# Is there a sheet of plastisol that you could cut with a vinyl cutter and apply?



## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

I'm going to buy a cutter and heat press very soon but I've had an idea which I don't know if it would be possible.
I prefer the look and feel of plastisol over vinyl so would it perhaps be possible to buy single colored sheets or rolls of plastisol and cut it the same way as you do with vinyl? This would be ideal for me as I can do cheap one-off shirts which still have the look and feel of a screen printed shirt.


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## GHEENEE1 (Jan 8, 2007)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*

I don't think plastisol comes on sheets or rolls, it's the ink used by screen printers, to print custom transfers, that are essentially screen printing, that do not need to be cut as only the ink transfers to the shirt when applied. Maybe you're thinking of contour cut inkjet transfers. Mike


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*

Nono, I know very well what plastisol is and how it works. I was hoping there would be sheets printed with a single color of plastisol so you could use them the same way as vinyl. This would be very cheap to produce (no need for films and developing) and once cut and heat pressed the result would look better than vinyl.


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



Nisei said:


> Nono, I know very well what plastisol is and how it works. I was hoping there would be sheets printed with a single color of plastisol so you could use them the same way as vinyl. This would be very cheap to produce (no need for films and developing) and once cut and heat pressed the result would look better than vinyl.


Nothing like it on the market. Maybe you could start up the first supply house for a new product?


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## LB (Jul 25, 2009)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



Nisei said:


> Nono, I know very well what plastisol is and how it works. I was hoping there would be sheets printed with a single color of plastisol so you could use them the same way as vinyl. This would be very cheap to produce (no need for films and developing) and once cut and heat pressed the result would look better than vinyl.


That's an interesting thought. Kinda like a Plastisol transfer without the artwork. Then, cut out numbers or letters and heat press them. Why don't you ask somebody like Proworld as to whether that would work and if they would supply it. I'm not a screenprinter, so I assume this will work.


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



LB said:


> That's an interesting thought. Kinda like a Plastisol transfer without the artwork. Then, cut out numbers or letters and heat press them. Why don't you ask somebody like Proworld as to whether that would work and if they would supply it. I'm not a screenprinter, so I assume this will work.


I want to watch someone try to weed the ink!


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*

Plastisol ink is a suspension of PVC (vinyl) in a plasticiser, when you heat it the plasticiser enters the PVC rains and becomes vinyl.
I suspect that the only difference between plastisol & vinyl transfers is the thickness.


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



tcrowder said:


> I want to watch someone try to weed the ink!


LOL, I was expecting someone would come up with that 
I'm thinking about some kind of double backing. You adjust your cutter to cut through the top layer (on which the ink is printed) but not through the second one. That way you can weed the top layer including the ink.


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



Nisei said:


> LOL, I was expecting someone would come up with that
> I'm thinking about some kind of double backing. You adjust your cutter to cut through the top layer (on which the ink is printed) but not through the second one. That way you can weed the top layer including the ink.


I guess you could use a carrier sheet and cut clean through the paper the ink is on. Not sure it would be cost effective though. Have you looked at any of the vinyls out there? They have a really nice finish to them.


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*

I've only seen the vinyl on shirts I bought off of eBay plus the kind that a friend of mine is using for his shirts. From what I've seen I think it lacks the feeling that it becomes one with the garment. It's always covering the garment while screen printing and plastisol methods tend to put the image inbetween the fibers of the garment. I just like that better.


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## CoupleS (May 5, 2011)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*

+1 to Nisei, it is better to have plastisol method heat.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*

I thought Imprintables used to have a product like this that just came in white?


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## jean518 (Sep 23, 2009)

Stahls has a new vinyl product called Premium Plus that is awesome!! You can hardly feel it at all on the item. Don't know where you are but you might check to see if it is available where you are.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Another thing.. if you're going to heat press the plastisol it would have to be gel cured rather than wholly cured. Wouldn't that get a little gunky on the cutting blade?


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## LB (Jul 25, 2009)

jean518 said:


> Stahls has a new vinyl product called Premium Plus that is awesome!! You can hardly feel it at all on the item. Don't know where you are but you might check to see if it is available where you are.


I agree, the CC Premium is almost as soft as sublimation and DEFINITELY as good as screen print. Great product!


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

lben said:


> Another thing.. if you're going to heat press the plastisol it would have to be gel cured rather than wholly cured. Wouldn't that get a little gunky on the cutting blade?


Yeah it probably would 
I was just sharing an idea and didn't think any further so thanks for the input.
I'm aware of the new Cad-Cut PP and still awaiting my sample but it sounds really great.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Were you at Josh's webinar today on it? He said they sell it in 15" x 20" sheets as well as in rolls of 5 & 10 yards.


