How do we keep new people from excessive frustration?

[DouglasGrigar]

Hints and tips?

Want to see a grown man come to tears - watch a newbie try to coat and expose screens with no coaching and listening to his supplier tell him some mythology...

Just today I had a former student tell me his supplier told him QLT would be just as good as a diazo-dual cure to hold halftones....

[Denis Kolar]

I think I skipped crying a few months ago (thanks to Pierre).
I had a slight idea of how to do it (step wedge) but he helped me a lot.

Again, thanks Pierre.

[blue moon]

I think I skipped crying a few months ago (thanks to Pierre).
I had a slight idea of how to do it (step wedge) but he helped me a lot.

Again, thanks Pierre.

I did all the crying for him when I was starting. Just about no help and had to figure everything out buy reading the forums and talking to my sales rep. 'could not stomach somebody else going through the same pains. . .

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Places like this forum helped a TON!
Ask your sales rep questions, they tend to know more than you when you're starting out.
Develop relationships with other printers in town and out of town and ask them questions. I thought other printers were my evil nemesis, turns out, they are very helpful.
Learn by doing. Don't be afraid to try stuff. You'll see what needs to be tweaked and be able to use given advice in context to better understand.

[Frog]

Ask your sales rep questions, they tend to know more than you when you're starting out.

I'd normally agree, but as of late, my local reps fall way short, and as Douglas pointed out, some even give wrong information, or I find,  at the very least, an incomplete explanation.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

They know more when you're first starting out. If not, how would you know?   

[Sbrem]

It was my good fortune to be trained by a person who really knew his way around, back in the early 70's. I can only imagine how nuts it would be without the guidance, considering the amount of hair pulling I did even with some fundamental training. Needless to say, there was no Internet to get good (and bad) info from. Fortunately, we had a subscription to Screen Printing Magazine. I'd read them from cover to cover just to get a hint at the larger world out there. So we need to tell the newbies to come here of course, and to read the industry publications.

Steve

[Fresh Baked Printing]

When I first started, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Roger Jennings. I also watched one of his DVD's that came with some of his equipment. Talking to Roger and the DVD really helped to at least know what terminology to use and what questions to ask reps, other printers and forums.

[JBLUE]

To me a sales rep is just a sales rep. Unless they have been in a shop its in one ear and out the other. I am pretty lucky that my rep from my supplier went from the bottom all the way to the production manager at a huge shop. I tend to listen to his advice when he points out something.

[tpitman]

The one thing that set me on the right track from the get-go was buying "How to Print T-Shirts for Fun and Profit". Gives newbies a fairly good overview of the whole process. Haunting the forum at TSPMB filled in a lot of gaps early on.
I took a "serigraphy" class in college in 1973, but everything there was done with either x-acto cut vellum or tusche.
Once I decided I wanted to do shirts, I bought the aforementioned book. Can't say I haven't made mistakes along the way, but from what I've read about others, especially over at T-Shirt Forums, I've had good luck. Sometimes a vendor will find something to sell you whether you need it or not, or tell you when you don't need something you think you do. The thing is, it's a cumulative education. There's no one source that can teach you everything. A tip here, a discovery on press there, and over time you start to figure things out . . . sort of. There's also lots of bad advice, so you've got to cull the turds from the gems.
Read, read, read.

[yorkie]

Not till they are bloodied and beaten, are people ready for the hard truth and it is then that the vultures feed.

One thing which would be helpful, would be to have a single package which would be purchased, which could produce the benchmark shirt. The package would need to include the computer file, film, screens, ink, a printed shirts and a half dozen blank shirts. "in theory" anyone should be able to take the contents of the package and reproduce the printed shirt. Then take the film and burn a replacement screen which matches the provided screen, then produce fresh film...

Too many printers have the "my crap don't stink attitude". A printer will never be good, till they see every flaw in every print, then pro-actively works to prevent the same problem from re-occurring.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Too many printers have the "my crap don't stink attitude". A printer will never be good, till they see every flaw in every print, then pro-actively works to prevent the same problem from re-occurring.

Right on! My crap prints make me a better printer!

[blue moon]

Not till they are bloodied and beaten, are people ready for the hard truth and it is then that the vultures feed.

One thing which would be helpful, would be to have a single package which would be purchased, which could produce the benchmark shirt. The package would need to include the computer file, film, screens, ink, a printed shirts and a half dozen blank shirts. "in theory" anyone should be able to take the contents of the package and reproduce the printed shirt. Then take the film and burn a replacement screen which matches the provided screen, then produce fresh film...

Too many printers have the "my crap don't stink attitude". A printer will never be good, till they see every flaw in every print, then pro-actively works to prevent the same problem from re-occurring.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this idea, but would take it even further. Why not have some good, high end prints, films and screens for the experienced printers? The film can be something useful for calibrating the exposure times and mesh selection (35-75 lpi 0%-100% blocks). We get some great prints with a 55lpi halftones and a sample shirt printed with a screen like it. Or something similar . . .

Not having a screen printing background, I still struggle to find appropriate quality benchmarks. I have used some Andy Anderson's prints and have set the bar pretty high, but I always wanted to know, what is the industry standard? Are we better or worse and by how much? I know my spots lack, but my sim is pretty darn good. How much more do I have to work on my spot colors? Having something to look at would be very helpful.

[prozyan]

When I first started, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Roger Jennings.

Ha, Roger got my feet wet too.  It was always nice to be able to call him up and get some solid advice.

[Artelf2xs]

It's amazing how many people come to me that bought a youdu printer or a franchise like PrintMe or even a transfer press and are shocked that  it is all " So technical"    I thought you just put ink in the screen and pulled the squeegee??

I say you just tell them to go to youtube, type in print your own t-shirts, watch every vid and they will be an expert.......

At what not to do