10+ Must-Haves When Diving Into Sublimation Printing
Just starting out with sublimation printing? Whether you recently purchased a new Sawgrass, or converted an ecotank printer to fit your budget- here are some must-haves you’ll absolutely need to get going. Links will be below so you can find these products, to help make your life easier. Time to get printing!
1. Sublimation Paper: You can purchase this from reputable sources like River City Graphic Supply, Heat Press Nation, or even Amazon. Especially when working with a converted ecotank printer- you may be limited to different sizes and weights of paper, so make sure to research what will work best for the projects you are working on, and what printer you have. If you are using a Sawgrass and are printing ink heavy, multicolor graphics, a heavier weight sublimation paper will provide a cleaner, crisper final product.
2. Light Colored, High In Polyester Garments: One of the most common mistakes people make is using garments with primarily cotton in them. At first, your print may appear vivid and look fine. Sadly, the trouble begins the moment your garment is off the heat press. You’ll notice ink coming up on your fingers, smears in corners starting to happen. Then- by the time you’ve washed and dried it for the first time, what’s left is a faded and hazy mess. Sublimation ink fuses into polyester, and poly-coated surfaces. Sublimation ink is opaque, and you cannot print white, so the lighter the garment- the better. If you are printing primarily black/dark text or images, you can play around with some slightly darker polyester garments and see some great results. It’s important to note, though- for example: If you choose to print on a light heather red triblend, and your art has color in it, certain hues and shades similar to your red may get lost in translation when pressing the garment. Always do a test run on the product, to make sure it comes out the way you envisioned it. Threadsy.com has a ton of rad, in-stock products that we love to print on when it comes to sublimation. Watch for my next blog post on some of 2022’s best sublimation blanks. ;)
3. Heat Tape: Heat tape comes in handy to prevent your graphics from sliding around and will prevent what has been dubbed “ghosting.” With sublimation requiring such a high temperature (390 degrees+), surfaces get hot really quick, so having that tape to hold your graphic down is a game changer. We get our sublimation tape from River City Graphics Supply. A little goes a long way in most cases, and your roll will last you a while.
4. Spray Adhesive: If you are printing onto a “fuzzier” or textured garment, you may find it hard to apply heat tape to get your graphic to stay put. That’s where spray adhesive comes into play. While often used in the screenprinting and woodworking worlds- it also has a place with sublimation printing, at times. A light mist from far away onto a graphic will help lock that graphic onto the printable area until it’s time to press. It is very important to note– this is an aerosol product, and it is to be used in an area free from pets/little ones/etc. Opening windows or sneaking outside to spray down your graphics are easy ways to avoid breathing in those fumes.
5, 6 & 7. Teflon Sheet, Light/Midweight Cardstock, Some Inexpensive Copy Paper: I’ve paired all three of these together into one portion, because they all work in tandem and are equally important. Your pressure from your heat press may make ink bleed, whether onto the back of your shirt from the front, from the transfer onto your teflon sheet, or even worse- your heat press. Sometimes- you can’t even see it until you press something else. Using a teflon sheet will help from ink traveling to the element, but you also want to protect that teflon sheet. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing old images you’ve pressed from other projects lightly showing up on new ones. This is where copy paper comes into play. Utilizing 2-4 sheets of copy paper to press in between your graphic and the teflon sheet will catch that ink and absorb it. Where your cardstock comes into play… placing a piece of cardstock inside of the garment (this is really important on very thin triblends!) to keep your transfer from going all the way through your garment.
8. Orange Wipes: We use these things for almost everything, but they come in really handy if you accidentally touch a wet graphic and get ink on your fingers. Like I said, previously- just because you don’t see the ink doesn’t mean it’s not there. After you wash them, giving your hands a wipe down with these helps make sure the ink stays off of you.
9. Parchment Paper: When printing multiple graphics, stacking them on top of each other- especially just printed, is a bad idea. Parchment paper between those graphics minimizes ink from smearing or traveling. This is one of the easiest things to find on this list, and can be added to your weekly grocery trip or dollar store run.
10. Lint Roller: The key to a perfect print is a great lint roller! It sounds simple, but it’s the honest truth. It is absolutely imperative to lint roll everything right before you press it. At high heat, if you miss this step- you’ll be pressing lint permanently into your garment, leaving a “hazy” or “dirty” look to it.
Some runner up products, depending on your set up:
11. Siser EasySubli: Not all converted ecotank printers can feed EasySubli through them, but if you have a Sawgrass- this is one of the most trusted products used as a work around to printing onto cotton. Make sure you scope out compatibility with your printer and test print settings, but it’s definitely worth a shot if all systems are a go.
12. Weeding & Tweezer Tools: If you have/have access to a Cricut, Cameo, or other cutter… with the right mat, you can contour cut your sublimation graphics to exactly your needs. After you cut your project, you’ll need a weeding tool to pick out the pieces of your graphic that you don’t intend to press. Siser’s weeding tool combo pack also comes with a tweezer style tool that will help you safely pull graphics from the garment without using your hands, and even worse– burning yourself!
Links to products mentioned above:
https://www.threadsy.com/shirts/unisex/polyester
https://www.screenprintsupplies.com/products/aerosols/printers-choice-flash-adhesive/
https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-25050-Fast-Orange-Cleaner/dp/B00L3QS01Q/ref=sr_1_4?crid=25FPSV67C8QF5&keywords=orange+wipes&qid=1659460587&sprefix=orange+wipes%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-4
