will work on the vast majority of colors.

[Nick Bane]

Do not switch them inside out. Put the image on the screen so it is at the end of the sleeve pallet. Put the collar up where you need it and pull the neck down and under the pallet. Print the label and lay it on the dryer with the label exposed. You will be done in half the time.When it falls in the bin just pull it out and stack as normal. You are doing two unneeded steps. 1. turning it inside out and 2. having to turn it back. 1 person should be able to label all 600 of those through 6 sizes in just over half a day if that. Use 429 C as it is a standard label color that most retail guys use and it will work on the vast majority of colors.

this.

[blue moon]

Consider consulting a pro in t-shirt printing area! That would do some help especially since you want it perfect as it is to be sold at a high price.

huh?

pierre

[JBLUE]

Consider consulting a pro in t-shirt printing area! That would do some help especially since you want it perfect as it is to be sold at a high price.

huh?

pierre

We've been caught....lol No pros here..........

How many neck labels does one have to print to be considered a pro anyways?

[Sbrem]

Consider consulting a pro in t-shirt printing area! That would do some help especially since you want it perfect as it is to be sold at a high price.

huh?

pierre

We've been caught....lol No pros here..........

How many neck labels does one have to print to be considered a pro anyways?

Did I log in to t-shirtforums.com by mistake...

Steve

[Gabe]

Do not switch them inside out. Put the image on the screen so it is at the end of the sleeve pallet. Put the collar up where you need it and pull the neck down and under the pallet. Print the label and lay it on the dryer with the label exposed. You will be done in half the time.When it falls in the bin just pull it out and stack as normal. You are doing two unneeded steps. 1. turning it inside out and 2. having to turn it back. 1 person should be able to label all 600 of those through 6 sizes in just over half a day if that. Use 429 C as it is a standard label color that most retail guys use and it will work on the vast majority of colors.

if you guys want to save all that hassle you can contact Action
they have the pallet for this type of job, you can even print two at the same time
Gabe

[ZooCity]

Can someone post a vid/pic or describe you you are throwing onto the belt when using the sleeve platens?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around how to throw these on the dryer without getting misprints and scorching. The loading and printing part makes perfect sense. I'm guessing you flash these so you can handle the garment.

With turning the Ts inside out and back again, we're coming up the same or better pay per hour printing transfers and applying v. direct printing. There's also setup involved and press and dryer time getting used up going direct whereas our flatstock setup runs in it's own corner and the heat press can go anywhere out of the way.  Another +1 for transfers is you can apply them for the same cost to any size order, no press setup once the transfers are printed, just fire up the heat press.

For reference, we charge for the flatstock run of the tags (client just estimates their yearly usage) and then a flat $0.50 per application at any qty.  No upcharge for different sizes, we just print it all on 13x19 sheets.  Also, most of our PL stuff is done on AA where the tag is left in so we need to deal with that as well.

I saw a label printer that just flashes the living hell out of the tags.  Think this is feasible with a thin enough ink deposit, like printing them through a 225 and higher?

I gotta figure this out soon as our order volume for the main line we private label has changed.  We were doing 100-500 tag applications at a go (transfers were perfect) and now it's looking more like 1700 at a go (direct printing might be a lot better here).

[JBLUE]

I will shoot something. Zoo You do not need to flash. There is no change in dryer speed. Using tranfers is throwing money away on larger jobs. One of my old employees could label so damn fast it was not even funny. We were running 2500-17k labels at a time. All sizes. Two people could hit  2k pieces on one manual with one sleeve pallet easily.

[Rockers]

We used to turn shirts inside out but yesterday we tried it on a sleeve pallet without turning them inside out and I wonder why we did not do that much earlier. So easy, no problem putting them on the belt of the dryer either.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Didn't want to drum up another thread on tags so I will just add to this one. How do you guys print the inside of a hoodie like a Gildan 18500? I did one and it came out like crapola with all the fur.

[ericheartsu]

Didn't want to drum up another thread on tags so I will just add to this one. How do you guys print the inside of a hoodie like a Gildan 18500? I did one and it came out like crapola with all the fur.

Transfers!

[mimosatexas]

I always do transfers, though the highest quantities I am doing are in the 300 range for tags, and that is spread across 5-9 sizes usually.  Printing all the transfers for 300 takes only 10 transfers since you can put 30+ on a 13x19 sheet of all the sizes in the proper proportions, and you can cut 10 sheets at once with a sharp guillotine by hand.  Printing and cutting is about 10 minutes total.  We use cap presses for applying them, and each application is maybe 30 seconds total.  I stack and box or fold/bag while the next one is curing on the cap press.  You can get in a great rhythm with one person.  With a second person and a second heat press (which we have) it goes twice as fast with alternating pressings.

There is definitely a point when direct printing will become more efficient, but it will never look or feel as nice in my opinion.  We use 280 mesh for the transfers usually and a decent amount of pressure to get them into the fabric a bit.

[Shanarchy]

I have 2 customers I do this for. They both place small orders (50 at a time).

I only charge 50 cents each.

I used to turn the shirt inside out. Then flip them around again. The time doing that was ridiculous and I was losing way too much money doing them.

I tried printing transfers and heat pressing them on. The idea was I would end up printing up a ton of them in down time. On a 16x20 heat press, you have to flip the shirts still. Again , I was losing money for the time spent.

I started printing them using sleeve boards. Perfect! No need to flip them and I could go pretty quick. It's still too much work for the lousy $25 extra I make on it. But it's what needs to be done and I make the money on the other side so it comes out ok in the end.

I use Union gray ink. I tint it slightly with some black for grey shirts.

I will only use tear away label tees.

If I end up with large runs, I will invest in either a hat press or a different pallet to swap on my current heat press. This way someone can heat press them on while I'm printing.

I may invest in a (one) 4 up tag pallet and use it on the manual.

All in all, I absolutely hate doing tags.