Print/Cut

[Croft]

timely discussion , I'm on the fence whether to get one I'm spending about $1000-$1500 monthly outsourcing it ( t-shirt vinyl only) , not really sure if thats enough to consider buying one with material and labour costs?

Any thoughts?

Are many of your jobs printed vinyl or merely cut? Though I have a low cost source for print and cut, I find it a miniscule part of my apparel vinyl business. For my needs, spending $1-$2K on a cutter was a no brainer. I have never looked back. Of course, a machine capable of printing as well costs way more than that.

The guy I use turns jobs in a couple of days on material of my choice gloss, matte, subliblock etc. its print cut that I use for odd multi colour shirt designs mostly left chest size , and multicolour designs I put on backpacks hats etc..  rarely do large designs because costs get high. I'm just wrestling with ink costs/ machine maintenance if needed and material costs. Have been looking at a new Roland

[Frog]

timely discussion , I'm on the fence whether to get one I'm spending about $1000-$1500 monthly outsourcing it ( t-shirt vinyl only) , not really sure if thats enough to consider buying one with material and labour costs?

Any thoughts?

Are many of your jobs printed vinyl or merely cut? Though I have a low cost source for print and cut, I find it a miniscule part of my apparel vinyl business. For my needs, spending $1-$2K on a cutter was a no brainer. I have never looked back. Of course, a machine capable of printing as well costs way more than that.

The guy I use turns jobs in a couple of days on material of my choice gloss, matte, subliblock etc. its print cut that I use for odd multi colour shirt designs mostly left chest size , and multicolour designs I put on backpacks hats etc..  rarely do large designs because costs get high. I'm just wrestling with ink costs/ machine maintenance if needed and material costs. Have been looking at a new Roland

Your needs sound a lot like those of the OP.
Yep, on apparel, I also stick with left breast small as possible designs because besides cost, even the thin print and cut vinyls still have quite a hand, and are not as supple as other decoration methods.
I would think, that for apparel exclusively, DTG is becoming the norm. Of course, contracting that out adds the step of your contractor needing the actual garments in hand, and allso they can't be applied as needed in your own shop.

[MotionTextile]

Thank you all for your input.  We will be using it exclusively for team store apparel.  We current utilize a standard vinyl plotter for simple designs but are having to produce small multi color jobs on the manual press to satisfy clients that also place larger orders.  We are looking into DTG but do have a serious need for it to print on polyester, specifically Adidas, since they are one of our largest vendors on the team side.  From what we have seen the Brothers and the Epson DTG printers  are not vibrant enough on dark poly.  The Kornits and Aeon are better options but also like what Dream Junction has in the works with their Oval Jet.  We are leaning towards print/cut as we wait for the technology to continue to improve on the DTG machines. 

[blue moon]

Thank you all for your input.  We will be using it exclusively for team store apparel.  We current utilize a standard vinyl plotter for simple designs but are having to produce small multi color jobs on the manual press to satisfy clients that also place larger orders.  We are looking into DTG but do have a serious need for it to print on polyester, specifically Adidas, since they are one of our largest vendors on the team side.  From what we have seen the Brothers and the Epson DTG printers  are not vibrant enough on dark poly.  The Kornits and Aeon are better options but also like what Dream Junction has in the works with their Oval Jet.  We are leaning towards print/cut as we wait for the technology to continue to improve on the DTG machines.

Just as an FYI, EPSON just announced the poly inks. I have not seen them, but it might be worth looking into it.

pierre

[cbjamel]

check out https://www.omniprintonline.com/freejet-330tx-plus-printer prints on poly with a pretreat.
Been looking at this brand for that reason.

Shane

[GraphicDisorder]

Thank you all for your input.  We will be using it exclusively for team store apparel.  We current utilize a standard vinyl plotter for simple designs but are having to produce small multi color jobs on the manual press to satisfy clients that also place larger orders.  We are looking into DTG but do have a serious need for it to print on polyester, specifically Adidas, since they are one of our largest vendors on the team side.  From what we have seen the Brothers and the Epson DTG printers  are not vibrant enough on dark poly.  The Kornits and Aeon are better options but also like what Dream Junction has in the works with their Oval Jet.  We are leaning towards print/cut as we wait for the technology to continue to improve on the DTG machines.

Just as an FYI, EPSON just announced the poly inks. I have not seen them, but it might be worth looking into it.

pierre

Imagine the ink waste swapping from one ink to the next, assuming that is what you mean.

[Audifox]

Keep in mind on a print/cut set up you really still need to print, then laminate, then cut for ideal results. So you need a laminator.

The OP wants this specifically for apparel. That doesn't get laminated does it?

Actually it does in a sense. It has to be transferred to a carrier sheet for application.

Stuff like Stahl's cad cut solutions, express print etc. comes ready to apply.  They have already done that step.

We bought a used Roland BN20 last spring. We were doing the lamination by hand, it works, but you still end up with small bubbles.
 
Bought a laminator and it made things much easier and faster. One of the best pieces of equipment we bought in a long time.(125.00 on Ebay)

Audra