For the novice to average printer I'd say 120 shirts an hour is reasonable for 1-color without killing yourself, you might even be able to do that on a 2-color with no flash between colors. This includes loading and printing, and assuming you have a conveyor dryer.
Your conveyor is going to be your bottleneck. You'll be capable of printing many more than your dryer will handle. Most Little Buddys are 110V, single panel and you'll be pushing it at 60 an hour, maybe fewer on a garment with a heavier ink deposit like athletic. Work it backwards, get a good cure on the ink and print to the pace the dryer dictates. With a little practice you should be able to print-flash-print, print, print a four color job on darks and keep pace with your dryer. On single color jobs on white tees, your going to bored to death waiting for the dryer... whatever you do - don't try to rush the cure process... it will come back to haunt you with failed prints and a ruined reputation.
Right now the Little Buddy is the only conveyor dryer within our budget. So, it will have to do. We're an embroidered apparel and digital printing shop, so screen printing isn't even close to our main source of income. We are hoping to change that, so if we do well, we should be able to buy a bigger conveyor once we save up some cash.
Don't think about speed when you start out. Think about quality over quantity.
No matter how fast you get through 100 shirts, if they aren't printed right they're worth nothing, and you'll have to do em again. Quality is much more important, after a while you'll get more efficient and pump out over 100/hr. You aught to make at least $3-5 per shirt, so I'm not worried until I'm below 40 shirts/hr (like nothing). Don't even worry about how fast your printing until you don't have time to do all your orders. Just do em right.
Put your flash right next to you. It sounds like you are walking a bit now?
Also, depending on your unit, but even the least expensive flash's should be curing in about 40 seconds or so. That's how long it takes with mine. How far do you have the shirt from the flash? No more than 3-4 inches, right?
I can't comment for SystemVoid, but Mine is right next to me. I swivel the flash from the press to the curing stand, the base doesn't move. It's almost 5" from the shirts... Dark on light I cure in ~25 seconds, thick white on black 20 on, 10 off, 20 on, 50 total. If I do it for 40 straight it gets too hot, and the ink get's shiny.
Fresh shirts to the left of press, cure to the right of press, finished stack directly behind me. Everything is within 2-3 steps. I have to step around the flash to get to the curing stand, but I don't see a way around this, and still have it where I want to flash on the press too. I suppose I could move it when I'm doing single color stuff though.
If I was doing 1 color 1 location, dark on light, I could do 100+ an hour. I lose a little time on xl-xxl shirts though, getting them lined up right. If I get a 100+ shirt job, I might have my wife help and see how fast I can pump them out.
I can't comment for SystemVoid, but Mine is right next to me. I swivel the flash from the press to the curing stand, the base doesn't move. It's almost 5" from the shirts... Dark on light I cure in ~25 seconds, thick white on black 20 on, 10 off, 20 on, 50 total. If I do it for 40 straight it gets too hot, and the ink get's shiny.
Fresh shirts to the left of press, cure to the right of press, finished stack directly behind me. Everything is within 2-3 steps. I have to step around the flash to get to the curing stand, but I don't see a way around this, and still have it where I want to flash on the press too. I suppose I could move it when I'm doing single color stuff though.
If I was doing 1 color 1 location, dark on light, I could do 100+ an hour. I lose a little time on xl-xxl shirts though, getting them lined up right. If I get a 100+ shirt job, I might have my wife help and see how fast I can pump them out.
Do you only have a flash dryer or do you also have a conveyor that you are using on the shirts to cure them.
I do all contract printing, so I don't actually do the printing myself. So I have a question. If you were to buy a manual press set up. After choosing your press, would not buying the conveyor driver be the next most important thing to have if you are trying to be as efficient as possible for each print job. It seems to me that if you only use a flash to cure, your going to be much slower on everything you do.
Would it make more sense to buy a great press and a very good conveyor dryer, along with a nice flash unit. Obviously I am not including the exposure unit in this, since it doesn't actually affect the time per shirt when you are on the press. It may affect quality that is for sure and over all set up though. And I guess if the art quality on the exposed screen is poor, it will affect the time per print...do to frustration.
So I guess my basic question is. Where to spend my money. I am in the process of buying an Antec Legend 6x6. What is more important to get next. I great exposure unit, great quality conveyor, and a good flash. Or should i spend more on the conveyor and save up for a single bulb exposure unit.
What is the least expensive, best, and affordable conveyor....I know everyones budget is different. But you hopefully get the idea. Best entry line conveyor dryer.
Realistic number of tees per hour... 
