Need to Register?

TealTown Ink · February 14th, 2008

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum as of last night, so far I'm really enjoying myself and getting a lot of good info.

Here is my question:

I've been running an online shop selling shirts I've designed and it's going well. I've been doing everything by hand - making the screens, and lining them up without a press or any kind of registration system.

A customer wanted to have some two color work done and I was thinking some simple pre-made hinges would be needed. Does anyone have any opinion as to which are good to use?

A quick search turned up these options:

AWT hinge clamps
Blick "heavy duty" hinge clamps
Speedball delux

Personally I'm leaning away from the "heavy duty" ones because they look like crap. I'm guessing the other two are fairly similar...

Can I just bolt these to a table? Also, I make my own screens out of some pretty thin wood compared to say Speedball screens, it looks to me like you need a pretty substantial frame for that clamp to even close down on it, anyone know the smallest possible thickness you need?

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

TealTown Ink · February 14th, 2008

Nobody?

XYLisa · February 14th, 2008

years ago when I started screening signs I bought a pair of hinge clamps, they work great for signs but can't imagine doing t-shirts with those things unless it's just one color.

TealTown Ink · February 14th, 2008

Hmmm, interesting. It actually isn't t shirts, they want tote bags but point well taken.

I'm a little worried about swapping out the screens, but I'm fairly confident I can manage it. I did a 2 color print when I first started on paper, just by lining it up with mah eyeballs, and it was pretty close... at least some of the time.

XYLisa · February 14th, 2008

how many are you going to try to do this way?

TealTown Ink · February 14th, 2008

Right now it's a small run, 15 tote bags so nothing huge.

XYLisa · February 16th, 2008

sorry i've been working a show....if you're interested in the clamps they work quite well we got the heavier set. I'm not sure I'd try 2 color but if you got it working for you I'd say try a set you'll probably like them. Good luck.

Need to Register?

Resources

T-Shirt Sites

Opinions on hinge clamps anyone?