Manually printed / How many?

[3Deep]

Just thought of another job we did manual, we did about 1000 koozie's 1 color 1 side and we bought those pocket pallets which made the job so easy and still use them today.

[mk162]

right after my dad started he ran a 25,000 pc order that I think was 2 colors manually.  He didn't have enough money to order all the shirts at one time so he'd print 5k, get a check and print the next batch.  Heck, we were garage at that point so I don't even know how we moved that many shirts through the house.

[mimosatexas]

700 one color front and back on whites is my largest and was one of my first real jobs too.  I do orders of 250ish frequently with all kinds of color counts and locations.  Largest recent job I did in house was 400 pieces.

I would love to automate, and keep looking for a deal on one where everything syncs up, but haven't come across that yet.  I also know for a fact that my current space would end up causing headaches with an auto related to how much power I have etc.  Would love to move into a bigger and better space, but I have a fantastic deal on my current location, and Austin commercial space is absurdly expensive right now.  Even shitty spaces 40 minutes outside of town are renting at over $1 a square foot right now...

[XG Print]

We are still a manual shop but hopefully not for long.  Did a 1200 piece 2 color front 1 color back last year...SUCKED!!  We do orders of 250-400 pretty regular but it is usually 1 color front / back...Still sucks but with the right tunes you can knock it out!

[Shanarchy]

We did a couple of 500 piece 1 color front. 2 color back I'm thinking.

We've done a handful of multi color, 2 sided tees in the 250 piece range.

[Sbrem]

We are still a manual shop but hopefully not for long.  Did a 1200 piece 2 color front 1 color back last year...SUCKED!!  We do orders of 250-400 pretty regular but it is usually 1 color front / back...Still sucks but with the right tunes you can knock it out!

If you have a speed table, I hope you had 2 people on it, makes it much faster. At the shop I worked at for years, we had an early hire that came in, and she had worked at another shop and shared this with us, practically doubled production. If a one color, 3 people, one loader, one unloader, one printer...

Steve

[tpitman]

My first screenprinting job was a one-color white on pink and light blue shirts for kids, but with about 4 different screens. I'd just bought an old used Hopkins International 6-color without micros and a crappy flash dryer for $75 off eBay. Just over 1100 shirts in total at around $1.50 a shirt - customer supplied the shirts. Paid for all my crap on the first job.

[ABuffington]

Seems this is the starting point for automation for everyone.  The guy in our shop who ordered our auto told us delivery is delayed by a month, but the sales guy never got the memo. (One in the same guy, logistics? who needs logistics? Sales, sure we'll print anything as he still takes orders as if we had an auto.}  We had plenty of manual work already and then the auto work started landing long before the auto arrived.  10k 4/color on white.  To this day I hate Happy Faces in art.  One 4/c rotary load, without that we never would have made it.  Sales guy loading and unloading, and me knocking out the 4 colors, thankfully wet onto wet.  About a week of getting up at 4am and crawling into bed at midnight.  Phone rings a week later, "they are selling like hotcakes", and our client ordered 30k more and still no auto.  That month is a blur, except for the repeating pattern of fluorescent happy faces.  Did anyone else who has gone through this wake up in the middle of the night still moving through the print motions?  Wife kicked me to the couch.  Never again.  If it had required flashes I would have switched professions and taken up something easier like digging ditches.  When you finally get your auto and see shirts thrown on the belt every 1.5 to 2 seconds, life is worth living again.  When you get to 8-10 autos and don't see shirts on the belt every 2 seconds per press then we go in the reverse direction on life.

[Maxie]

Al, did you do the math on 2 sec per shirt?
That's about 1800 per hour.

[ScreenFoo]

Did anyone else who has gone through this wake up in the middle of the night still moving through the print motions? 

Nope, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking I'm smelling scorched polyester.
Not sure which is worse. 

[GaryG]

I once alone printed a two color trucking co. logo on 10's of thousands of cheap White tees and caps for a boss long ago.
It was on a Harco tank, and YES I saw the rotating motion when I closed my eyes day or night. 
Could of won the world arm wrestling championship after that run.

It took months and boxes were stacked to the ceiling.

Doh! Bring that first screen back around while unloading and save that millisecond!!

Our shop now anything over, give or take 50 goes on the auto depending upon design.

[bimmridder]

     Did anyone else who has gone through this wake up in the middle of the night still moving through the print motions?


Nope, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking I'm smelling scorched polyester.
Not sure which is worse. 

What are you doing sleeping in the middle of the night? You should be printing!!!

[ScreenFoo]

     Did anyone else who has gone through this wake up in the middle of the night still moving through the print motions?


Nope, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking I'm smelling scorched polyester.
Not sure which is worse. 

What are you doing sleeping in the middle of the night? You should be printing!!!

Pshaw.  I'll be outta here by 11 tonight, tops.   

[mt_signex]

I printed a 3000 piece order (mixed adult, youth, and toddler) each year for 2 years before I bought my first auto.. and I'd rather sell everything before doing that again.  First year was 2c/6c, next year was 3c/6c. Both years required 2 flashes on the back, I think we averaged about 35 finished shirts per hour using an old 8 color Rototex.

[Prosperi-Tees]

I forgot about the 1200 two ply shorts I printed with a 2 color pfp. That was horrible without having a proper hold down.