I have to make a move from my storefront location soon and looking at all the new equipment out there was wondering if you guys though the old manual, 4 station press was obsolete? It looks like transfers and DTG might be worth the investment in the long run. Any opinions out there?
I have to make a move from my storefront location soon and looking at all the new equipment out there was wondering if you guys though the old manual, 4 station press was obsolete? It looks like transfers and DTG might be worth the investment in the long run. Any opinions out there?
Right now I only deal with plastiosol transfers b/c I think they are the closest in quality to direct screenprinting. I am actually working on buying screen printing equipment because of the quality. I contract out my heat transfers and they are somewhat expensive especially on small jobs. I am hoping to make more of a profit screen printing myself. I have seen some heat transfer shirts that were not plastisol and they seemed so tacky and cheap. Does this make sense? Thoughts?
manual machine! manual machine!....
the only upgrade i did is from 4-color manual press to 6-color manual press.... DTG? not in my drawing board yet...
Since we got our auto, we havent printed manual in 2 months. I would not sell me manual though, seems too valuable and useful, might even upgrade the manual in the future.
Since we got our auto, we havent printed manual in 2 months.
You will eventually though. We didn't print manually in our shop for a little over a year when we first automated....we now run 2 autos and print manually every day (some days we run 2 manuals depending on work load). So I think you are right in not selling it, there will be a time when you want it if you do!
It can still make money for you, use it for smaller runs where it doesn't make sense to set up the auto, use to train new printers on, they always print better and do better on an auto if you start them out manually and they learn the mechanics of it all there, use it for press proof work when you can, etc...
Just my .02....
Dave
Dave
__________________ www.spreadingink.com - all over prints, jumbo and full color screen printing
Wow. Thanks for all the positive feedback on my manual press. My average runs are 60 shirts, largest 900. Looks like what I actually need to do is upgrade my equipment. I bought this equipment used with no knowledge of what to look for. Would you agree that ease of registration and off contact adjustments on the press are a couple major things to look for? Anybody have any other suggestions on whats important to look for in upgrading a press?
I started out with a wooden press my husband built for me, and ran a couple of thousand shirts on it before getting a used manual 6 over 4. It has knobs for adjusting both sides forward/backward independently, one for side to side, one to adjust off contact height, and one to adjust angle (haven't figured out why you'd want anything besides parallel to the platen, but it's available). Registration is a breeze now (caveat: I only do spot color at this point).
I made the HUGE mistake of getting into DTG when I first went into this full time almost 2 years ago. It was a nightmare, never made a dime for me, just sucked my time and money (I mean LOTS of money). I advise you to stay away from it. If you are getting jobs averaging 60 shirts (my favorite -- best money for the time involved), you should keep going down that road. DTG is good for onesies, but I found that most people are happy with a single color print on a colored shirt, which I price at about the same you have to charge for a DTG printed T. Alternatively, I got into sublimation in a small way (the only way I could afford, after the DTG fiasco), and this give me the ability to sublimate one-offs (SoftLink) when customers want photographs or multi-colored images. Again, I can charge about the same price. Also, sublimation has been a money maker for me since I can offer so many different products. (I had heard that mugs weren't worth doing, but we have found just the opposite; I gave my business customers mugs for the holidays last winter, imprinted with THEIR business logos instead of mine, and over half of them have come in and ordered a case or three of mugs.)
But the bulk of my business is done with the manual press, which I will have to stick with for another couple of years at least (then it's on to an automatic). If you need to upgrade for micro registration, do it; you can get 3 good manual presses for the price of a DTG printer.
We did 300 shirts Wednesday on our 6-color, 4-station HIX. White shirts, single color across left chest.......in about 1 1/2 hours. We were only slowed by the speed of our dryer, and how fast we could load. I'd like to get an automatic, but the work doesn't justify it yet.
There will always be a need for manuals, especially if you do screen print numbering for teams.
are manual presses days numbered? 
