 We just tested a tic-tac hack where we sublimated using DTF powder on a hundred percent cotton And we'll show you what we learned right now What is up a welcome back doing to do a builder to make it so do we we have a new video each week This week. We're testing out some tic-tac hacks for sublimating on 100% cotton after our last DTF video Direct to film transfer we had done a comparison between our sublimation printer and our DTF printer And what those prints look like then we started to get some questions Hey, can't you just put that glue powder on the back of your sublimation prints and I thought no I don't think that'll work But then I started seeing some posts and some videos and now we have a hack We're gonna test it out today and see if we can get it to work at the end We'll do a comparison versus sublimation and DTF. We'll see what they all look like Step one we're gonna gather all of our supplies. We need a sublimation ink and an ink printer So we have our Epson 2760. We're gonna need our hot melt adhesive Our pet film, which is what we use for the DTF printer And we're also going to need a heat press so we have our Cricut easy press too and you missed our 100% cotton t-shirt So that's what's important on this one because you can't typically sublimate on a cotton t-shirt. So that's what makes this hack Pretty cool Copy paper and some kind of spray adhesive to get the film to stick to the copy paper It's a little bit of a little bit finicky Step two we're gonna create our design. Have you been to Canva? Canva is amazing It's a great creative platform that will give you a springboard on any of your designs If it's a t-shirt or even a cut file, this is a great place to start They have hundreds and thousands of templates for pretty much anything from t-shirts to stickers to whiteboard designs Kim has already picked out a t-shirt template and we're just gonna run with this one We're gonna download this as a PNG with a transparent background Step three we're gonna print our design now We weren't able to get the pet film to feed through our printer So we're gonna need to attach it to a carrier sheet That's what the copy paper is for to attach the pet film to the copy paper We're gonna use that gorilla glue spray adhesive. That's a tongue twister So we're gonna spray it on the copy paper And then we're gonna put the non-print side against the copy paper Remember to mirror your image when you print it since it is going to go face down time to powder our print now that the Ink is on the pet film. Well, it's still wet. We want to add the DTF powder to it We use this little bucket system Very powder me, babe Yeah, give it a shake. You just want a dusting Step five time to melt that glue. We're gonna melt that adhesive that we just put on the back of the ink I'm not gonna hold the heat press for like 12 minutes Well, this thing melts we use the baking sheet and we're just gonna put our little a Little print little print guy right in there Cover them back up We have our easy press set to 400 and we're just gonna leave it on there for about 15 minutes And that should activate all the inks too All right, it's been about 15 minutes Let's see what we got The rack's hot. You can definitely the rack is hot You definitely see the colors are popping. Yes. Yes. I want to show the difference Here they are before it's baked. Yes after it's baked. Yeah, you can see the heat really activates that Sublimation ink and it melts that powder. Mm-hmm. The powder is looking a little more shiny a little less granular Looks less like sugar and more like plastic. Yes. Yes. Good example Step six time to press it. We're gonna press it real good. So we have our design It's looking pretty nice. I don't see if it works. We need to put some Parchment paper in between the shirt. This is sublimation ink. I don't know if it will bleed or not I'm thinking no because of the melted glue. That's really what's on the back at this point But I say just in case Again, this shirt is 100% cotton fresh out of the store. Here's the tag I'm gonna give it a quick pre-press Getting all the wrinkles and stuff out Give it a quick pre-press get all the wrinkles and everything out All right, I'm just lining this up looks good All right, now we're gonna go in Now we're going 300 degrees for 10 seconds and I'm gonna lean on it That fast so typically with Direct-to-film transfer 310 seconds is the way to go but you need a lot of pressure. So Let it cool for a minute. Uh-huh But it looks good we need like a hairdryer that does cool air I got it. All right, it's pretty cool. I don't want to get up close. Yes Other people's film look like that. Did you need to do it a whole lot? So 300 degrees for 10 seconds did not work, but it looked like it was trying to work. It was starting So we're gonna try again right below it We're gonna go in for 40 seconds at 385 degrees We pressed it before a little more like it was a DTF transfer now We're gonna try it again a little more like it's a sublimation transfer. Yeah Same amount of time. We got cool it down again Do a cold deal. Yeah All right, cool it down. It's a touch. Let's see Should I keep going or should I try to press it some more? It still doesn't want to lift off Not like DTF. I don't know. Should I try to keep it down? Do it again Feel like I'm just gonna pull it up again. I Don't really have a good answer for you. I don't know Would we do it again for more time? Or are we calling it this doesn't work? Well, I could I've seen it work. I know it works What are we doing wrong? Not impressed It looks Looks distressed All right, we'll try it one more time one more try 385 40 seconds a lot of pressure I just want to give it a try. Here's where we were second try Oh, look at that. I'm gonna do a hop. Oh, maybe not I don't know. It seems to still be coming up with it. No, that's better. I am not impressed with this It looks okay, but I mean I'm not I'm not impressed with it Are you? No No, it did it did work Still it left a lot on the transfer sheet Maybe we should have done a cold peel. I try to cold peel. All right