My First Print Run - staging time to press 86 t-shirts

2302 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Twinge, Aug 26, 2006

jrford

Discussion Starter · Jul 31, 2006

Just finished my first print run. I imprinted a total of 86 shirts, light and dark, on both sides. It took 13 hours from start to finish. This includes everything including trimming the transfers from the master sheets and folding the finished shirts. (Actually, I trimmed enough transfers to do 200 shirts)

I am disappointed. I was hoping it would go a lot faster. Especially since the press time per shirt was only 40 seconds (10 second preheat and 10 second print on each side).

Is this time reasonable?

Some details:
Fruit of the Loom 50-50 shirts, white, navy, gray, and safety green
Sizes Small thru XX-Large
Hotronix 16x20 swing-away press
Boo-Z custom plastisol transfers
Single Color prints

Some observations:
I love the press. When the platen is swung away, I have a large, flat work surface to layout the shirts. A small shirt lays almost entirely on the platen. Here at work we have a thermal imaging camera so I took a look at the hot platen and it was very evenly heated, not perfect but, the cold spots were within a degree of the hot spots.

Boo-Z is an easy company to deal with.
S&S Active Wear is a pain in the hindquarters to deal with but I like their pricing. Now that we got set up though, they performed like champs.

In fact, Stahl's was the best company to work with but, in the long run they all gave great service. Just so all of you know, I found them all on this board.

Now, if I can just speed up the process somehow.

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T-BOT

· #2 · Jul 31, 2006

jrford said:
Especially since the press time per shirt was only 40 seconds (10 second preheat and 10 second print on each side).
Is this time reasonable?

hummm, the pre-heat time i find may be too much, after you turn the machine on and let the case of shirts sit near the HEAT press.. and as the job starts heating up as you press... you may get away with less pre-heat time. To Remove the Hummidity etc.

Maybe you could of done with 2-3 sec. pre-heat only.

Did you test it with a 2-3 sec. pre-heat only ?

Also, maybe a 4-6 sec hot spit transfer could of saved you a little time.... no trimming etc.

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Squirts

· #3 · Jul 31, 2006

If Im reading the numbers right and you were pressing a shirt every minute... 40 seconds presstime an throw in the other 20 seconds for taking it on an off and folding....that would account for a almost 1 hour and 45 minutes to do 86 shirts..... that leaves 11 hours and 15 minutes... Obviously the biggest gain in speed is going to be trimming some fat off of what you were doing for that 11 hours an 15 minutes....not what you were doing for the 1 hour and 45 minutes???????? Good Luck with it..... Chuck

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MotoskinGraphix

· #4 · Jul 31, 2006

I think things will speed up with experience. I am guessing you purchased your own designs ganged on large sheets so the need for cutting them out. I dont have a problem with the pre-heat time as I have found some of my dark shirts retain quite a bit of moisture (Houston Tx.) Just watch for the steam rising as an indicator. I'm not sure with 50/50 shirts cause I just use 100% cotton. I know if you havent done many tranfer jobs positioning is a learning experience all its own and you were printing front and back. Congradulations!!!

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T-BOT

· #5 · Aug 25, 2006

jrford said:
Boo-Z is an easy company to deal with.
S&S Active Wear is a pain in the hindquarters to deal with but I like their pricing. Now that we got set up though, they performed like champs.

In fact, Stahl's was the best company to work with but, in the long run they all gave great service. Just so all of you know, I found them all on this board.

Now, if I can just speed up the process somehow.

hey, thought you should know.
( I remember this thread because of the 86'r number ).

One of the girls at the shop printed the same amount of shirts today ( 86'r ), front and back also, took her 4hrs. with a heat press. She did half fold on the shirts (packing). she gets 20/hr.

I think the problem with your job was the transfers.

Next time you know.

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Twinge

· #6 · Aug 26, 2006

As said, it will og faster as you get used to it. Try to idnetify your weakest links and work on them. Also, printing on both sides is a pain, so make sure you charge extra for it =)

We usually go at a rate of about a shirt per 2 minutes -- but that's with 2 people doing it (so while I'm pressing the shirt, my partner is folding them, handing me the next one, etc.).

10 Second pre-heat is probably a tad high, but at the same time I think 2 seconds would be too little. Try a middle ground 5 seconds or so and see how that works.

Are you trimming the plastisol transfers carefully and close to the design? If so, you don't need to -- trim them away from the other designs on the sheet but don't worry about trimming excess paper because it won't be transfered.

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