laser t-shirts/sweatshirts ???

[Chad Fitzgerald]

I have played with this in the past but never took the time to try to dial it in. Just playing.
I got a call today from a local trophie/awards/tshirt company asking if i would try it. She is extremely busy and has accounts with most schools in the area. it could turn into high volume work.

Sooo, Im looking for advice on this. can it be profitable?
any tips and tricks for getting consitant results?
If i remember right, bright colored cotton works best??? Stay away from small detail.
Settings to start with?
Prep work?
Ways to hold down material?

I have to stop down and talk to her today, she will be sending shirts home with me to run some examples. As always, advice from here usually saves me alot of time.
Thanks
Chad

[Dan Hintz]

Make sure you don't overpower it... it's a pretty fine line. With too much power, you start to shred the cotton fibers and it begins falling apart during the first wash cycle.

[Mike Null]

Chad

In my somewhat limited experience I've found that fleece engraves quite nicely. I'm talking about polar fleece rather than just plain sweatshirts. I haven't tried sweatshirts but with other fabrics I just sneak up on the settings as far as power is concerned and I would recommend lower dpi rather than higher.

I have a platform I built out of plywood which allows me to clamp various materials flat.

If these are regular sweatshirts heat applied vinyl works great and makes a superior impression.

[Joe Hillmann]

This is from my experiments with lasering on tee shirts.

It works best on bold, dark colors. It doesn't work so well on pale or light colored shirts.

Keep the power as low as you can go. Even than 100% cotton shirts will start to fall apart after 15-20 washes. A 50/50 cotton/poly blend holds up longer (but will still fall apart sooner than if it wasn't lasered at all). Shirts with polyester in them tend to hold on to smells and I was never able to figure out how to get rid of the "burnt" smell even after many times being worn and washed. Polyester is known for holding on to smells and I think there are special soap made to remove smell from it(polyester). I never tried anything other than regular washing soap or vinegar so I don't know if the special soaps work.

To hold the shirts down I used my vacuum table with window screen put on top. Then I carefully put the shirt on it so it had no wrinkles. A better way to hold them would be to make several platens or pallets (like what would be used on a screen printing press) out of melamine. And use pallet tape or repositionable spray (meant for screen printing) to hold them in place. Make up several that why when one or two are engraving you can be loading the next shirts on the platens.

It may not be profitable. A large design may take 15 minutes to engrave by the time the other company adds there markup as well as the cost of the shirt it becomes a pretty expensive shirt.

If the bed of your laser is large enough or you fold the shirts right you may be able to fit 2 or 3 shirts in the laser at once which can cut the engraving time in half per shirt which may then make it profitable.

If you are just looking for a light mark on a dark fabric you could give this a try
http://www.stencilrevolution.com/tutorials/bleach-fabric-guide/
but you would be limited on the designs you can produce because it can't have "islands"

Fleece also engraves quite well, when it is new, after awhile (months to years) the engraving starts to become hard to see.

[Joe Hillmann]

Also an embroidery hoop can be used to hold the fabric you are engraving.

[Martin Boekers]

Denim seems to be the best choice. You may want to consider Denim Jackets or even rear pockets for girls jeans. I'd stay away from light weight fabrics and tee shirts. One thing to consider is doing appliques, there are YouTube videos on this Twill USA handles quite a few material that will work.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

thanks and a few more questions
sneak up on power settings, check: low dpi, makes sense, check: cotton, bold/dark colors. check, hold downs, no problem there.
just got back from meeting with her. i have 100% cotton and 50/50 cotton/polyester shirts for practice.
The more questions,
100% polyester(have some for practice as well) the catalog she found this in only lasers on 100% polyester medium tone colors and from the pic the engravings turn out darker than the base color. I am going to try this and see what happens with the same advice from above BUT
is 100% polyester ok to laser(raster). Fumes to be concerned about or damage to mirrors/lens etc???? obviously it can be done but are there precautions to take??
SECOND, 100% polyester twill for aplique. Also have this for practice. Basically vector cutting this. Same question, any concerns about vector cutting, fumes, damage to laser, big flames, etc.

After thoughts: I have the standard 2" lens. is there a better lens to use??? engrave out of focus, will this help???

Thanks Again

[Chuck Stone]

I was wondering about vector, too. I've seen tees with cutouts on the back. Don't know
if they were cotton or a mix.

[Joe Hillmann]

If you are actually cutting the shirts with the laser you want at least 80% polyester. The polyester melts at the cust and prevents fraying. Less than that and they will fray at the cuts. Even then if washed with a regular load of clothes rather than doing delicates separate it will start to fall apart after only 4 or 5 washes. And you also have the issue of the polyester holding on the smoke smell of the laser. I have seen a few places on line selling laser cut designs into polyester tee shirts and after doing quite a bit of testing I don't see how they can last long.