T-shirt transfers and printers?

[poohfriend77]

Hi! I'm planning to order some of Amy's transfer paper after reading all the rave reviews on here. But I have a question about printing them. For our last trip, I used our inkjet printer, and they turned out great (although the transfers from Michaels did NOT wash and wear well), but now we have a laser printer. It is my understanding that it will not work with transfers. Is that correct?

We still have the old inkjet, but the cartridges are empty. Has anyone gotten printer cartridges refilled at Walgreens or somewhere, and then printed the t-shirt transfers? I'm just wondering if the quality will be as good, or if I should just suck it up and buy new HP cartridges. Any advice is welcome! Thanks.

 

[dizneechic]

I'll take a stab at this one...

Amy's transfers (as well as most out there) are not compatible with laser printers. Laser printers use a heat process when printing and if you put any type of transfer paper through one it will melt in the machine and completely ruin it. They do make transfers for laser printers but those require a heat press for application onto a t-shirt because a household iron does not get hot enough to permanently affix them to a shirt (they are heat resistant to a degree to accommodate use in laser printers).

As for refilling inks in cartridges... years ago I tried it and it was OK although I could tell a difference in the inks - minor, but I could see it. The issue you may run into trying to revive old ink cartridges is dried out heads. Fresh ink may or may not bring them back to life 100% and you could end up with missed spots in printing or even unsharp smudged lines. I would recommend new cartridges so that you know everything is fresh, and quality made... you would hate to have a great shirt made with cheap ink run on you when it rains.

One last think to think about depending on the age of your older printer, how many shirts your going to do and how many cartridges you need (my Epson takes 8 Ink tanks so would be spendy to by 8 new), it may be cheaper to buy a new printer with starter cartridges on sale somewhere. I've seen them as low as $40, but the starter ink tanks aren't as full as refills so if your doing a lot of shirts you might be better off with refills on the older one.

 

[poohfriend77]

That's a good point! It seems so wasteful, but it probably would be cheaper to buy a new printer than new cartridges (mine takes 2). I'll keep an eye open for sales. At this point, I'm planning to make a total of 8-10 shirts. I may just ask a friend to print them, and I'll give her a few dollars, or maybe bring back something from WDW for her kids.

Our new laser printer is GREAT, but my first thought was, "Oh, no! How am I going to make shirts for our next trip?"

 

[dizneechic]

I am a huge fan of laser printers, we have both a Dell B&W and Dell color, I totally love them! If it weren't for me needing to use transfers for my biz I would never touch an inkjet again, although some of the high end ones can print some beautiful stuff (and we have it do make our Disney shirts with too!)