Feeding shirts onto Geo Knight DK20S heat press stretches smaller sizes

[spencer_L&KC]

After research and talking to others who use heat presses every day, I decided to go with Geo Knight over Stahls Hotronix. I wanted a 16"x20" press and it came down to the DK20S and the HX20F IQ. Reading on forums I got the feeling that the Hotronix presses were more expensive than they should be and saw a lot of frustrated users, frustrated over the quality of the press and the customer service from the company. The Geo Knight on the other hand had the opposite feedback, its built like a brick crap house and service from Geo Knight is excellent, which I can attest to now as well.

There is just one thing I do not like about the press. And that is when feeding or "threading" shirts onto the "table", unless its size Large or bigger, its going to stretch the shirt. That is because the base of the table is dead center below the center of the table. When you are pressing the front of the shirt, the back of the shirt can only travel as far as the front of the table mount, again in the center. And because of that, it stretches the shirt. Stretching the shirt will cause weird dimples in those far corners, toward the back of the press. And if its a size Small or smaller, its stretching the bottom/waist of the shirt too.

The IQ press from Hotronix also mounts in the center, but the mount is on an L shaped arm allowing that same bottom of the shirt to travel much further back and in turn, results in no stretching at all.

Does anyone else have this issue on their Geo Knight DK20S press? Have you found a workaround for this?

I know I can just lay the shirt on the table, both the front and back layer, but then I get press marks on both the front and the back. I want to thread these on with no stretching. Heat press marks are a whole other topic.

[Frog]

Laid flat with a teflon pillow inside?

[spencer_L&KC]

Laid flat with a teflon pillow inside?

Teflon pillow inside the shirt?

Im talking about loading a shirt onto the "pallet" of the press. Heat press MFGs call the pallets "tables". I do have a teflon wrap on the top heater part of the press, and one on the table as well (overkill maybe but nothing ever sticks), but I do not put anything in the shirt itself, well other than the cushion of the table. Does that make sense?

Here is a link to a video of the loading of a shirt. This is what I am talking about. They must have used a size L or XL for this demonstration. Would love to see them show us a size S and load it, cuz it will stretch. Scroll to the 2:20 mark for the loading or "threading" of the shirt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMK17stv_Y

I know I can lay the shirt flat, both front and back layers, but then the layer I am not pressing gets press marks too. I am trying to eliminate the marks on both sides of the shirt, wanting to press just the side with the print (say front only).

[screenxpress]

Could you use one of their smaller "tables" to swap out for the smaller shirts to eliminate the "stretching"?

DKP-1012TBL or DKP-1416TBL

https://www.heatpress.com/products/dk-10-x-12-table-all-thread-style

Looks like they offer a number of optional "tables" on their web site that are compatible with the DK20S

[whitewater]

Laid flat with a teflon pillow inside?

Teflon pillow inside the shirt?

Im talking about loading a shirt onto the "pallet" of the press. Heat press MFGs call the pallets "tables". I do have a teflon wrap on the top heater part of the press, and one on the table as well (overkill maybe but nothing ever sticks), but I do not put anything in the shirt itself, well other than the cushion of the table. Does that make sense?

Here is a link to a video of the loading of a shirt. This is what I am talking about. They must have used a size L or XL for this demonstration. Would love to see them show us a size S and load it, cuz it will stretch. Scroll to the 2:20 mark for the loading or "threading" of the shirt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMK17stv_Y

I know I can lay the shirt flat, both front and back layers, but then the layer I am not pressing gets press marks too. I am trying to eliminate the marks on both sides of the shirt, wanting to press just the side with the print (say front only).

What Frog says, use a teflon pillow inside the smaller shirts if having issues. Also get a teflon sheet for the bottom platen, this way the shirt slides on way more easily.

I have a MEM Double heat press (2 of them) with a pedal. We have youth platens for it, but have never used them. We have had no issues.

[spencer_L&KC]

Could you use one of their smaller "tables" to swap out for the smaller shirts to eliminate the "stretching"?

DKP-1012TBL or DKP-1416TBL

https://www.heatpress.com/products/dk-10-x-12-table-all-thread-style

Looks like they offer a number of optional "tables" on their web site that are compatible with the DK20S

I considered that, but that doesn't help when I am pressing a 20" long print on a size Small. I am considering ordering a new 16"x20" pallet and modifying it.

Laid flat with a teflon pillow inside?

Teflon pillow inside the shirt?

Im talking about loading a shirt onto the "pallet" of the press. Heat press MFGs call the pallets "tables". I do have a teflon wrap on the top heater part of the press, and one on the table as well (overkill maybe but nothing ever sticks), but I do not put anything in the shirt itself, well other than the cushion of the table. Does that make sense?

Here is a link to a video of the loading of a shirt. This is what I am talking about. They must have used a size L or XL for this demonstration. Would love to see them show us a size S and load it, cuz it will stretch. Scroll to the 2:20 mark for the loading or "threading" of the shirt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMK17stv_Y

I know I can lay the shirt flat, both front and back layers, but then the layer I am not pressing gets press marks too. I am trying to eliminate the marks on both sides of the shirt, wanting to press just the side with the print (say front only).

What Frog says, use a teflon pillow inside the smaller shirts if having issues. Also get a teflon sheet for the bottom platen, this way the shirt slides on way more easily.

I have a MEM Double heat press (2 of them) with a pedal. We have youth platens for it, but have never used them. We have had no issues.