try to hop you Well, the cold peel the blue is a little bit better on that one and the white is a little better on this one The yellow is better on the hot peel Step seven Time to do some testing a little comparison. We have the DTF hack down now We're gonna try to do a little pretreat We're gonna do a little pretreat and then put some regular sublimation down, right? So as we were going through this process where you think it to yourself, why are they so tiny? That's because our intention is to compare the hack to a regular sublimation with a sublimation spray on a cotton t-shirt and then DTF on a cotton t-shirt Let's give it a press and see how she looks. So we already pretreated this side of the shirt We already dried it. It's ready. Yeah, all you have to do is there's this is sublimate spray So this is basically a sublimation spray goes right onto your cotton fabrics To a few pumps. We let it dry. It's nice and dry now. We have to do is press it I'm not gonna tape it down or anything. You're not. I was just obsessed. I won't move around the whole bunch Don't move it around here. Let me get on the other side then Is this set we're doing 40 seconds? Yes. All right 385 for 40 seconds three two one Straight up Oh, it's stuck to that stuff It's even more distressed Let's give it a quick quick yank. Oh, I put it on upside down, but Looks good. Yeah, I like that. That looks great. They can't that came out great. I'm gonna say That came out better than this Yeah All right. Well, all right. Let's see yet. Yeah, I'm gonna give you a final shot here Well, let's try the DTF first. Okay, we're gonna try that DTF just straight DTF like regular DTF a regular direct to film It is printed on the pet film It has color ink with a white ink. What is this a gradient white? So everywhere needs white it put white and then the little powdered glue Melted and now we're just gonna press it. Okay, so this I've got to bring the temperature down to 300 310 seconds. I really enjoy the 10-second press. Yes, you do Now this one's a little bit cool you want to doesn't have to be cold peel, but you don't want to peel it Yeah Here cannot wait cannot wait. Oh, it's just super efficient. I feel yeah, that's perfect. It's just warm. It's just warm Look how easy that peel was. Yeah, beautiful. See with DTF. There's nothing left on the film. All right. I mean I see all three and I'm gonna say the DTF still looks the tightest even on the white All right That's what we have. What do you think? What do you think? Look at your t-shirt when we were Yeah, it turns brown. Yeah, I think we burnt it. Yeah over cook this thing Well, because we pressed it so many times trying to do the sub limit the DTF sublimation hack Think when a little too a little too long in the oven. What's your what's your thoughts? Let's let's give a little my Is So I Don't understand the hack now with the pre-treated the pre-treated seems to have worked great. I mean it looks great It's beautiful. I still think the colors on the DTF Still pop they really pop you can't feel the sublimation you can feel the DTF with the sublimation. Yeah, what I don't know is with this Sublimation DTF hack here. I can still feel like a little glue residue So I'm curious to see how this does in the wash. We will test it out and wash it and see And that way we can compare all three And I agree this one this one definitely has the colors that match what you had on the computer Yeah, this matches exactly with what you designed or what the design has crisp lines and You can really see like around Right, whereas it kind of gets lost here. Mm-hmm. You can't see you can see the lines around this one You can't even see them anymore on that one Right, so so this keeps the detail You can feel a little bit because he did the gradient white There are places in between the design where there's no white ink and you can only feel the The ink it's kind of like a little bit like a HTV vinyl, but yeah much much thinner. Yeah a lot thinner So were you able to get the DTF hack hack to work? I don't I don't know why you would do it. I personally don't I mean I'll try it on wood see if that works, but I don't know. Well, here's my thoughts So yes, you have to buy a spray and there's some cost involved in that in order to Sublimate on cotton, but it was easy, but you also have to buy pet film and Hot melt powder for the hack So I know that you buy the pet film in sheets of a hundred that was $80 this glue melt is $50 the sublimation spray was what 25 or 30 bucks or something and then the DTF I know you have to have a whole other set up but I'm using that I'm using the same material So I just would you know, I would use the full DTF set up. I don't know I don't know. Did you have better luck? You got to let me know. Did we do something wrong? Yeah, do you have another reason why you might use this? Yeah, what would you use it on? So it does work that was the question. Can you sublimate with the hot melt powder? Yes, you can the results are just okay. Yeah, you might as well just sublimate with a spray It looks distressed if you want a distressed little thing on your shirt. I think that's perfect Otherwise a big thanks to all of our patrons. We love you guys. Thank you Thanks for all the support you guys showed us during our hurricane party. Great. Yes If you guys are here last joined us last weekend, thank you. Thank you. We really appreciate the support the Just the folks dropping in to say hi With us. Yeah. Yeah, and time go by quickly. You guys know who you are I think you know who each other are now. I see it in the chat and that's awesome. I love it Patreon family. Yes We're about out of time So if you're not gonna join us for the patron after show, we will see you next week We'll do it build it and make it again Oh, and don't forget to catch us on Tuesdays or we do test cut Tuesdays We make a new design we test it and we test out the colors and everything see if it works and fits together right then It's not always a sign. Last week. We did a wagon a wagon Wagon today. All right. We'll see you guys next week