# Cheap alternative heat presses



## nitai (Dec 15, 2005)

Hi,
I am trying to switch to heat pressed shirts, from screen printed. I need to get a heat press, that will give me results worthy of being sold, but I have a very limited budget. I wanted to know if anyone has information or opinions on these alternative heat presses.

First, there is an eBay selling these homemade e-z press's, for transfers. In his feedback, all the people who purchased these are happy with them it seems. It is built from the plans of an ebook.

http://cgi.ebay.com/E-Z-PRESS-10x14-HEAT-TRANSFER-MACHINE_W0QQitemZ7573671543QQcategoryZ57065QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


This next one might just be a dumb idea, but I saw it for sale on ebay advertised as a t-shirt heat press, so if anyone has tried this, or anyone thinks it would do the job, I would really appreciate any input.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B0000AS48O/ref=dp_nav_1/103-0537343-8307014?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=284507&s=kitchen


Am I just messing myself up by not investing the extra $200-300 in a manufactured heat press? I'm just trying to get started as soon as possible, because I have a small budget, and my screen printer who was giving me a great deal just flaked out.
I'm trying to get all the equipment to get the whole heat press going, and any input is very much appreciated!


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

I deffinitely would not get the one on amazon, becuase that will not apply pressure, and therefore will not work. 

The machine on ebay looks like a piece of junk to me, but it may work. If your serious about this business, get a machine that is going to work well and last. Down the road, you will regret it if you skimp on the heat press now. You will have a $150 pile of junk on your hands, and have to buy a real press. The press on ebay is also very small and will limit your ability to do larger transfers.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

nitai said:


> Hi,
> I am trying to switch to heat pressed shirts, from screen printed. I need to get a heat press, that will give me *results worthy of being sold*, but I have a very limited budget. I wanted to know if anyone has information or opinions on these alternative heat presses.


Yeah, if you want to make a quality product -- you're going to have to have quality materials and press. One alternative you might look at is finding a used heat press, especially locally. Call around at all the local screen printers, t-shirt shops, etc. and see if anyone has a used press for sale.


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## nitai (Dec 15, 2005)

Thanks allot for the help, that was my guess also, I just needed to convince myself to spend the extra for the proper equipment. Twinge, I see that you've posted several times telling people to call around locally to see if they can find some used press's, I'm going to take your advice on that, sounds like a good idea. If I'm not lucky with that, I'll prob stick with ebay. Thanks for making the starting process that much easier for me!


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## J27 Designs (Dec 15, 2005)

I am also looking for a heat press machine. I see a lot of people advising to call around to local shops and inquire about presses for sale. However, since I don't know anything about the inside workings of the heat presses, how can I be sure the thing would work and the store wasn't jsut selling me a pile of junk?

Would I be better of jsut sucking it up and purchasing a new HIX from the company itself and not worry abotu ebay or local stores?

Thanks! You guys are a wealth of info!


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