I'm freakin' losing my mind over here...u aint gonna believe this one

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

i posted in the Contract Printing forum looking for so biz advice on a permanent contract job i may get....and it will be my fisrt one...my first steady gig...well i got it, and today I printed the first order of 200...front and back..one color (white)..

So im printing along....and the last 10...on the 2nd location print I reach in the front of my dryer to grab the shirt back becuase i wanted to check something out....so i do it real quick because of the heat ya know?

Well I do it...and i feel NO HEAT!!!..Im like "OH NOOOOOO!!!!!...Dont tell me what I think may have happened!!!"...sure enough the first IR panel (the dryer holds 2 of them) was OUT!!...i could touch it with my hand....it WAS working this morning...so I have NO CLUE when it went out....so now I have to fix it and send ALL 200 shirts thru the dryer twice to make sure the shirts are cured....I have to be safe and just do them all to cover my a$$!!!.....but the kicker is tomorrow (sunday) I HAVE to go to my actual job (shell chemical plant) for 6 hours...some last minute stuff came up and needs to be addressed before monday.

And the guy that JUST picked me to be his printer is coming here tomorrow to pick up his order because he needs to fullfill his online orders first thing monday because he was back ordered waiting to find a screen printer to handle his work....and I cant let him know i have equipment issues because he JUST picked me friday  evening and went on and on how he needs a reliable printer!!!! :::face palm:::::

WHAT ARE THE ODDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???!!!!!

I can't win man..I just can't!!!

[Frog]

WHAT ARE THE ODDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???!!!!!

Way, way lower than you would have guessed.
Mr. Murphy gives extra attention to this industry.
Makes it especially  tough on small operations like yours (and mine) that make redundancy in equipment a challenge.

Watch out on the two times through because the cure is not cumulative if heat is not sustained.
I would suggest rather, running the belt considerably slower, and relying on the one element.

I survived for years with a four foot Ranar Scamp dryer with its 16" panel.

[Gilligan]

I hear ya my brother... I had almost the exact same thing happen to me.  Got one of the biggest jobs I had gotten and I was under the gun and of course procrastinated a bit.... last chance to get the job done and I fire up the dryer and one of the panels are out.  Of course I'm also out of ring terminals which means I have to haul a$$ to the hardware store to get a poor substitution.

End of the day I had to contract half the job to another shop in town who bent me over, but I had no choice.  Still made money and got the job out in time, but I was also up till like 5am printing.  My mother of all people stayed up all night to help.  I'm a 37 (35 then) year old man and my mother was helping me get my work done. LOL  She originally came over to watch the baby while my wife helped but the baby wasn't cooperating so my mother had to get a crash course in a bit of screen printing.

Oh, did I mention a 1/3 of the order was thongs and booty shorts?  Yep, I was printing thongs and booty shorts that said "Shake and Bake" on them with my southern baptist mother!

Like Andy said... Murphy's law!  If it can, it will!

Protocol now is to check each panel (3 of them) when you fire up the dryer and then when you shut it off.  Make sure they are still running 100% before you box up and send out that batch of half cured shirts!

Another option would be see if someone else would let you run them through their dryer real quick for you.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Something will always go wrong with last minute rush orders. We worked until 11pm last night cause I had to reburn screens and change ink colors multiple times to get the print right. Of course the customer needed them today so thankfully with us printing so late that we didn't have any misprints out of the 400 pieces and we had no extras on hand.

Crazy thing was the customer was coming from a town an hour and a half NORTH of us. He called and asked for directions and we told him to travel SOUTH on the freeway. He ended up driving an hour and a half NORTH!!! Well he finally showed up around 8 o'clock tonight and was very pleased with the way the shirts turned out! I felt so bad for him but all is well.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

Oh, did I mention a 1/3 of the order was thongs and booty shorts?  Yep, I was printing thongs and booty shorts that said "Shake and Bake" on them with my southern baptist mother!

That's hilarious!!...cool that she stuck it out though and gave a hand...my mom and dad (in their mid to late 60's) always offer to come give me a hand...i tell them "nah..its a one man operation."

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

and yes I considered asking someone to let me run them thru their dryer...but its got to be done today and i dont know anyone thats open and i dont want to make my problem their problem ya know?...Its a sunday...football is on...some go to church..all that stuff.

I know what is wrong with it and I can fix it....one of the wires to the panel melted away at the connection to the panel...I have some screw clamps that will get me up and running but the money I make from this job I will buy a new panel..they cost like 600 bucks from vastex.

[mimosatexas]

buy a panel directly from intek!  Much cheaper, great quality and super helpful guys (imo)

[Gilligan]

If its just a wire, repair it.  I've done it on each of my panels, some several times... Saved me a TON of cash!

Nothing fancy about them.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

If its just a wire, repair it.  I've done it on each of my panels, some several times... Saved me a TON of cash!

Nothing fancy about them.

I know it..this is the 3rd time its happened in the last 2 years...same panel too...and every time human nature kicks in: "When I have the time I'm going to fix this permanently before it happens again."...and of course I didn't and now look at me.

[Gilligan]

Might just be that you aren't using right parts/tools?

[Frog]

I've had this situation which could never be fixed perfectly due to corroded or tarnished terminals which always produced the higher resistance which, in turn, produced the heat that fried the connection.

This stuff has to be shiny clean. Wire can always be replaced, but some panels are easier to clean or replace terminals than others.

[GaryG]

Off and on we replaced every one of 6 panels on an old Harco dryer.
Smell something and look inside, yep, its panel #4 lighting up!
That thing lasted forever, but one at a time... come in early and pull out
the panels on the frame, open up and screw a new one in. They were
really good at sending wiring, connectors, panels, etc. Got real good and fast
at having it ready before the day started.

Cooking with gas is the way to go if you are able to go that way next.
Some aren't that large either.