stempel selber herstellen
for custom designing this tote bag i will use a cutting plotter as well as a heat press. i will use the cutting plotter to cut out my design and the heat press to transfer the design from foil to fabric using heat and pressure. once i have created my custom design and saved it as vector file, i can open it via coreldraw to start the job set-up. my design has two colors and we can see the white part here. when using flex film you always have to mirror the design horizontally.
before i do that, i have to set all lines to hairline by selecting them and clicking on the x mark on the bottom right to set the width to the hairline. now i can flip my image horizontally by clicking on the respective symbol up here in the menu bar. i also want to reposition it to fit the material’s dimensions. then i click file - print to select a printer, which in our case is the cutting plotter. under properties i will check the pen speed and pen force as well as the paper dimensions and confirm it.
always double-check your design in the print preview. i can see that my design isn’t in the best position. i can change the position in the menu bar. by selecting the lower left corner my design will automatically move to that position which is also where the plotter will start cutting. once i have specified and checked all settings, i can start the job via file - print. as mentioned before my design has two colors. therefore the cutting job has to be done in two sequences because the flex film has only one color. i’ll start with the green sheet.
when working with flex film you should pay attention to the front and back side of the sheet before inserting it into the machine. the matt side of the foil will be applied on your material the glossy back side is the carrier film and will not be cut, which means the matt side has to face upwards. next i have to cut out my design and then weed the film, that is to peel off the areas from the foil that i don’t want applied on my fabric. i recommend using a scalpel to lift up the parts you don’t need.
the design will be transferred in two steps. first i will put the tote bag on the heat press. please make sure to have no or very few seams, collars or other raised areas on the printing area of your material. otherwise your design could look uneven. now i will put the design on the tote bag, gently apply some pressure and power on the heat press. when using a heat press you should keep two values in mind:
the temperature of the machine and the duration of the transfer. i can specify these values via the display of the machine. the temperature is on the bottom left and set to 170â°. the duration is on the bottom right and set to 25 seconds. by pressing the „ok“ button on the bottom i can change the values by using the arrow-keys. once i am done with the set-up, i confirm it by pressing „ok“ again. now we have to wait until the heat press has reached the selected temperature, which is 170â° in this case.
you can look up all values for different foil material under wiki.happylab.at. once the press is heated, i will pull this handle down and close it. when it’s done, it will automatically open due to the timer function after the selected time of 25 seconds. if for whatever reason i need to cancel the job, i can press this red button here and the press will open up right away. before i remove the carrier foil, i will let it cool down.
then peel it off carefully. now i can place the second film on my bag and repeat the steps.