Bringing a whole new meaning to ironing for 3D prints

I've printed on several shirts with TPU a couple of years ago and they still hold up. Here's some tips: - If you notice that the first layer is overextruding then that can mean one of two things: either your flow is too high, or the first layer height / Z lift is too *HIGH*. If the nozzle is too far from the textile the material can bulge out on top of the textile instead of permeating into it. - Different materials require different settings of flow and nozzle height. I used a small patch on the back of the shirt to test settings. Those patches are still there, tho. - Use clamps to keep your fabric flat, but don't stretch your fabric too much, because the print doesn't unstretch after removing it from the bed. - In Cura there's options for the Cross infill pattern to make the pattern follow the grayscale tones of an image.

I was sure you were just gonna make a stencil. This is cool too.

LOL I had tried this exactly two days before the video came out because I was curious and it sounded like a good idea. I can confirm that TPU works beautifully. I have the fabric flush on the heated bed and I preheat it to 90°C and 260°C nozzle temperature to make the TPU really soak into the fabric. You can twist it, stretch it, wash it, pour boiling water over it at stab the shit out of it with a spatula. Won't come off :D

Had this idea for a while, but never made it yet: colour changing filament on the shirt. Would be cool to see it in action when you step out of your house on a hot day

In Fusion you can right click the body in the list on the left, then select “save to mesh”, this will create the svg and can be set to automatically open that mesh in Prusa Slicer, saves a step or two.

I love how you are continuing to expand the usefulness and value of 3D printers. It’s brilliant that you aren’t sitting on your laurels and just trying to rake money in but seem to be completely immersed and invested in all aspects of the business and are doing your best every day to make it better and better. Thank you from one small Aussie that is growing and learning from your hard work and for all that I will achieve in the future from it I am truly grateful, thanks mate, 11 out of 10 👍 . 😎

This gave me an idea. 3D print the negative image directly on a traditional silkscreen, and voila!

perfect for single use tshirts like parties, or for staff in events

Since it's spring steel, there's no reason not to use magnets to clip the shirt to the bed. You can place magnets around the section that needs to be flat and then tuck in the shirt, that way you don't run into issues with pre-stretching the fabric during the application (and you don't have to take the metal tabs off of your clips)

Great vid!!! Love that you have several options for printing and step by step guide. Thanks!

This is so cool! I spent months in the past looking for a method to do this and you showed it in a few minutes. Love you! Keep it up with the good content!

Finally a reason to iron T-shirts at all :D That is very cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

Brilliant! I was thinking the same idea, but was not sure which filament to use and how to transfer image printed on the bed to fabric. So far, I envisioned to print on glass bed, put fabric on top and iron until plastic melts (or heat the bed to 100C). This way I could remove the skirt beforehand.

Great video! To the point but with good information. Perfect!

Thank you for posting this ❤🎉 much love.

I could see this being exceptionally useful for printing logos / identifying marks on pieces where the fabric stays stiff. Things like shoulder pads on armor. Where you want a fabric outer layer over some sort of structure, like foam. Might work well on things like hats as well, although they might not Cooperate well with the printing process.

I have been printing and ironing TPU prints onto my t-shirts for about 2 years now. Exactly like you guys show in the video with the iron. TPU prints that are ironed on typically last around 30 washings in the washing machine on super heavy wash mode. They also go into the dryer with all my other clothes and have never come loose that way.

Ah... IMPORTANT piece of information on this video. Cleaning nozzles externally with a WIRE BRUSH!!! Need to get a wire brush.. 😁 I've been plagued by dirty nozzles, wasn't sure how to clean them before this.

such a cool concept

Special fabric filaments anyone? XD Very nice! I so love my Prusa! Thank you again so very much for a reliable machine an a a very versatile one.

Interesting. I wonder what happens if you make an iron-on decal using TPU rather than PLA. Also I wonder if there's a Z-lift equivalent in Cura.

Amazing idea. I will have to try this later. Going to look up which filament would be best for this. Looks like it is PLA shown in Slicer.

Very interesting. This past summer I was making t-shirts by laser cutting stencils out of freezer paper, sticking them to the shirt with an iron, then spraying with bleach.

HOLY SMOKES THIS SAVES ME SO MUCH TIME AND MONEY!

I print onto Thule fabric, then sew the print in place. Thule is an open weave, very flexible.

This just blew my mind 🤯

Nice! I have the perfect printer for this, my tronxy x5sa has a bed that a shirt should fit on super easy with no modifications needed.

So stoked!

I like the Angkor Wat wallpaper! 👌

This Is AWESOME!!! 👍🏻

so glad this popped into my recommended

I love your videos!

Amazing 🤩

This is awesome.

I used dial gauge to level my bed, idea of printing TPU directly on a t-shirt still feels like an entirely different level for me.

Really interesting

Ingenious 👏

I've been doing this with TPU for a while, on a CR-20 and now the Ender 6. Core XY makes it a whole lot easier to set up, as does a BL Touch. Just make sure your retractions are spot on when using flexibles, because the stringing will stick and ruin it. As for how long do they last? I have work T shirts I printed 5 years ago that have gone through hundreds of washes, and the print is still as the day I printed.

