# Purchase a heat press or outsource?



## WillF123 (Oct 18, 2012)

Hi! I am new here and like everyone else, hoping to get some help . I am in the works of starting my own children's tees & onesies line. I have done my research and now stand at a fork in the road: Do I outsource the printing or do I invest in machinery? I have confirmed which onesies I am going to use, and have come to the conclusion that plastisol transfers are going to be the most economical form of printing for me (at the beginning I will be printing as they are ordered). My current business plan is to purchase wholesale onesies, order custom plastisol transfers (my designs are 1-color & very simple), and then either apply them myself (would require purchasing a heat press) or outsourcing JUST the pressing to a local business. Do local businesses usually offer such a thing? I contacted one company that wanted to charge $7.00/each to press 1 item, $6.00/each to press 5, and $5.00/each to press 50. This sounded outrageous to me. I would love to know your thoughts. I have NO experience screen printing or applying transfers. But it sounds to me like my best bet would be to invest in a 15x15 heat press rather than waste money having someone else apply them. Anyone have any insight?
Thank you in advance!


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Buy a press and buy a cutter and they will serve you well.....


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## WillF123 (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks for the advice. I did my research and have decided to purchase the Transpro 15x15 as my "starter press". I was deciding between that, the SunnIE and the HPN. Hopefully I made the right decision! We'll know soon enough...


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

That will be a great start......Have you looked at cutters yet?.....


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## WillF123 (Oct 18, 2012)

Not yet... Don't know where to begin. And to be honest, not sure why I need one? Again, I'm a noob!


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

How will you make your designs?.....I make my custom 1 off designs with my cutters & presses.....


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## jleampark (Sep 6, 2007)

@royster13:


> ...and have come to the conclusion that plastisol transfers are going to be the most economical...order custom plastisol transfers...


 @WillF123: Where are you ordering your transfers from? Do you have the designs already (in Corel Draw or a similar program) or are you looking for templates?

If you have your own design(s), I would suggest either Semo Imprints (SEMO Imprints - Pricing) or Seay Graphics (Seay Graphics Custom Screen Printing Heat Transfers and Embroidery | Screen Printed Transfers). If you want templates that you can customize, you might want to consider Transfer Express (Heat Applied Custom Screen Printed - Digital Transfers | Transfer Express and Thousands of Design Choices for Custom Printed Apparel & More | Easy Prints).

These are my favorites but there are a lot of good companies out there. Some good person on this forum took the time and effort to compile a pretty complete list: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkQjJPlThfo_-PmJjgISnDA

Lots of success!

Joe


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