Heat press
Introduction
According to Wikipedia, “A heat press is a machine engineered to imprint a design or graphic on a substrate, such as a t-shirt, with the application of heat and pressure for a preset period of time. While heat presses are often used to apply designs to fabrics, specially designed presses can also be used to imprint designs on mugs, plates, jigsaw puzzles, caps, and other products.”
In french: "presse de transfert", "presse thermique", "presse à chaud". In german: transferpresse, hitze presse, textilpresse
Selecting and buying a heat press
Serious hobby machines come in three formats: either as clam-shell type or with a swivel swing arm or with drawer style lower plateau. As explained in the Hotfix stone article, we prefer the swivel model, since it allows working with the inserted textile without being exposed to the heated top.
We own a Ricoo T538B heat press.
If you live in Europe, buying in Germany is probably cheaper. E.g. a same model was 300 Euros on the german and 500 on the french Amazon site. Most cheaper models seem to have small problems identified in various online reviews. A good German make cannot be found under 600 Euros. However, we are a happy with "serious entry level" one we bought.
Other models I had a look at: Low end (with hopefully acceptable quality)
- Craftpress $295.00
- Fenta Pink Hobbypress 270 CHF (30 x 23cm swivel model)
- Fenta Pink-Press, 360 CHF
- Krativegewerbe.dh - 38 x 38 cm Swivelling transfer press, 360 Euros (looks like the Ricoo T438)
- Hobbysqueezy, 250 Euros to 400 CHF (30 x 22cm), full opening, but no timer.
- Profisqueezy, 38 x 38cm, 400 Euros
- Ridgeyard 166 Euros (Amazon.fr)
- HobbyCut AA1-S (230 - 280 €), e.g. from airbrush
- Hyppypress
- Happypress 3. 30 x 21cm, (340 Euros)
- Ricoo Powerdwarf, 300x23 cm, Swivel, 260 Euros
- Ricoo T538-TB (340 €)
- Ricoo T438M (300 to 500 Euros !)
Mid end
- Secabo TC2 (23 x 33cm), 435 Euros
- Secabo C2 (38 x 38 cm), 350 Euros
- Secabo TC5 (38 x 38), 610 Euros.
- Hotronix Digital Clam, $950$
Links
- Heat Press (Wikipedia)
- Heat transfer vinyl (Wikipedia)
- Dye-sublimation printer (Wikipedia)
- Transfer paper
- Help & Video Education at Stahls.com, e.g.
- Heat Press Buying Guide by Josh Ellsworth, stahls.com. (retrieved oct. 2017)
- Guide: 7 Popular Heat Transfer Styles, Stahls.com (retrieved oct. 2017)
- The Ultimate Guide To Design Size & Placement Stahls.com (retrieved oct. 2017)