[Glenboy]

So im almost ready to purchase my equipment and after a long time researching which way I want to go as far as screen printing or vinyl, I cant afford both but I want to be able to use aspects from each process.
I know I could outsource and have whatever I wanted done for me but that's just not how I roll, I want to do it all in house and learn as I go,

I have decided to do both, but because i cant afford all the equipment I am going to be buying a gcc cutter, stahl heat press and I am going to build a screen press

I not expecting to produce the greatest quality prints from day one and be selling em in high street stores, that's not the plan
I will be teaching myself all the processes and techniques and using places like youtube and this site to get myself to a standard of work that i would be confident putting out there for sale.

Ive looked at some online plans for building your own screen press but I have decided to design my own from scratch which I will be starting at the weekend, I will post some pics of my progress next week so you can all see what im doing and I will no doubt have a few questions to ask some of you guys during the build.

Excited to get started now

 

[professaurus]

you might want to build an Asian style table press because they offer more colors and have less moving parts

 

[Zenergy]

I'd start with vinyl and a cutter, then move into screen printing from there. That way, you can do the small runs and one-off orders that are easy to get, and gradually scale up into larger orders. You can get a cutter and press for around $500, so the barriers to entry are much lower.

 

[ryan barker]

i agree with zenergy, if i had to choose which one to do first, i'd do vinyl as the start-up is probably going to be less (depending on how crazy you go with buying vinyl) and the learning curve should be a lot easier, all of which means you can start making money faster. that's not to downplay those with a cutter, but i don't see how it's nearly as much as a craft as screen printing. so i think you made a wise decision.

i'm interested in seeing your progress on the build, too.

i don't think it'll take you long to make up stuff that you can sell. tons of vinyl options out there, and, honestly, about half of the business i get is work shirts that would be better if we had a cutter. and it's not as if you can't get seriouisly artistic with it, not to mention you can do a lot with vinyl other than just doing shirts. i think it always amounts to how much hustle you put into it and how creative you can be finding the work that's sometimes not obvious.

 

[ryan barker]

as an aside, when we eventually do get a cutter, the first thing i'm going to do is see how well it adheres to metal. i'm it does just fine. our main business is trophies and awards, and i want to see if there are some interesting, low-cost embellishments i could add to plaques, such as a school mascot which are often one or two colours, and see if i can't snag some of the harder to get schools.

 

[royster13]

Screen printing yourself is the biggest waste of time......There is so much capacity that outsource prices are lower now than they were a decade ago....At least they are if you willing to shop real hard....It is important to remember you can still make the profit on the selling portion even if you outsource production....At the end of the day the production part of the job hardly makes any money and you need to make a big investment in equipment, etc....

Over the years I have done less and less orders with screen printing in favour of plastisol heat transfers.....Once you have a heat press, there will be very few orders where screen printing (at least for small runs) makes more sense than plastisol transfers....

 

[ryan barker]

that's crazy talk.

 

[Glenboy]

Thanks for the input, Ryan I do plan on using viny firstl to start producing tees and hopefully making some cash, whilst I'm doing this I will be building a screen press and getting some hands on experience with it and hopefully introduce it as a service later on, I have a friend with a clothes shop who likes some of my abstract designs I've done and will be prepared to sell them in his shop, these designs are not suitable for vinyl so getting the screen printing side of things rocking is important to me, I don't want to outsource print at least till I've done all I can to try it myself, will keep you posted

 

[ryan barker]

i want to say some basic carpentry skills is about all you need. you're not building cabinets for the queen, so i'm sure it'll come out nice as long as the plans are solid. are you going to build an exposure unit, too? since you're handy, you can make your own rinse-out area and dip tank. the only thing i wouldn't recommend someone building is a flash dryer, since those are UL listed. other than that, something like a light box shouldn't be much of a chore.

 

[Glenboy]

Yer gonna make exposure unit too, hadn't thought of wash out booth or dip tank, may need some advice on those?

 

[ryan barker]

a dip tank is just a tank fill with the chemicals that you soak your screen/s in to remove the emulsion from a used screen so you can use it again. it's nothing fancy, or at least it doesn't have to be.

your since out area is going to be a bigger challenge. most of these that you buy commercially are stainless steel and pretty nice. i cobbled mine together from a an old three basin sink with a leg missing that the previous owners left behind in the basement, scraps of leftover plastic and paneling i was going to toss anyway. it's classy and highly scientific. ha ha, i just made myself laugh.

screen printing can take up a fair bit of real estate. figure about the space of half of a two-car garage, and that may feel cramped, especially if you use a power washer and air compressor (both of which i'd recommend, but i could live without the air compressor, it just makes things faster. some people use a garden hose with a high-pressure nozzle instead of a power washer, but, i mean, why would you want that if you had an option? plus, ever try to shoo away a cat with a squirt bottle? they come back eventually. high pressure that critter and you'll never see it again.)

 

[Glenboy]

Haha thanks Ryan,

I'm gonna be a bit tight on space so thinking of putting wash out booth and dip tank in my shed ouT of the way and just take screens out there for cleaning, will leave me more space inside for screen press, heat press cutter etc.

