# What is the best dye sublimation printer for self cutting paper?



## HardTimesIndeed (Feb 25, 2010)

Any reccomendations or tips wold be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

There is no such thing...with sublimation you do not need to trim..it is made for 100% polyester white and some pastels...sometimes you might want to trim on a darker pastel...but there is no self weeding sublimation paper...

For printer...I prefer one of the Ricoh gel printers...3300,5050 or 7000.. I gave up on the Epsons because of the rather constant clogging issues


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## HardTimesIndeed (Feb 25, 2010)

charles95405 said:


> There is no such thing...with sublimation you do not need to trim..it is made for 100% polyester white and some pastels...sometimes you might want to trim on a darker pastel...but there is no self weeding sublimation paper...
> 
> For printer...I prefer one of the Ricoh gel printers...3300,5050 or 7000.. I gave up on the Epsons because of the rather constant clogging issues


Thanks Charles - so does this mean that I cannot use self weeding paper to print designs 3with a heat press onto 100% cotton with say, a Ricoh 7000 printer?


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

that is a yes and a no...I am not aware of any self weeding paper for cottons...except the Wow 7.0 which requires a $5 a sheet paper and it is for lasers...not inkjets.. For inkjets and lasers (two different papers) that sort of self weed is called Image Clip ...I am not fond of it..but several are happy with it.

As to using a Ricoh..depends on the ink...for sublimation you need the special ink...I am not sure how the Ricoh would work using regular transfer paper. I have not used it for that. In any case ...no matter which paper...you are going to be limited to white/pastel. If you want to do dark shirts, you need an opaque paper and most of them feel like plastic and if the design is large and lots of fill it will have a heavy hand

Maybe someone has used the setup you describe...but I am not optimistic..

For normal white/pastel transfers, the Epsons with pigment ink is considered the best..a lot like the JPSS paper. Don't get the Epson 1400 as it comes with Claria Ink...not a pigmented ink and tends to wash out rather quickl

When I made the remark about giving up on Epsons, that was for using Epsons in sublimation..does not apply to using them for regular transfers


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

Dye sublimation inks will only work on polyester fabrics or polymer-coated substrates.
For cotton you might want to do a search the forums on ChromaBlast.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

again chromablast is only for white/pastel AND the paper is about .75-$1 a sheet and the inks are about as expensive as sublimation.


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## HardTimesIndeed (Feb 25, 2010)

Yikes - so, in your opinion, what do you think - I would like to do heat transfers. Have the designs, have the press - but finding it very difficult to come up with a cost effective solution for someone starting out on a shoestring to create about 15 colorful designs on white and dark colors shirts, without going to a company and paying a $100 set up fee, and buying a 300 design sheet minimum at $4 a sheet.

Would ultimately like to do the designs and printing and pressing myself, but have no idea of the tools I need.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

to do transfers yourself...the most economical way you will need:
1) the software-Gimp/inkscape is free...Xara..about $100, Corel list for about $499 or so..Photoshop a bit more
2) printer and appropriate inks..small format 8.5x11 get Epson workforce of something like w/Pigment ink. This will cost less than $100..large format will be more of course
3) paper...for white get JPSS from one of our sponsors..just call them and see who carries it,about $40 a pk
for darks you might try parody paper from Joto. Bringing Images To Life BUT you will have to trim...there is just no way around that when using inkjet technology
3) heat press...at least 15x15 is best...smaller you will regret $399 to $799

As you are learning this is not a biz to wake up one morning and just start making $$..investment in time/learning curve/$$ is a must. And most important...a biz plan...who is your market..how are you going to market...home based..store front...internet or ??

I think most who start in this business will not recover their costs within 1st year..or maybe decide to close the business before then..You just have to plan how YOU want to go


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## HardTimesIndeed (Feb 25, 2010)

1 - Got Adobe CS3 and love to work with Illustrator and Photoshop
2 - Still shopping for the best printer - sorta confused - looking for a printer to simply print my designs and use the heat press - but there are soooo many options. Many of my designs are somewhat colorful, and I have no problems trimming - but what about designs that have holes in them (example, skulls - or intricate tribals patterns - how would I trim that? X-acto knife?
3 - Thank you for the paper idea.
4 - Got the press - looks really good.

THANK YOU!! You know - I think it would be great if we could just walk outta bed and have money falling from the sky 

I'm working out a marketing plan - but what I spend is in direct correlation with what my start up costs are. I'm one of those people - got good ideas - but no money - LOL! Could you give me an idea about what to do about #2 - the printer issue?

Thanks a million!


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Best advice would be to sell first make later. Having great designs and a marketing plan is such a small piece of the success equation. You have to be able to sell to make money. Selling is the most difficult part of the process. Create your designs and if someone buys them outsource the work. You will not make nearly as much but you will not spend a dime on equipment either. If sales justify the expnse of your equipment you have just become a sucess.


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## MREverything (Mar 20, 2014)

HardTimesIndeed said:


> Any reccomendations or tips wold be appreciated!
> 
> Thanks in advance.


You can print to cotton with sublimation inks. There is a paper called Forever Subli-Dark 201. I'm not sure if it's self weeding, but you can do more research and let me know!


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

All the papers that claim to do sublimation on cotton have a polymer coating. Basically no different then a pigment ink transfer but the sublimation inks fade much faster then pigment on cotton. Sublimation will outlast the shirt on poly.


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