DIY T-Shirt Printer Won't Break the Bank

Apparently a t-shirt printer (one that actually prints directly onto the shirt) can set you back by as much as $10,000. But the folks at Hack-a-Day have come up with a step-by-step that lets you build your own for much less.

Take an old printer, some pieces of wood, and a bunch of screws, and you can pretty much jury-rig a contraption that can quickly imprint your creative visions onto the nearest piece of cloth. The trick is getting a modified printer to work properly, even if you've practically disassembled it and put it back together in ways the manufacturer never intended.

Follow the instructions to the letter, and you may—well—still encounter some issues. Seems it takes a little experimentation to get things working. Unfortunately, even all that tweaking won't ensure a consistent production for every subsequent go.

Yet the DIY t-shirt printer was never meant for production runs anyway. Why shouldn't the average joe spend a little time to realize their t-shirt creativity on the cheap? If you're feeling a little adventurous, and confident of access to all the materials needed, follow the link below.

How-to: DIYDTG

TOPICS
Rico Mossesgeld
Contributing writer

Rico was a contributing writer at Tom's Guide. Based in the Philippines, Rico was plugged into the latest tech news to cover the latest future-gazing products and industry announcements. Rico no longer actively writes for Tom's Guide, and now works as a systems engineer. During his time at the site, he covered topics such as robotics, home office products and retro video games.

  • insider3
    Does anyone here print on shirts?
    Reply
  • ksampanna
    Tried it. Works like a charm. Hoping it lasts a while though. Also hoping that the shirt doesn't fade out.
    Reply
  • The color will fade, right??
    and it will dye every= =
    Reply
  • afrobacon
    Now I can finally show the public how bad I really am at photoshop.
    Reply
  • gwolfman
    I agree with Calvin_laing, won't the ink fade and/or wash out?
    Reply
  • Silmarunya
    gwolfmanI agree with Calvin_laing, won't the ink fade and/or wash out?
    If you use regular printer ink? Absolutely. Sunlight would bleach it and washing simply remove the colours. If you'd want to show up on, say, a party with an original shirt, you could take an old white shirt and print something on it, but more than that is beyond the capacity of regular ink.

    But maybe there are companies selling waterproof high quality printer ink? But if there are, it's probably so expensive it's cheaper to find a local business that prints shirts.
    Reply
  • Gin Fushicho
    I just want to design my own T-shirt that stays designed. and actually looks like what I see on my monitor.
    Reply
  • flamethrower205
    Pssht, the Lego printer armed with a Sharpie solves all of these problems!
    Reply
  • dogofwars
    Haha I could thing of some prank job that you could do with that. You could put porn picture on the back of the shirt and arrange something that the person would not realize what is on the back and then let him go outside and watch bystander. ;) LOL
    Reply
  • joytech22
    But can it print Crysis?!
    I can feel the thumbs down raining upon thy!
    Reply