Quick question regarding washing out screens: do I have to attach booth to house drainage and is it ok for ink chemicals etc to be flushed down residential drains or does it have to be disposed of some other way?

 

[ryan barker]

the screen wash i use is biodegradable and safe for sewers. the ink isn't radioactive, lol, but i'm not exactly sure if it's safe for household drains, although i don't see why not. it rates pretty low on the health and flammability scale (1). when it comes time to drain it, the wash has dissolved the inks and emulsion pretty good, and you scoop the sludge up and throw it away.

this thread may help: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/screen-printing/t135596.html

basically, i just pour it into the ground. then again, i don't go through very many screens so my quantity is really low. washing out, it drains into the basement drain, and there's usually a little ink that makes it down the tube. someone let me know if i'm destroying mankind.

check out a product's MSDS if you're concerned about any environmental hazards and proper waste disposal. i want to say that water-based inks are much safer, while discharge is much worse than your standard plastisol ink. i think discharge does require some extra disposal, but i'm not sure.

naturally, you wouldn't pour a gallon of house paint down your kitchen drain. this ain't that, and what your drain screen doesn't catch probably doesn't amount to a thimble. i imagine we pour more toxic stuff than this down the drain and don't think twice about it. if i did a lot of screens, i would look into some kind of filtration system.

it's a good question. essentially, i do what the owners of the equipment before me did, they were a huge shop and the EPA never came down on them, sooo....

 

[VTG]

Screen printing yourself is the biggest waste of time......There is so much capacity that outsource prices are lower now than they were a decade ago....At least they are if you willing to shop real hard....It is important to remember you can still make the profit on the selling portion even if you outsource production....At the end of the day the production part of the job hardly makes any money and you need to make a big investment in equipment, etc....

.

Outsourcing your screen printing is often a very wise decision. Too many people get caught up in the idea that if they do it themselves, they'll make more money. This is not always the case ... sometimes outsourcing is the best way to go.

 

[ryan barker]

agreed. i took issue with the assertion that screenprinting is *always* a waste of time, which is patently ridiculous. outsourcing works best, i'd venture to say, for people with brands, not necessarily for doing custom work. i'd like to see someone's math on this that tells me i should stop screen printing and start doing transfers.

 

[royster13]

1st of all I did not use the word "always", however, I should have used the word "mostly"......And I was talking about screen printing yourself.....And even though I really like transfers, they are not best 100% of the time....

I have contract printers that will print 150 shirts for 0.65 each......Hardly worth buying a bunch of equipment and getting my hands dirty....I am guessing that job could be done in an hour but after expenses how much do you end up with?...40.00 or 50.00 on the printing portion....But if I use that hour to sell I can make 175.00 to 200.00 if I sell another job like that....Even if it takes me 2 hours to sell another order, I am ahead of the game....The bottom line is you can make more per hour selling than you can printing....So best to sell.....

As far as transfers, I have explained my position in many threads.....If there is some potential for add on sales I will usually do transfers.....Pizza places, schools, bars, churches, etc. are reluctant to order very many shirts at a time......By using transfers and ordering extras I can re-stock them as needed....A school might order 50 to 100 pieces and then re-order 24 at a time......I can sell the 24 at the same price as the 1st batch and make a sale, whereas, if i had to get screens set-up and print the extra 24 the cost might be prohibitive and as such I might not make a sale.....

As I have also explained before, with transfers I can fill up a sheet with extra designs....Sometimes on a full front I can get 3 or 4 extra cap/chest designs or if space permits a smaller full front.....The transfers I ordered today were a 11 x 11 design and a 12 x 7 on the same sheet....The 11 x 11 was the paid job and the 12 x 7 was on spec....If I sell the spec ones I will make some good coin....If I do not have a spec design to fill the space, I can put a design from a previous order, a stock design or some tagless labels.....I never waste much space on a gang sheet.....

Another thing I like about transfers is early in the new year I take stock of all the leftover transfers and shirts I have......When I see shirts on sale I buy some for inventory....Many get used up for regular orders at a better profit than regular price shirts....But if not, I use them and the leftover transfers and make a "special" offer to my clients to use up this inventory....As it is all paid for, it really helps my cash flow at a time of year I need it.....

 

[ryan barker]

'I have contract printers that will print 150 shirts for 0.65 each.' ~ i'm not quite sure i understand this. are you saying that you have a screen printer lay down the ink for .65 a shirt your cost?

 

[royster13]

'I have contract printers that will print 150 shirts for 0.65 each.' ~ i'm not quite sure i understand this. are you saying that you have a screen printer lay down the ink for .65 a shirt your cost?

Yes.....97.50 my cost for 150 shirts.....

 

[selanac]

He's talking about a screen printer with an Auto Screen Printing Press.

Also it's cheaper to start with screen printing then Vinyl if you buy from Stahl's.

Stahl's Heat Presses are like $1,000.

 

[royster13]

Even if you are screen printing yourself, a heat press is a must....On a set for a team or club I get 6.50 a name and 3.00 a digit for numbers...Way too much extra to work without a heat press.....