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

Hi Loretta.
No, I missed the webinar. But the reason I was talking about sheets is that it would be possible to screenprint those. Screenprinting 20 yards of paper with plastisol would really complicate things.


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## moosevalley (Jan 5, 2011)

The new vinyl H20 from Stahls is not plastisol but works something like a transfer giving you the very soft feel. Works great


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Nisei said:


> Hi Loretta.
> No, I missed the webinar. But the reason I was talking about sheets is that it would be possible to screenprint those. Screenprinting 20 yards of paper with plastisol would really complicate things.


I ordered a few of the sheets. They should be arriving tomorrow.


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## jean518 (Sep 23, 2009)

While I love the Superfilm/cch2o, I really love the new premium plus! It is even softer hand than the SF.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

T-shirt vinyl and plastisol are both polyvinyl-chloride (PVC), so in effect, plastisol on a sheet has already been invented.


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## RobertG (Oct 13, 2010)

wormil said:


> T-shirt vinyl and plastisol are both polyvinyl-chloride (PVC), so in effect, plastisol on a sheet has already been invented.


Are you sure about that?
The way I understand it, is that CC premium is actually a PU material.

Kind regards, Robert


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

RobertG said:


> Are you sure about that?
> The way I understand it, is that CC premium is actually a PU material.
> 
> Kind regards, Robert


Not sure about that specific product and I couldn't find an MSDS on their site, not all heat applied products are PVC.


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

moosevalley said:


> The new vinyl H20 from Stahls is not plastisol but works something like a transfer giving you the very soft feel. Works great


Yes I'm dying to try that but since I'm located in Europe, Stahls won't let me order it


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## GinnyD (Apr 13, 2011)

I remembered seeing something on Joto Canada about plastisol transfers. Not sure if this is what you are looking for.
link below
http://http://jotopaper.ca/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.browse&category_id=108


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## prometheus (Oct 19, 2006)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



Rodney said:


> I thought Imprintables used to have a product like this that just came in white?


Rodney, I went to the Great Garment Graphics seminar (Great Garment Graphics online how-to webinarsGreat Garment Graphics) hosted by Stahls/Imprintables a couple of years back, and they showed us plastisol sheets that you could cut. The advantage would be ordering in custom colors. I can't seem to find it on their sites.


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

GinnyD said:


> I remembered seeing something on Joto Canada about plastisol transfers. Not sure if this is what you are looking for.
> link below
> http://http://jotopaper.ca/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.browse&category_id=108


Wow, that sounds exactly like what I was thinking of. I'm a bit surprised about the limited choice of colors though.
There's an MOQ for the product but I will definitely try and get some samples.
Thanks!


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## GinnyD (Apr 13, 2011)

You are most welcome.


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## prometheus (Oct 19, 2006)

Nisei said:


> I'm a bit surprised about the limited choice of colors though.


They do mention "This Plastisol ink-based product can be custom made to match specific pantone color requirements (minimum order quantities apply)."

So it looks like they will match a pantone color for you.


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## Corel Whisperer (Sep 1, 2010)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



prometheus said:


> Rodney, I went to the Great Garment Graphics seminar (Great Garment Graphics online how-to webinarsGreat Garment Graphics) hosted by Stahls/Imprintables a couple of years back, and they showed us plastisol sheets that you could cut. The advantage would be ordering in custom colors. I can't seem to find it on their sites.


As I remember it was called Quick Split, it hasn't been sold in quite some time.


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## Nisei (May 4, 2011)

Doh..
Finally found what I was looking for and now I read that Joto Tuff is being discontinued.
Probably the reason why there are so little colors available...


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2010)

We have been testing a product like this for some time and the ink actually weeds fairly well (better than most reflective materials)... I have not yet gone to market with the sheets, we were going to use it in-house.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

I always thought that plastisol and heat press vinyl were essentially the same.....PVC....


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## drdoct (Jul 26, 2011)

Sewingmachine.com has something called thermacut that says it's an ink product. I've felt it and it does feel like ink. I haven't used it though. Maybe the next time I'm over there I'll grab a sheet just for fun. Here's a link:


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2010)

The sheets of cuttable ink give us just a bit more flexibility. We already provide plastisol ink name & number transfers in several different fonts. This allows us to do more fonts, letter heights, arced names, etc... We also have access to more colors of ink than vinyl and can color match.


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## Sulp (Dec 7, 2010)

*Re: Cutting plastisol?*



Nisei said:


> I've only seen the vinyl on shirts I bought off of eBay plus the kind that a friend of mine is using for his shirts. From what I've seen I think it lacks the feeling that it becomes one with the garment. It's always covering the garment while screen printing and plastisol methods tend to put the image inbetween the fibers of the garment. I just like that better.


No neccessarily true. There are some films out there that are VERY close to screen printing.


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