# DK20S and Digital Transfer Review



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

We just finished a sample of transfers from Transfer Express with our DK20S heat press. We did several hot split and hot peel transfers. Right after the transfer process we washed the garments. 

They all came out perfect. With the exception of one transfer that had some damage prior to pressing they all were perfect. After washing in cold water and high heat dryer I can say all the transfers are looking pretty good. 

We used several fabrics. A 50/50 Gildan T-shirt, a 50/50 Anvil Polo and a sweatshirt. We followed the directions and since we didn't have their recommended heat press we increased the temp by 10 degrees as directed. We also used a Teflon sheet between the heat platen and the transfer.

We pre-heated the bottom of the press for 30 seconds which was 30 seconds less than recommended. We do have a Teflon sheet on the bottom and that heats up pretty fast and gets burning hot to the touch. We then placed the shirt on the platen and pre-pressed the shirt for 10 seconds. The polo had a blank mouse pad to raise the printing area above the buttons for good pressure. 

The process involves hot peeling the transfer. Removing the Teflon sheet without burning your fingers is almost impossible. The peeling process is pretty straight forward, just grab corner and peel in one fluent motion. 


Other than transfer placement on one garment, we had no errors with the transfer process. 

I have to say the results are as good as screen printing and give a much better control of the process if you outsource your screen printing. 

Our next 'results test' will be with dye-sub and the 'revolutionary' poly/cotton materials, aka vaporwear.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Thanks for posting the results! These were plastisol transfers right?

If you do the plastisol transfer on Vaporwear, let me know how it goes


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

We are still waiting for our vaporwear garments to arrive. Once we have them I will let you know.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Where did you end up ordering your vaporwear from?


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

They just arrived. 

We ordered 2 sample packs from SEPS Graphics who really just has them drop shipped. It took a week to get here. Their price seems slightly better than others when ordering in quantity but I have not spent a lot of time really looking at all costs including shipping so I will have to hold out judgement on that. I did like the personal service that I did get from them. 

We are going to test the dye sub process on them first. I have a few transfers left and will test one of those but the real reason to get the vapor garments is to take advantage of the dye sub process.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

binki said:


> The process involves hot peeling the transfer. Removing the Teflon sheet without burning your fingers is almost impossible. The peeling process is pretty straight forward, just grab corner and peel in one fluent motion.


Leave a little bit of the teflon sheet outside of the press when you're pressing; you should have some available unless you're doing a giant-sized print. Our sheet and press are the same size (16x20), so I often just put the teflon sheet across the wrong way (20 inches across the press's 16) so there is a little bit outside of the press that I can grab on to that's not hot. You'll still get some hit fingers occasionally, but this helps.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Twinge said:


> Leave a little bit of the teflon sheet outside of the press when you're pressing; you should have some available unless you're doing a giant-sized print. Our sheet and press are the same size (16x20), so I often just put the teflon sheet across the wrong way (20 inches across the press's 16) so there is a little bit outside of the press that I can grab on to that's not hot. You'll still get some hit fingers occasionally, but this helps.


Thanks for the info. I was using a small cutout the size of the transfer paper. I will try the larger version tonight.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

*Re: DK20S and Digital Transfer Review with Vapor Apparel*

Well, We tried the Vapor Apparel T's and micro fiber polo's. The results were stunning. The colors were very vibrant. One bad thing that happened was the transfer bleeding thru the paper to the teflon sheet and then pressing a ghost into the next garment where there was no transfer paper. I had set the printer to print at the most intense setting and this may have been too much. 

So, I took some bleach and tried to remove the ghost and it wouldn't budge. I am disappointed I couldn't get it out because I ruined a shirt but I am happy that it didn't come out because I now have a selling point. 

I still haven't done a hot split or hot peel transfer on one of these puppies but I am sure they will work out. I have some youth shirts that I will try them on and will report back with that info. 

One thing I am having problems with is getting the transfer paper to stick down to the garment without moving. I tried white rain hair spray and that didn't seem to help. I put the teflon sheet on and that helps a little but the paper still might move when I pull up the sheet. The other problem is removing the transfer if it didn't move without ghosting the image. Does anyone have a trick for that?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Well, We tried the Vapor Apparel T's and micro fiber polo's. The results were stunning.


Do you have any pictures to post?



> One thing I am having problems with is getting the transfer paper to stick down to the garment without moving. I tried white rain hair spray and that didn't seem to help. I put the teflon sheet on and that helps a little but the paper still might move when I pull up the sheet. The other problem is removing the transfer if it didn't move without ghosting the image. Does anyone have a trick for that?


D.Evo does a lot of work with vapor wear, so hopefully she'll be able to offer some help if she sees this thread


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

*Re: DK20S and Digital Transfer Review Vaborwear Wash Test*

We printed 3 garments, 2 with a large logo on the back and sleeve logo's and one with a small logo on the front upper left. 

I turned 2 of the 3 inside out but left one with the printing on the outside. The two inside out washed up fine but the other, which had been printed ten minutes before transfered the image all over the shirt where it folded over onto itself. A real mess. I find this hard to believe unless I had seen it myself since I can't get the image to budge with bleach. 

One thing I had done is print with intense printing which is one setting above recommended from the printing software. I will retest with one setting down and rewash the garment to see what happens. 

One other thing is the garment has marks where the transfer paper was on it (expected) and also where the edges of the heat press were which was not expected since I used a teflon pillow to allow the garment to drop off the edge gently rather than have a hard edge. I will reduce the pressure for my next test to see if this improves. The sleeve pressing didnt have this problem since it fits completely under the heat press. 

I haven't taken any pictures yet. I will work on that as I have time.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

I did find some information that indicated to use lighter pressure, 375F and 35 seconds for vapor apparel. Here is the link I found. http://www.jotopaper.com/pdf/sublimation.pdf


I tried the recommendations and the results were much better. I did press one too light (not enough pressure). I also was able to rub out the press marks with my finger right after pressing. 

Additionally, I took my teflon pillow and inserted it into the shirt rather than pull the shirt over the bottom platten and that seemed to help with the press marks. 

More to come...


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