How would you lay out my shop?

[Gilligan]

Here is a TERRIBLE sketch of my building.  It's certainly not empty but I can move stuff around if need be.

It's 30'x30' insulated and air conditioned.

The "gray" area is just to note where I have a 10' ceiling (loftish)... the rest is open all the way through the rafters.  Walls are 10' high.

Red spots along walls are outlets... granted I could run new ones.

I have an Antec Legend 6/4 (8' footprint) and a Chaparral 12' x 30" dryer (24" belt).  I have an Antec auto base flash so it swings over the platen.  A second flash (backup?).  Washout booth is 48" wide by 42" deep (rough estimate... I'm putting it on wheels).  I don't REALLY have plumbing in the building but I do have water coming in and capped off (spigot on outside) on the corner where the doors are.

No exposure unit yet... but it will be a make shiv setup that will take up about 3'x3'.

I'm probably leaving some stuff out but lets start here.

How would you guys lay this out?

(obviously this is not to scale)

[ebscreen]

Blanks in through the rollup to count in/staging hit the press make a u turn back through the drier towards the door/shipping.

On the other side of your press put your washout/screen/ink areas. Separate your dirty/clean with your press - most important.
You don't want ink buckets anywhere near incoming garments. At least I don't, freaks me out.

In the past I've liked to have the dryer against a wall to save space but loading a 72" belt from the side ain't a happenin'.
Also don't forget about things like which way the dryer feeds and what side the controls are on. I fought
the hell out of a Maxi-Cure on that issue.

900 sqft is a good sized space for manual production, you should have plenty of room to work comfortably.
Start planning for an auto sooner rather than later. And congratulations!

[Gilligan]

Well, it does double as storage as well as sand blasting and several other projects.  Right now it has my bro-in-law's junk in there so I have about 75% of the area full... but his stuff will come out freeing up at least 40%.. from there I just have to organize it like I want... priority will be printing first though.

My dryer is pretty slick... control panel swivels and is in the center it also has controls to reverse the belt and in-feed and out-feed are the same length.  Only thing to watch for with it is the height adjustment crank is only on one side... but hell that's probably reversible too!

[Dottonedan]

Not that I could afford the time really, but I stayed up long enough to mess with this. I was interested to see how this would pan out. Not bad. I'm curious to see what others would do. I'm sure its missing some things but space is an issue fort he best options.  I could make some of the back rooms slightly thinner. 

I have the editable file done in Illustator.

[Gilligan]

Wow!!  Talk about above and beyond!!!

That is impressive!!

Thanks a TON!

[Big Frank Sports]

I like that set up!!!

Frank

[Denis Kolar]

Even the press looks like a real Legend press and conveyor is red.
WOW

Nice one here "Dane"

[blue moon]

Dan's layout is good! I would tweak it just a little. . .

washed out screens will also benefit from the dry air in the coating room, so combine those to quickly dry your screens. Merging the two spaces will give you more usable room as overall less space is dedicated to walking areas.

You will need more ink storage and work surfaces than what Dan allocated. Part of it will get used by the tools needed to do the maintenance. Ink supplies just get bigger and bigger. I started with one shelf and have four now.

Another nice touch would be a rack to place the screens as you wash them so you do not have to walk back and forth. Also some room for the screens  that need to be reclaimed. A rack next to the washout sink could accommodate both if you can keep ink of the bottom of the frames.

Did not mentioned a work desk, so since there is some room now, you can have one in the corner where it si dry and clean.

pierre

[Denis Kolar]

Why no one did not put exposure unit in the dark room? Just separate drying room from the dark room (wall with the door).
Would it be better not to take pre-exposed screens into the lit area before they are exposed?

Just wandering

[tonypep]

Whenever possible I put wheels on everything. The more modular the better. Racks shelves and carts......need to suck up that vertical space.

[Denis Kolar]

Sorry, Dan had exposure right after coating room.

[Dottonedan]

I like the changes.  I do disagree though on one area. It's been my experience in various shops that we have two separate areas of the coating room and the washed out screens waiting drying to be coated.
This is the best case scenario.  Many people fix this by including a drying cabinet inside your coating room so that wet screens do not affect the drying emulsion. In a perfect world, you would also have a moisture content reader and a hygrometer mounted on the wall in the room also to know that you are staying within a specif range.

You can save space and combine but the most efficient way is to have two areas. This is because the wet screens freshly washed will slow down production of drying time by adding excessive or additional moisture in the air.  Again tho, if you are tryi g to save space. You could do how Pierre described but keep in mind, the faster you need those screens, the more accurate your drying process needs to be.

[blue moon]

I like the changes.  I do disagree though on one area. It's been my experience in various shops that we have two separate areas of the coating room and the washed out screens waiting drying to be coated.
This is the best case scenario.  Many people fix this by including a drying cabinet inside your coating room so that wet screens do not affect the drying emulsion. In a perfect world, you would also have a moisture conten reader in the room also to lnow that you are staying within a specif range.

You can save space and combine but the most efficient way is to have two areas. This is because the wet screens freshly washed will slow down production of drying time by adding excessive or additional moisture in the air.  Again tho, if you are tryi g to save space. You could do how Pierre described but keep in mind, the faster you need those screens, the more accurate your drying process needs to be.

yes, in the perfect world where there is enough space to have the separated, it is better. All your points are vaild, we agree! Unfortunately, in a limited space, it MIGHT make sense to combine them. I know I would.

As far as the exposure unit going inside the dark room, it only works if it is completely enclosed. Many units are not and I just did not want to assume that as an option. If this is the case, the dark room can be made even bigger and additional space savings can be achieved!

in the, not all of this is feasible and Gilligan will use snippets of the information we provide that actually work in his scenario. Make sure you keep us posted and let us know how you lay it out!

pierre

[tonypep]

Actuall I have a ginormous free standing exposure unit and a separate 8k exposure right in the darkroom where screens are coated and dryed and stored. Temperature humidity and dust controlled. So it can be done.

[blue moon]

Actuall I have a ginormous free standing exposure unit and a separate 8k exposure right in the darkroom where screens are coated and dryed and stored. Temperature humidity and dust controlled. So it can be done.

 

I stand corrected!!!

pierre