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How long does it take to do a screenprint?

45315 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  hilsonision, 
M
Hello.

I'm setting up a business and I wonder how long it would take to set up one screen print for a tshirt? All my orders will be different, so I cannot reuse same design. Just wondering about the time involved in making ONE tshirt, as I fear it might be quiete a bit and should probably search other avenues. Please let me know
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F
Depends on the deisgn. Average time for a one color would be from burning the screen, taping, setting up on press about 20 min.
Dont forget to add the printing and then cleaning/reclaiming of the screen.
If your going to be doing a lot of onsies you might look at the Direct to Grament printers. They are a lil expensive but ultimately cheaper for the short run jobs, especially if they are multi colored.
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S
monkchild said:
Hello.

I'm setting up a business and I wonder how long it would take to set up one screen print for a tshirt? All my orders will be different, so I cannot reuse same design. Just wondering about the time involved in making ONE tshirt, as I fear it might be quiete a bit and should probably search other avenues. Please let me know
Click to expand...
Depends on weither your talking about labor hours or clock hours.... layout artwork and make positive 10 or 15 min... for simple stuff
labor time for cleaning screen degreasing screen coating screen and setting up on press maybe 30 minutes.....
Now if you mean Clock hours thats another story
Clean screen let dry 2 hours...de-grease screen let dry 2 hours.... coat screen let dry 2 hours... burn screen ...washout.... let dry at least an hour....
As has been said in many posts screen printing does not lend itself to one off shirts very well...
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JeridHill
I'm sure you will get varied answers as to the time it takes. If you are only doing your designs and not printing other people's designs, and they are only one color, then it could be good to invest in screen printing.

If you have one color designs you can actually print them rather quickly, once you've invested the time up front. After making the screen, you can leave it taped, scrape off the ink and put it back in the bucket. You don't need to actually clean the screen off completely, the ink won't harden unless you leave it on for months and months and months.

If you wanted to print one shirt, it's as simple as grabbing your screen, putting in on your press, grabbing a little ink and a squeegee. It could take less than 5 minutes to do this. The most time you would be investing with each time you want to reprint a design is the time it takes to heat up a flash dryer or a conveyer dryer. Multiple colors is a different story, but if your work is more in the realm of single color jobs, screen printing could be a viable source for repeat one up orders.
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H
Can anyone advise me about the pros and cons of buying a tee shirt printer versus having a third party print and ship the tee shirts I design? One of the cons of a third party for me is the 12 day shipping time. However, my money is limited to purchase a good tee shirt printer so a little advice as to how to proceed is greatly appreciated!
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