Making Magnet Name Tags

Creative Arts
1

I am 100% new here - I have not come to the DMS since we signed up - so I am not sure if this is the right place to ask about this or not - feel free to help me along the way!

During my tour, I saw something that looked like I can make a magnet name tag. How can I learn how to do that and use the little tool I saw. Do I need to bring the blanks with me?

2

Chances are you saw the eufyMake UV printer. And yes, you would bring your own blanks with you.

Keep your eyes peeled on the calendar. Use the pull down filter and select eufymake E1 UV printer. You can also post on Talk in the Infrastructure/Public category and ask if someone will host a class. Sometimes people will schedule a class when there is known interest.

You do not need to bring your own blank to the class, just for subsequent use.

3

is that also the tool to make designs on t-shirts?

4

The Eufymake is a resin printer; it prints on a multitude of things. I do not think this would be appropriate for t-shirts though. It is more of an “artwork” printer.

For t-shirts, I would look at:

  1. Dye Sublimination - We have a printer that prints on special paper [with special inks], then you would use the heat press to transfer the image onto the T-Shirt [or other item]. The downside is the ink only adheres to polyester [so 100% polyester t-shirts, or items with polyester covering]. Also, white inks are not available so best when printing on white medium. NOTE: I would probably use the Eufymake if printing on other things besides t-shirts [but will probably cost more].
  2. Direct to Film [DTF] - We don’t have a printer for it, but you can send your artwork to a local shop where they will print it out for you. You will then use the heat press to transfer the ink to the shirt. This method works on a variety of material and can print white [so shirt color does not mater]. Very simple to do, minimal cost and effort.
  3. Screen Printing - This is a difficult and long process. It requires making a screen [one for each color] and then squeegee ink through the screen onto the shirt, letting the ink dry and adding the next color. It is messy, aligning the shirt to the print is more difficult, and it is very messy. I would only go down this road if you are producing a lot of shirts.
  4. Heat Transfer Vinyl - We do have a couple vinyl cutters, so can do in house. You would use the cutters to cut the design wanting to transfer to the shirt, and then a heat press to melt the vinyl into the shirt material. This is best for simple graphics and single colors. The “feel” of the vinyl on the shirt is thicker and more plasticky.

I’m sure I am missing several other options - like block prints; but I think those are the most used.

4 Likes
5

I discovered a potential use of wasting eufy ink. I printed a few images on WHITE vinyl. They were flat CYMK, so no white or gloss use (the cartridges they run through super fast, even for small stuff. These prints were super fast due to its single layer, but also essentially told me what inks were bad. One day blue was very faint despite there being plenty (the cartridge had expired). The cyan cartridge was replaced later that day, but two days later, I printed off a few more, and the black was now faint. Black apparently expires later this month, white the others in September. Since we run out of white and gloss so often, those cartridges don’t expire till way later in 2027, but the CMYK cartridges kept collecting on the shelf. Use it or lose it.

I think there is a need to instruct people how to inspect the expiration dates on all CMYK cartridges through the app, and then encourage this practice for each daily print. If a cartridges expires within 30 days, encourage a small flat CMYK test print to ensure functionality. This will prevent members from wasting precious white/gloss on a failed color print.