Platen for left-chest prints

[redwoodtees]

I'm getting ready to do a left-chest printing job that involves sizes from S to 4XL. I marked up a platen so that I can load the shirts off-center, but It seems like loading the shirts nice and square will be a slow process (especially given my level of inexperience and general lack of dexterity when loading shirts).

I feel like it would be fairly simple to make a platen that can be indexed horizontally, which would, I would think, make this job a lot easier. I'm thinking of making a mockup/prototype platen from two sheets of MDF, per the attached sketch. Any comments?

[Prince Art]

Even though I'm all about purpose-built platens, in this case it will slow you down in the long run. I think you'll be much faster if you learn to tweak the shirt/load position just a tad as sizes increase. If you need help visualizing where the print will land, you can put some cardstock down on the pallet in the print area. (Hold in place with spray tack or pallet tape.)

If you do this, you can use all of your standard pallets, rather than have to stop and adjust them all at every size. And rather than getting stuck using just one pallet.

[3Deep]

Yep learn to move your shirt over, once you've done it a few time it will be second nature and you won't miss a beat, but hey nice idea, you never know what else it could be use for.  No matter how big or small the shirt use your neck line for placement, and it also dependents on size of left chest, you might have to use a happy medium to fit all sizes.  I've notice around here lately left chest are getting kind of large for some reason.

[1964GN]

We move the art 4" off of center then slightly off load for sizes and styles that require it.

[Croft]

yep learn to use the centre line on your platen arms and load accordingly, we do a lot of school work and shirts go from youth small to 4xl It doesn't take long to get use to.

[bimmridder]

Just ran a job this morning that went from youth medium to adult 5X. Just a matter of practice. Take your time.

[screenxpress]

With the modified platen proposal, I have to assume a manual press.

If that's correct, why not load the shirts on the platen like normal and adjust/slide the screen right a couple of inches to drop the crest print where you want it to fall?

I tend to do what 1964 said, adjust the art to the left (effectively sliding the screen to the right) and load shirts normal.

Update:  one more thing, a stacked (thicker) platen may be a nightmare on bringing down the screen to print and issues with the off-contact setting.  Shift the art, imo

[CBCB]

With the modified platen proposal, I have to assume a manual press.

If that's correct, why not load the shirts on the platen like normal and adjust/slide the screen right a couple of inches to drop the crest print where you want it to fall?

I tend to do what 1964 said, adjust the art to the left (effectively sliding the screen to the right) and load shirts normal.

Update:  one more thing, a stacked (thicker) platen may be a nightmare on bringing down the screen to print and issues with the off-contact setting.  Shift the art, imo

This would work unless the job requires registration. Then moving the two screens isn't as appealing.

We've been rigging up a laser system on our manual to help with this.

We'd use the same placement for S-XL and bump down the loading position 1cm for 2XL+.

We've thought about loading garments off-centre but I'm scared of the inconsistency. I think having a laser down the centre-line would make it easy to bump the line over as you run the job. Probably a lot cheaper/faster than the custom platen, too.


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