recommend me, or talk me out of... a hat platen ...

[jvanick]

we're starting to get requests for us to screen print caps... something I really never considered, as I always have thought that embroidered ones looked better...

can anybody provide me some advice / a link to purchase / etc for a hat platen for our Kruzer?

(or you can try to talk me out of it as well)...

Thanks!

[Shanarchy]

I've used the Vastex one, Jennins (attachment), and Livingston.

My opinion, heat transfers and a hat press. It took me way too long to load them, and I had a very difficult time centering them. I'm sure I'd get the hand of it, but when the typical order is 12-24, I really found there was no money in them.

And only the trucker hats look good printed. All others should be embroidered.

Just my take, I'm sure there are people taking in the dough off of them.

[royster13]

I use 15 cent transfers from F&M Expressions....You would have to do the math to see if screen printing is better for your bottom line...

[Homer]

Don't do it....life is too short to screen hats direct....transfers are the jam...same with numbers 

btw, we dug out the number printer, I'll ship it out to you tomorrow or monday.

[ZooCity]

Transfers. 

We tried using I think 3 or more different contactors for plasti transfers and they all eventually ship you total garbage and act like it's normal.  The ones we worked with didn't seem to understand printing basics like mesh count selection, etc.  Learn to print them in house, it's not too difficult and you'll get superior transfers. 

Aside from plasti transfers, dye sub, cadcut and digital are pretty darn good these days.  We do plasti for 1-3 color and go to the other imprint methods up from there.

[jvanick]

ok, this is the 3rd time I've been told transfers recently...  I'm listening...

time for us to get up to speed with them...

we have hot-split paper and the powder, just haven't had really good results with bright colors... definitely will have to play some more and see what we can do.

Thanks!

[royster13]

Transfers. 

We tried using I think 3 or more different contactors for plasti transfers and they all eventually ship you total garbage and act like it's normal.  The ones we worked with didn't seem to understand printing basics like mesh count selection, etc.  Learn to print them in house, it's not too difficult and you'll get superior transfers. 

Aside from plasti transfers, dye sub, cadcut and digital are pretty darn good these days.  We do plasti for 1-3 color and go to the other imprint methods up from there.

Hmmm....I have used 1,000s of transfer over the years with good results....From well know places like F&M Expressions, Dowling, Transfer Express, Versatrans, etc.....

[Maxie]

Most of our hat orders are one color  and we print our own transfers and iron on.
The Stahls hat press is great.     I built a simple vacuum table for transfers, with a bit of effort we could print more than one color.

[Sbrem]

We have always been happy with a Livingston Hat Champ for simple one color on 5 panel hats, but since almost no one wants them, transfers it is, either we print them in house, or get them from Transfer Express (or the others are good too).

Steve

[ZooCity]

Transfers. 

We tried using I think 3 or more different contactors for plasti transfers and they all eventually ship you total garbage and act like it's normal.  The ones we worked with didn't seem to understand printing basics like mesh count selection, etc.  Learn to print them in house, it's not too difficult and you'll get superior transfers. 

Aside from plasti transfers, dye sub, cadcut and digital are pretty darn good these days.  We do plasti for 1-3 color and go to the other imprint methods up from there.

Hmmm....I have used 1,000s of transfer over the years with good results....From well know places like F&M Expressions, Dowling, Transfer Express, Versatrans, etc.....

I think maybe it's art dependent.  All the places we worked with had issues with registration, filling in detail areas, printing details, etc.  The transfers worked just fine but they weren't up to ours and our clients' quality standards. 

[royster13]

Multi colour and fine details can be an issues.......So I rarely do that......

Now if caps is a big item for you, get a multi colour pad printer......I have seen up to 6 colours done on a pad printer and quality wise it is hard to beat.....

[3Deep]

I'm going to vote transfers as well even though we have a nice curve cap pallet setup from workhorse, works on 6 panel and 5, last time we used it was a few years back, always embroidery or transfers now days.

[Fluid]

If your only doing ine color hats you can easily make good profit printing them traditionally. If it is a small ir here ajd there Transfers are the way to go. Just make sure you use a good transfer company and remember you get what you paid for.   If you can find a used CAPS table top press yuur golden yet the Livingston hat attachments work really well too.

Richard Reilly - Fluid

[Fluid]

Just saw this on my twitter feed.

http://impressions.issshows.com/digital-printing-news/Stahls-Offers-Free-Product-With-Heat-Press-Purchase-In-April-8734.shtml?hootPostID=72cbe85bf13866b3d0fb5f172d2f2d20

Richard Reilly - Fluid

[Frog]

At some point we can talk about the two big differences in direct printing set ups; Those that hold and treat the hat as a flat object, and those (like the CAPS) that deal with it curved. Also, some setups also require special frames with one super thin side to get close to the brim. (Other set-ups tuck the brim down and allow conventional frames.
  Oh yeah, that reminds me, I have a one color hat rig up in my storage area I should dust off.

We can also talk about designing for hats because some shapes will distort more than others.

No matter what printing method used, I cringe when folks just don't seem to get the concept that their "canvas" is wider at its base than at its top, and the "subject" should fit accordingly.