New press - 8 colors or 10 colors

[GraphicDisorder]

Definitely won't be our only auto...

we'll be keeping the beater Javelin around just for kicks, at least until we are running both presses flat out and need to upgrade that one as well...

remember tho, that with our growth curve, I hope to be adding another new auto 12-18 months down the line... so I could always do a 10 color later...

how about if I ask it this way:

would I be better with a 8 color press AND a DTS
or a 10 color press and no DTS.

You'd be better off with a 12 color and a DTS 6 months later

[Get Shirts]

Absolutely, if you can swing it, go with the 10/12.  We were a very similar shop when we bought our first 8/10 as far as types of jobs we printed.

[Inkworks]

10/12 if you are doing 6 color plastisol every week.

I don't think I'd make any choice without having a real close look at the new M&R GIII, of course a CIII would be ideal, but I think the GIII is going to be quite a press to beat.

other than that, the Sroque, Workhorse Falcon or Sabre and MHM would be in consideration for me.

I love a bargain, so I'd be all over a used press, but then we're handy enough to do 95% of all our maintenance and trouble shooting if there is any trouble.

[jvanick]

so the next question comes down to:

max print size.. today, 99.9% of our prints are 13w-x-16h... due to most jobs going from small to XL sometimes with youth or women's sizes thrown in. 

is it worth getting a 20x20 or larger max print area?

the G3 sounds like it might be out of our price range, and not exactly sure what it would buy us over a Sportsman or Sabre.

we do 100% of our own maintenance and troubleshooting right now, but I don't want to be quite as tied to the shop, or refurbishing a new press while we're getting some of these larger orders in.  It's one thing to tear a press down or deal with issues when you're printing a few hundred shirts, but a few thousand shirts, and it's just not fun.

[Inkworks]

For us, 16 x 20 is plenty big enough for print size

[sqslabs]

is it worth getting a 20x20 or larger max print area?

The way I see it, if it was, you'd know it.  When I was looking at a press, it was one of the main things I was looking for as we do a lot of fashion printing and are currently running oversized prints manually, but I've seen shops do 5x the amount of work we do on a standard print stroke.  It's all about your market.

On the other hand, you never know when you'll be asked to run an oversized print or something like a large towel print, so it never hurts to have the extra print size as a backup.  But if the extra cost doesn't add up for the amount of times that can happen, I wouldn't spend the extra money just to have it.

Edit: Another thing to keep in mind is that big prints = big pallets = big investment

[sqslabs]

Also...

[tonypep]

is it worth getting a 20x20 or larger max print area?

The way I see it, if it was, you'd know it.  When I was looking at a press, it was one of the main things I was looking for as we do a lot of fashion printing and are currently running oversized prints manually, but I've seen shops do 5x the amount of work we do on a standard print stroke.  It's all about your market.

On the other hand, you never know when you'll be asked to run an oversized print or something like a large towel print, so it never hurts to have the extra print size as a backup.  But if the extra cost doesn't add up for the amount of times that can happen, I wouldn't spend the extra money just to have it.

Edit: Another thing to keep in mind is that big prints = big pallets = big investment

Don't you know it! Plus scoop coaters squeegees and sinks and exposure units and film output...........I've seen some fairly large and successful companies fall into this money pit. (BTW I saw the movie last weekend on TBS or whatever. Great Tom Hanks pic)

[Sbrem]

is it worth getting a 20x20 or larger max print area?

Don't you know it! Plus scoop coaters squeegees and sinks and exposure units and film output...........I've seen some fairly large and successful companies fall into this money pit. (BTW I saw the movie last weekend on TBS or whatever. Great Tom Hanks pic)

One of the best laughing scenes ever (when the tub goes through the floor/ceiling)

Steve

[IntegrityShirts]

A little birdie told me the Sabre has maintenance prompts based on impression count that will pop up on screen, and then WALK YOU THROUGH how to perform the maintenance yourself!

(it wasn't a birdie it was a texsource rep)

[alan802]

A little birdie told me the Sabre has maintenance prompts based on impression count that will pop up on screen, and then WALK YOU THROUGH how to perform the maintenance yourself!

(it wasn't a birdie it was a texsource rep)

That's a relief, I was going to say you might need to get back on your meds if birds were starting to talk to you.

I can't wait to start the whole process on buying our next auto.  I don't know when that will be though.  I thought that 5 years ago when we reached the point we are at now in sales and volume that we'd definitely need 2 autos but now I think we could be at double that till we need the 2nd one. 

[jvanick]

I can't wait to start the whole process on buying our next auto.  I don't know when that will be though.  I thought that 5 years ago when we reached the point we are at now in sales and volume that we'd definitely need 2 autos but now I think we could be at double that till we need the 2nd one.

You're the 2nd person that has told me that...

sounds like as you get more and more run time, you make things more efficient, so that pushes the new purchases out further.

our 'gift' of a problem is that we're now printing for a marathon organizer, and it looks like 4 or 5 times a year, we'll be getting an order for 25k-30k shirts.  Which isn't bad, but definitely gums up the works if it comes in on a busy cycle.  3 of the 5 are on our current 'off' time, so that works out nicely.

Next up is going to be gas dryers...  but I'll make a new thread on that.

Actually maybe I'll make 2 new threads for our current top choices: one on our auto choices, one on the dryer choices.

[Croft]

10 , I have a 6 and 8 would only help a bit but 10 would be great, and yes 12,14,16 would be awesome but you will need a lot of space for them

[GraphicDisorder]

The auto buying process for me was so fun the first time. My shop phone was ringing for weeks with industry vets and manufactures trying to send me one way or another or just giving me pointers what to look for.  Enjoyed the process and as a tiny 2 person shop at the time I didn't deserve the attention or respect some of them gave me.  Second time we bought one was super fast and easy. I woke up one day and said that's enough fighting 7 color jobs on a 8 color press.  I made 2 phone calls and it was done.  I thought about it for probably 5 minutes or less.

[jvanick]

so we're 99% certain going with a 10 color... something I didn't think of, but would be huge for us with the fact that we print on crappy shirts...

..almost always having a lint screen in head 1..