Nice angkor wat background !

What would be the requirements to make a single use stencil this way? You could add fine details this way, normally reserved for silkscreen prints. But preparing a silkscreen comes with its cost and its own set of problems.

I saw this on KZfaq 3 years ago, nothing new. Glad you liked it

Thanks for sharing this. Ages ago I tried this a few ways but never got it to work.

Does the print feel raised? Or, is it smooth on the material?

nice desktop background

this is pretty cool. the concept ya but mainly how real josef is with us

Can you make an iron on with TPU, or is it best to melt it right into the fabric?

would you be able to pre print the flexi filament and then iron it on

I was always told to wash/dry shirts with designs on them folded inside out, I wonder if the iron on shirts made this way would last longer in the wash if you did that, or if you did and I didn't notice. Actually, the plastic printed on a shirt style reminds me of the kind of (iron on?) shirts I've seen at a local shop, I'm curious if those are done in a similar manner.

Couldn't you use the stamp function in meshmixer?

I can definitely see some COSPLAY use cases for this. You could a pattern directly on costume pieces. Though I imagine synthetics are a no go with this process.

Is the step with printing on the baking paper necessary? Why not print directly on the steel sheet, peel it off and then just iron-on throught the baking paper?

It’s cool!

Does it make sense to Print it with ASA? Because its more durable in sunlight. Does this even work with the first method?

What material is the first, non flexible version, made of?

How about using glue stick to hold the tshirt down on the bed?

I feel like ironing from the other side would give better results

I have been pondering on this idea for a while; I was going to print in reverse onto my glass print-bed, then try to transfer it to fabric by heating it with a hot-air gun. Having watched this, I might actually give it a try! :o) I have also been considering printing a PCB mask this way to see if it will etch cleanly. I think the porous nature of the print could be a problem though. I don't actually need a shirt or a PCB, so I was probably not ever going to get around to it. Perhaps someday? :o)

Great, but what about the dryer?

great video, for the iron on did you use PLA or TPU?

Instead of carving a pumpkin... print a 2D haunted castle or similar in PLA and use hot water to soften it so it molds to the curvature of the pumpkin. Remove the skin over a large circular area first. Once illuminated from the inside it looks like haunted castle in front of the moon.

Can you print flex filament to the paper too? Needs glue stick?

That's pretty cool. Can you do a TPU print as an iron on?

Wow great idea guys....🙄😁

Hi, have you tried washing the t-shirts inside out? With normal graphic tshirt, it is better to wash them inside out so the graphic does not come off.

What magnets are used? I'm keen to try this out but I need to buy magnets and wait 2 weeks for them to arrive, so I'd like to have the right ones on my first purchase

can we print any design 3-D on T-shirt?

Why stop at a base layer? Lets make some 3d greebles for our wearables!

I like the direct print

The preparation process can be a LOT simpler. Use a black and white image. Not grayscale - a 2 color image. I use Cura but I'm sure all other slicers do that too: if you import an IMAGE it will let you treat it as an extruded 3d model. You don't need Inkscape or Fusion. As for permanency, you can also buy fabric paints and print a stencil.

Finally, I can Design T-Shirts at home for a super low cost

ink is so expensive i'm considering straping a sharpie to my 3d printer and print that way

Washing was fine, but what about pla in a dryer?

Is this process the same with the MK4?

I really want to buy a Prusa printer however I was not able to find here in Brazil 🥲

you can also print a custom canvas.

i am just building my prusa i3 mk3s+ and look prusa videos when i take a breake

I’ll just do my silhouette cameo4 to cut vinyl for stickers… seems more cost effective

Wonder if it can be done with ender 3

Insane

Can’t you print a mirrored image on the build plate then flip the sheet and iron directly onto the back depositing the plastic on the shirt? Technically you could do multiple models with different colours if only 1 or 2 layers.. if using the textured sheet you would get a nice texture too.

What Filament is used?

I think I will stick with my Stellaire embroidery machine. Far longer lasting and superb detailing.

I'm sure it's possible to import SVG in OpenSCAD, in case one can't afford Fusion.

Which one is cheaper for business or hobby: Epson T-shirt printer (yes, it exists) vs 3d printing (this process shown here with Prusa)

How many washes do the PLA printed shirts last?

Can the iron way be used with pla

What filament did you use?

Interestingly 🤔

That's insane

I did this about 3 year's ago 😉🙂

The easiest is just make a stamp, dip it to the plastisol ink, then stamp it to the shirt.

What happens in washing machine though

Also don't forget to remove the Skirt option 😅

As wonderful and amazing as the results are, PLA can be as toxic as other plastics when it comes to microplastics - and washing machines can be an important source of microplastic contamination into watersources. Just be mindful when doing experiments like these.

What's that software for converting image to vector?

Time to make some Anaheim Electronics and Capsule Corp shirts.

Hmm. This would probably melt a standard tie.

So I just noticed that before you start increasing the flow in the video it is set to 95 instead of 100, why is that ?

The 88 dislikes are mall t-shirt vendors.