I have teflon wraps on top and bottom, so im covered. And yes that def helps slide garments on and off, but does not help with the stretching. I guess I will look into the pillow, but that sounds like it adds a lot of time to each press, having to insert and pull out for every shirt.

Sounds like the MEM press has a better pallet mounting setup, that doesn't stretch the tees. Wish Geo Knight would address this because it is such a simple design fix.

[spencer_L&KC]

Laid flat with a teflon pillow inside?

What Frog says, use a teflon pillow inside the smaller shirts if having issues. Also get a teflon sheet for the bottom platen, this way the shirt slides on way more easily.

Your pillow suggestion gave me an idea. I have never tried the pillows before, but they sound interesting. Then I thought, what if I just lay the pillow down first, and then the shirt laid flat on top, that way I do not have to mess with putting the pillow in the shirt at all. So basically just leaving the pillow as the cushion for the bottom pallet, essentially replacing the foam rubber that comes attached to the pallet.

Then I got to thinking, well since I already have the pallet wrapped in one of those teflon wraps, why not put the pillow under that wrap, allowing it to trap the pillow between the pallet and the wrap. Which would hold the pillow in place. Again essentially just replacing the pallet top with the pillow. This has me pretty excited! I am easily entertained I know.

Then I thought, since I already have the telfon wrap for the pallet, why even buy a teflon wrapped pillow just to trap it. Why not just source a sheet of high temp foam and trap it under there. I could buy a sheet that hangs off the edges of the stock pallet by a 1/2" on all sides, which would eliminate any hard edges of the pallet. Time to start sourcing high temp foam!

Thoughts on this?

[Frog]

Although the "permanent" pillow underneath would help to equalize pressure due to uneven thickness of seams and such, it isn't nearly as effective in reducing the pressure marks they cause.

[spencer_L&KC]

Although the "permanent" pillow underneath would help to equalize pressure due to uneven thickness of seams and such, it isn't nearly as effective in reducing the pressure marks they cause.

Does the pillow inside the shirt reduce that? Or is there another method?

It does seem the press marks from from the shape of the pallet, and not the heating panel. I need to look at my press again, but the pallet has more rounded corners compared to the heat panel itself, and that is what I am seeing on the shirts, the more rounded corners. So that tells me they are coming from the pallet and not the panel.

[whitewater]

We press a ton of DTF, sometimes just laying the shirt on and pressing say the front and back together doesn't work as well for us. So threading the shirt on the platen or pillow, makes it the correct heat.

But there are different factors in every shop.

[farmboygraphics]

I like this. It's a Nomex pad. I used it when I was doing die sub on flat items. It's stiffer then a pillow. but still has give so you don't get the hard edge.
You do want to put a teflon sheet on when you have a print facing it as it will pick up some of the fibers.

[spencer_L&KC]

We press a ton of DTF, sometimes just laying the shirt on and pressing say the front and back together doesn't work as well for us. So threading the shirt on the platen or pillow, makes it the correct heat.

But there are different factors in every shop.

What steps do you take to keep the press marks from happening? Esp on Comfort Colors, their dyes hate heat!

I like this. It's a Nomex pad. I used it when I was doing die sub on flat items. It's stiffer then a pillow. but still has give so you don't get the hard edge.
You do want to put a teflon sheet on when you have a print facing it as it will pick up some of the fibers.

Interesting. How thick is that? How much does it compress? My thought is to get foam that sticks off the edge of the heat presses pallet, by 1/2" in all directions, to remove the hard edge of the pallet. No hard edge should result in no marks, I would think. That looks like a Geo Knight DK20S too, which is what I am working with.

[Maxie]

With smaller sizes we just lay the shirt on top of the table, we have no problem with this.     I don't know why you would need a pillow, the table has a silicone rubber pad, we put a permanent teflon sheet over this.        If you put a pillow inside the shirt it will take you forever to iron on

[spencer_L&KC]

With smaller sizes we just lay the shirt on top of the table, we have no problem with this.     I don't know why you would need a pillow, the table has a silicone rubber pad, we put a permanent teflon sheet over this.        If you put a pillow inside the shirt it will take you forever to iron on

Because heat pressing causes a big rectangle mark on the shirt. Sometimes it can be rubbed out or it comes out in the wash, sometimes it doesn't. I have multiple customers who have complained about the press marks. The marks actually come from the rubber pad on the table, not the top heated plate. I can tell because the heated plate on the top part of the press has sharper, smaller radius rounded corners and the pad on the plate has larger radius corners. The press mark is the larger radius rounded corners.

Another issue with just laying smaller sizes on the table is that the seams at the sleeves get the marks worse. Not to mention the table marks are visible on the front and back of the shirt. The pillows are to help reduce the marks by having less rigid edges. The rubber on the tables is too rigid. This happens no matter how low the temp is, or how low the pressure is. It is less visible on some colors and on some blankss, but we press a lot of Comfort Colors blanks and they get marks very easily. My customers hate the marks so its time to do something about it. Many customers might not even notice or care, but I am a perfectionist and will continue to strive to provide the highest quality products I can.

These pillows are and nomex pads are offered for this exact reason and lots of folks use them and do not have issues with transfers not adhering.

[Frog]

Although it will take extra time which needs to be factored into pricing, steaming after the fact has been a long-time standard finishing touch, especially when end product is to used for re-sale.