Hey everyone,
I've been working on trying to improve my efficiency on the press to get my units per hour up, and also increase the efficiency and quality of my printing technique.
I have 2 tips that I discovered may really help out newcomers.
#1 Loading the shirt on. I used to hold the shirt nice and far apart, nearer the seams. I experimented with where I pick up the shirt and load it and found that if I hold it slightly more toward the centre, the shirt just loads on much quicker and cleaner - almost effortlessly.
I think doing so allows the shirt to open up more and that prevents it snagging on the lower platten adjustment knobs. Since it doesn't snag, you get a clean load on and so the shirt also seems to sit straight.
It doesn't work everytime for me, but I'm now finding more and more that I can load a shirt on straight with 1 clean movement. It feels pretty awesome when you nail it!
#2 Push stroke instead of pull.
I'd tried this a number of times, but it never felt good. I decided to give it another go and this time immediately felt and saw the benefits.
Felt - much much much less strain on my joints. I'm only 34, but get arthritis, the push stroke was by far easier on my fingers. This will equate to less fatigue on long print runs, which can only be a good thing for consistancy and speed.
Felt - I felt like I had much more control over my squeegie angle and pressure
Felt - it felt more efficient in the way I was flooding (pull) and printing (push) rather than a pull/pull for flood and print
Saw - I had an incredible improvement in the consistancy of my prints. Not something I had noticed before, but with a push, the prints came out cleaner and crisper on a side by side comparison.
Perhaps my pull stroke sucked, but after reading what a lot of experienced industry experts had to say, I'm glad I kept on persevering with the push stroke and am now reaping the benefits. I feel this will make a big difference to the ability to butt register and cleanly print, along with high tension screens
Richie
I've been working on trying to improve my efficiency on the press to get my units per hour up, and also increase the efficiency and quality of my printing technique.
I have 2 tips that I discovered may really help out newcomers.
#1 Loading the shirt on. I used to hold the shirt nice and far apart, nearer the seams. I experimented with where I pick up the shirt and load it and found that if I hold it slightly more toward the centre, the shirt just loads on much quicker and cleaner - almost effortlessly.
I think doing so allows the shirt to open up more and that prevents it snagging on the lower platten adjustment knobs. Since it doesn't snag, you get a clean load on and so the shirt also seems to sit straight.
It doesn't work everytime for me, but I'm now finding more and more that I can load a shirt on straight with 1 clean movement. It feels pretty awesome when you nail it!
#2 Push stroke instead of pull.
I'd tried this a number of times, but it never felt good. I decided to give it another go and this time immediately felt and saw the benefits.
Felt - much much much less strain on my joints. I'm only 34, but get arthritis, the push stroke was by far easier on my fingers. This will equate to less fatigue on long print runs, which can only be a good thing for consistancy and speed.
Felt - I felt like I had much more control over my squeegie angle and pressure
Felt - it felt more efficient in the way I was flooding (pull) and printing (push) rather than a pull/pull for flood and print
Saw - I had an incredible improvement in the consistancy of my prints. Not something I had noticed before, but with a push, the prints came out cleaner and crisper on a side by side comparison.
Perhaps my pull stroke sucked, but after reading what a lot of experienced industry experts had to say, I'm glad I kept on persevering with the push stroke and am now reaping the benefits. I feel this will make a big difference to the ability to butt register and cleanly print, along with high tension screens
Richie
