In the world of heat pressing, the tools and supplies you use can prove to be just as important as any other item in your workshop. With the right equipment in hand, your heat press experience can become faster and more efficient than before. Today we'll be covering what we consider to be our essential tools and supplies. From helping to align your transfers, to fixing any transfer mistakes, these tools should hopefully prove themselves to be essential in your workspace.
Our essential tools and supplies are meant to improve the quality and efficiency of your heat press experience. It’s very important to have an even pressing surface when using heat transfer materials. We’ll start things off with the Tee Pad It.
Tee Pad It!
Sometimes, your garment will have irregularities like seams, collars, buttons, etc. These irregularities can affect the evenness in pressure and heat distribution on your transfer, which can cause HTV to peel off after even one washing. The handy Tee Pad It is inserted underneath the garment to raise the area that needs to be heat pressed above anything else surrounding it that may cause it to receive uneven pressure. The Tee Pad It comes in a set of 5 different shapes and sizes, which make it super helpful and easily used for nearly all applications.
Sof-Fusion Pressing Pillows
Sometimes you may come across a situation where it may be difficult to use a Tee Pad It, or you want something that is a little easier to slip in and out of a garment. This is where the Sof-Fusion Pressing Pillow really shines. These pillows are filled with a heat-resistant foam and wrapped with a durable non-stick material. Pressing pillows are used just like pressing pads. The key difference is this: instead of raising the transfer area above surrounding irregularities, a pressing pillow allows all the irregularities to sink into the pillow itself. This gives us an even pressing area for our transfer.
Tee Square It! & Logo GRID It!
What if you already have these pressing tools and still find that your transfers aren’t looking as professional as they should be? Our Tee Square It and Logo GRID It tools allow for precise placement of your transfers before pressing them onto your garments. The Tee Square It comes in two pieces and works best with full-size transfers, while the Logo GRID It is perfect for placing chest logos. The markings on these alignment tools not only allow you to keep your transfers straight and properly centered but also allow you to maintain uniform placement of transfers on multiple pieces of a large order.
Heat Tape & AlbaChem Eco Mist
If you’re sublimating and having trouble setting your transfers in place, you will find that having the right adhesive for your substrates is invaluable. Heat tape is convenient for wrapping transfers onto solid substrates like mugs, photo tiles, and phone cases. It works like regular tape, except it won’t melt when exposed to the high temperatures required with sublimation. An adhesive spray like AlbaChem Eco Mist works effectively with hard substrates and works especially well with soft substrates like t-shirts, mouse pads, and socks. Eco Mist can also be applied to most heat transfer paper.
Parchment Paper & Pro Grade Non-Stick Sheet
No matter what you are heat pressing, you should always cover your transfers with either parchment paper or a Pro Grade Non-Stick Sheet. Parchment paper is most often used for sublimation, while a Pro Grade Non-Stick Sheet is very effective for heat transfer vinyl, heat transfer paper, rhinestones, and similar applications.
EZ-Off & AlbaChem Vinyl Letter Remover
Sometimes accidents happen. Let’s say that you’ve forgotten your cover sheet AND accidentally pressed vinyl onto your heating element instead of your garment. Or maybe you forgot to mirror your transfer and accidentally pressed it onto your shirt. Thankfully, there are products available that can remedy such errors, such as EZ-Off and AlbaChem Vinyl Letter Remover (or VLR). EZ-Off is a non-flammable gel designed for cleaning heating elements and can remove small residue as well as any hastily-pressed transfers off your heat press’ platen. AlbaChem VLR is a liquid solvent for removing vinyl letters and adhesives off fabrics. It’s designed to be effective and quick-to-dry, though we advise to use gloves when applying this chemical to your garments.
All-in-all, we feel it’s essential to have these pro tools and supplies on hand in your work space. These tools will help to keep your workflow efficient and can really save the day when you’re in a pinch. If you have any questions about these items, please contact us and we'll be sure to respond back to you within 24 hours or less.
