You know what's really great?

[mk162]

I have to be honest that the post on here about WOW printing on white was rather unimpressive.  If I couldn't manage that, I wouldn't be in business.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Sheesh!! I'll remember not to ask any rookie questions anymore, sorry for that.

[Frog]

Hopefully you merely forgot the smiley or lol.

If not, if the shoe fits...

All I said was that autos have the ability to crank out crap (as well as beauties) at a much faster pace than manuals, and in and of itself does not eliminate the fact that knowledge and understanding of the process helps immensely.
I also said that those who jump in to an auto without an understanding have a much steeper learning curve, and,  frankly, I believe, some may never master certain aspects.

[tonypep]

Though this should be coming from one of the Mod Squad I think I can safely say that asking and answering questions is what this forum is all about. That said I have raised my eyebrows more than once upon reading responses. Thus is the nature of Social Media where anyone can appear to be an expert on anything. So keep an open mind and research trade rags, shows, and tech reps from suppliers and manufacturers as well. Its better to have more well rounded knowledge.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Yeah this is where I learn and ask questions. I am a lone ranger out here in this big town with no help from anyone from day 1 except online forums such as this and youtube so excuse me if I happen to ask questions that may be more suited for TSF. Yes I would like to advance my game but at the same time I dont want to be printing very much longer, I want to be a business owner, I'll get there.

[Frog]

Gerry, since the get go, I have championed the newbie participation on this forum (while some said that they hoped that it could be more of a place for pros.
Both certainly be served.
As for the TSF, sure they can come up with some wild questions sometimes, but, except for the fact that the same questions get asked over and over,  the problems there don't come from the newbie questions, but rather the newbies who answer!

Here, we like to think, Tony, that most answers have at least a little validity, or at least are questioned themselves when that validity doubted.

This is where the friendliness and civility that we request come into play.

[blue moon]

FWIW, newbie buying an auto is not really an issue. I was only printing for three or four months when we ordered it and we won our first award about a year later. The issue is not really the timing, but the ability to learn and understand the printing process. In my case I bit of more than I can chew and had to work 20 hour days to learn what needed to be done and still deliver on time. It was the steepest learning curve I have experienced yet (and there have been more than few).

I should also mention that, Kevin you will probably be going through the same issues I was facing (and still am). Having help here on the forum is priceless, but it does not answer everything. We've had about a half a dozen consulting visits to get everything up to par. We have the printing part down pretty good, but our operations/structure are still greatly suffering. Not having the screenprinting shop experience is making the organizational part much harder (and it's not like I've never run a business before. My first venture had 20+ employees). Next couple of consulting visits will be addressing the ops rather than print side.

Switching to an auto will eliminate some of the issues you are facing, but it will bring up countless others. Auto will not solve your problems, but is a right long term move.

Gerry, at least personally, I have never considered you to be the TSF material (not knocking them down, just a different crowd). No matter what the size of your operation (we all have to start at some point), you have always acted as a member of this community, business owner and a fellow screenprinter. I have not felt the sense of entitlement or lack of consideration for other members once. At least myself and my guess is many others will welcome ANY questions you might have!

pierre

[Gilligan]

Thanks Pierre.  I know it will open up a new set of parameters, but hopefully those will be things that are just more advanced problems that I would have gotten to eventually on the manual any how.

I agree that I will quickly be lacking in other parts of the process.  Hell, our art "department" is 3 of us grabbing the mouse from each other trying to knock heads and get across what we mean.  My wife is a true artist, but she doesn't know screen printing, so she can't setup the artwork for film.  We are working together to help her better understand the difference but most of the time she is always behind the 9 ball on another project and just doesn't have the time/patience to grasp the difference.

I on the other hand could draw a paper back to fight my way out of on illustrator so though I kind of know what I need, I can't achieve it half the time.

She's a trooper though, she knocked out some artwork right as she was walking out the door for disney for a new customer that walked in and wanted us to do their shirts (new neighbors).

[ZooCity]

I am sure there are some GREAT manual shops out there, but when ran CORRECTLY, a manual can't touch an autos quality.

I disagree.  I believe we touch on that quality daily, well, weekly at least...we're just a whole lot slower.

But it's very operator dependent.  Getting all the way there on a manual takes skill from the printer, even if everything else is perfect.   

[ZooCity]

I have to be honest that the post on here about WOW printing on white was rather unimpressive.  If I couldn't manage that, I wouldn't be in business.

I meant the post to be a reiteration of lots of good material on here regarding wow prints, not to impress.  You are correct, there should be nothing special about it!  Yet many struggle with it.   We did and still do from time to time.  No machine will help here, it's all about process control from art to press and the fundamentals are identical.  I'm always game for revisiting those fundamentals with a fine group of well informed peers.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Thanks Pierre. I appreciate all the answers and assistance I get from this group. Even as a young kid I didn't like hanging out with kids my age because I felt I couldn't learn anything from them. Same way I feel here, why would I ask a question to a person with the same or less experience than I.

[prozyan]

I am sure there are some GREAT manual shops out there, but when ran CORRECTLY, a manual can't touch an autos quality.

I disagree.  I believe we touch on that quality daily

I'll agree with Zoo.  Its been shown time and time again that a great quality print can be achieved on a manual and even with wood screens.

I think, Jason, your quote shouldn't read quality, but rather consistency.  On a manual, one print my look like a million dollars, the next print not so much.  That's just the nature of the beast when you have a human operator controlling squeegee pressure, angle, flood pressure, etc.  A human simply cannot match a machine in terms of consistency.

[Inkworks]

Auto's are fast and consistent, the "good" is still up to the operator.

Getting used to not seeing the results until 8/10/12/14+ shirts later takes some getting used to, It's also easy to get into a trance of putting the shirts on and stomping on the pedal, or peeling them off and putting them on the conveyor and not really checking print quality.

[ZooCity]

On a manual, one print my look like a million dollars, the next print not so much.  That's just the nature of the beast when you have a human operator controlling squeegee pressure, angle, flood pressure, etc.  A human simply cannot match a machine in terms of consistency.

You know, a lot of people have said to me "aren't you worried about your quality going down if you start using a machine".  Of course, this is just lack of knowledge of how it all works but it brings up a point.  Just as a human can't match machine consistency, the machine mentality cannot be matched by the human one.  There's something legit about a hand pulled (or pushed as it may be) print that is purely intangible but very much there.