DIY shirt catchers/End of Dryer

[ericheartsu]

We have a garment runner back there right now, but it seems more and more im having my folders doing other little tasks to get more jobs out the door.

We need another bin, but i'd like to try and build one myself.

What do you guys have at the end of your dryer? i'm looking specifically at mid to big size shops. what do you got?

[rmonks]

Poor man catcher --- We use a box that a clothes dryer, refrigerator or some similar home appliance came in and we cut it down so it is about a foot below the dryer belt level.

[mooseman]

why would you not just let the shirts drop into a box of reasonable size?
We are a pretty small shop and don't qualify as serious production but if we were I think we still would use a large catch box.
We (on large oreders) pull the box by size so we have all the small, med, larg, etc ganged by size ESPECIALLY if we are going back to print a second location.
We find the drop off the belt stacks the shirts nicely in the catch box, we have a 40 inch square box about 30 inches deep.
Lastly without a catcher we use a cool down station ( a fan hanging from the ceiling softly directing air flow at the print just before it drops off the belt. Keeps the hot heavier inks from sticking together when the shirts fold against itself when they drop into the box.
mooseman

[sweetts]

Big plastic storage bin

Sent  from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)

[Denis Kolar]

I think I have 40 gallon storage bin with a small wheels on the bottom.
I believe I spent $30 for everything

[whitewater]

a box my screens came in...smaller runs i have 4 laundry baskets i used with my manual i put in there for sizes, but larger runs i just use the large box..

[ericheartsu]

why would you not just let the shirts drop into a box of reasonable size?
We are a pretty small shop and don't qualify as serious production but if we were I think we still would use a large catch box.
We (on large oreders) pull the box by size so we have all the small, med, larg, etc ganged by size ESPECIALLY if we are going back to print a second location.
We find the drop off the belt stacks the shirts nicely in the catch box, we have a 40 inch square box about 30 inches deep.
Lastly without a catcher we use a cool down station ( a fan hanging from the ceiling softly directing air flow at the print just before it drops off the belt. Keeps the hot heavier inks from sticking together when the shirts fold against itself when they drop into the box.
mooseman

when you are doing 3,000 shirts it gets to be a pain to have to run back there, and switch out the boxes every 100 shirts are so. Especially when you have 500 of one size, 1,000 of another. it just gets to be such a big hassle!

[IntegrityShirts]

Yeah at 200+ orders I have a catcher sitting there stacking shirts, it's worth every penny he gets paid too.  Had him trying to keep up at 43dz/hr the other day lol he's new and learning!

[jason-23]

the local bath and body works closed down a few years ago and they were selling everything. so i bought one of there big hampers on wheels. It didnt fit under the end of the dryer but after i removed the wheels and put wheels on the dryer it fits under it now. But you could make one pretty easy out of pvc, heavy canvas fabric, caster wheels, snaps and someone the can sew.

[jason-23]

Heck Ill make you one if the price is right...

[ericheartsu]

we just rigged together one out of metail shelving, cardboard and zip ties. it's not pretty but it does the job!

[Ripcord]

Laundry basket. It only holds about 20 shirts but in my experience, any more than that results in wrinkled shirts, so I pull them out often and stack them on my folding table.

[Frog]

Yeah, Rip, works for the small jobs, but the autos whipping out 300-400 an hour need something a little roomier.

The last multi-auto shop I was working in, had belt-wide boxes made from melamine covered plywood or particle board. These were on wheels so could be quickly changed out mid run or for size changes, and/or moved to a holding or folding area.

I'm with you on not liking them to sit scrunched up in a pile too long though.

[3Deep]

Well if your running production like that all the time I would think you'll have large catchers allready with wheels and stuff.  What have you been doing? sorry but I think thats just crazy unless your production just pick up over the pass few months or something.

Darryl

[tonypep]

Not trying to preach here but I believe this practice should be temporary and only when absolutely necessary before it becomes habit. Try to think of having someone catching and folding garments as they come off the belt as a quality checkpoint. I've seen garments stick to eachother in bins and cause a huge mess. Shirts undercured. Discharge leaks. And so on. I know many of you here are owner operators but trust me things go much smother and faster with an extra person even if it's a friend or relative. And folding/boxing a huge bin of shirts takes a lot longer. As you grow and add people multitask train them so they can stop what they are doing and help out; then return to the task at hand. Need to think forward on this I believe.