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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: Shanarchy on October 02, 2015, 11:39:10 AM
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How big do you print, and how often?
Auto users with a 16x18 max print size, how often are you finding this limits you? Or the reverse, auto users with larger print areas, how often do you have orders where this was needed?
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We print 15x17 as our standard size. 15x23 with larger screens (oversized).
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Manual only here. I do 19 inch long prints CONSTANTLY on shirts. Everyone wants "as big as possible" it seems like... I do prints that are up to 23 inches long pretty much every month as well, though I charge more for that size (bigger screen involved) and usually talk people down to the 19 inch length unless they really want it. I can also only do one color prints that size due to pallet restrictions. If I got an auto, I would try really hard to find one that could do as big as possible.
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ran a 14 x 17 the other day on our MHM. Not all that often in our market. 17 x 22 film. Did a race car job earlier this year about that size too. Otherwise we see mostly the standard sizes most of us print without much consideration.
Steve
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My "standard" really is much closer to the 19 inch length than 17 inches. Unless it is a left chest or a few lines of text, it always seems to fill the shirt. All the clothing brand guys, sponsor backs, school shirts, etc want big. Just my experience of course.
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We would offer it if we had market demand for it....
No demand (very very little really), so we do not offer it :)
Other wise, standard 15x17 print area.
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on our 23x31s we stick to 15x17...though we do have a couple 15x21 images that won't work on the CH3 and Gauntlet Z because they have slightly restricted stroke length...I'm assuming this has something to do with the AC heads drive train...we're talking like 0.25" ...it cuts it that close. It's fine on the Gauntlet 2s.
on our 32x48s we do 20x25 and I think we can go as big as 26x38, but that's pointless since our jumbo pallets and squeegees can't even cover that. 20x25 is enough to cover the entire back of a medium, so, that's pretty effing huge.
...god I hate those jumbos. everything takes 5 times longer and 5 times more materials to do.
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Our standard size covers up to 13" x 18" and we print that all the time. Oversized is 15" x 21" and we print those often too. Like Mimosa, it's a lot of "as big as possible".
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Up here in Canada we've seen a trend for smaller, more subtle prints. I am not going to contest this :)
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17x20 pretty frequently.
The ability to do something that others physically can't will set you apart.
I'd think like Colin as well but it's a "Field of Dreams" type thing.
I think the all-over tap out fad has largely passed thank jeebus, but there's always
the need for larger prints. And in 7 years or so all-over will be back in a different
incarnation.
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30"wide.
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My max is a measly (by some standards) 12x13, and that is only very rarely not large enough for my market. In fact, I have found that prints as well as shirt sizes in general have gone down for me over the last five or ten years.
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Our standard printing size is 12 X 14.
Some of you are printing really big images.
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3 standard sizes here..
Regular size: 13 x 16
Jumbo: 17 x 24
All over: 28 x 40
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15x17 standard here as well.
Next auto will be larger format. It keeps coming up, not enough to push us into a larger auto immediately but it's an obvious need.
What I like about larger format machines is we could go to 25x36 standard screen size- bigger sweet spot, easy to gang, image size that will work for 90% of jobs -and then stock a handful of max size screens for the biggest prints.
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With those large size 15x17 or higher I would think that you all don't do any kid shirts or ladies shirts unless you set up different screens for those. Our standard print size is 12 x 12, but we adjust for a larger size print 13 x 14 or a tad larger if we are doing all adult shirts, we only have a few custy that want really big prints and will pay to have smaller print for kid shirts.
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With those large size 15x17 or higher I would think that you all don't do any kid shirts or ladies shirts unless you set up different screens for those. Our standard print size is 12 x 12, but we adjust for a larger size print 13 x 14 or a tad larger if we are doing all adult shirts, we only have a few custy that want really big prints and will pay to have smaller print for kid shirts.
Kids shirts down to med in most cases, can do small but not a fan. Only do that when a customer has a bulk of adults and just has a couple kids garments they are trying to satisfy and no screens could be justified and/or nobody wants adult print smaller just to deal with 4 kids shirts.
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Our standard size covers up to 13" x 18" and we print that all the time. Oversized is 15" x 21" and we print those often too. Like Mimosa, it's a lot of "as big as possible".
"Can I get that on a kid's shirt? I have a 2 year old..."
Steve
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With those large size 15x17 or higher I would think that you all don't do any kid shirts or ladies shirts unless you set up different screens for those. Our standard print size is 12 x 12, but we adjust for a larger size print 13 x 14 or a tad larger if we are doing all adult shirts, we only have a few custy that want really big prints and will pay to have smaller print for kid shirts.
With the large print we did the other day, they also wanted ladies extra small, and kids, so it was 2 - 6 color runs, one of 300, the smaller was 90. So long as they understand and are willing to pay. We normally recommend an 11 inch print for the front width, but we will do what we're asked, and a 12" width for the backs, same thing, we can do the larger. But we've only done 2 oversized jobs this year, just very little call.
Steve
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My max sizes are 12x12 and I push to 13x14.. 1-4 colors max, most runs no flash.. Rinse and repeat..
Sent using Tapatalk
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For the mixed orders I either size down or they pay for two setups. On occasion I have done a transfer of some type instead of the double setup when it made the most sense for them. I basically give people the options and they tell me what works for them. I actually do a lot of kids stuff, and you'd be surprised what "fits" on a kids small Gildan. Whether it looks good or not though is up to the customer... :D Most women's shirts are pretty much the same length as men's, just narrower. Again, a lot of jobs are sized to the absolute max that will fit on the smallest shirt, and I definitely think it looks out of place a lot of the time, but I leave that up to the customer and simply suggest what I think professionally. Ultimately it is up to them.
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ALMOST every time I push my average max of 12.5 W x 14 H, the customer will come back with a handful of shirts that are too small.
I can go oversized (and WAAAY oversized with a one color job), but I often end up getting bit.
On the manual, I'll push that a little (maybe 13 or 14 wide x 16 tall) but I get cranky.
Once in a while, we print a left side print that is say 5" wide by 22 tall. That is manual only. (See *cranky* comments above.)
We just aren't set up for all over sized printing.
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For standard prints for us is anything 14*18 and smaller. We have done a few all over the front(sleeves included) prints, but the first time it really bit me in the ass. I thought/assumed/being stupid and found out the day before the pallets we had were smaller that I thought! :-[
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15 x 15 is advertised print size but we can cheat a little on our 23 x 31 standard size screens.
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We never go over 12x13. When we design something large most ask if it can be smaller. Go figure.
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Most everything we print is a max of 14" wide and 14 to 15 tall. We go a little larger sometimes but not often.
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14" x 16.5" standard
16.5" x 22" oversize
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15x18 or some such. I'll gladly let our competitors do all the oversized jobs and I doubt I'll ever relent on that offer. I guess if a shop did A LOT of oversized stuff and had become very good at it then you can make good money, but I know if we tried to get into it we'd get slaughtered. We don't have that many customers asking for larger than we can print for the most part, some might ask if we can do something then after we tell them how large we print we end up printing the job at our max.
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Good thing about doing smaller print's like we do 12X12 / 13x14 is less ink used
darryl
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Standard size is 12x14. I find that i can print wider than 12 inches on some adult small screen in the fashion cuts. And they barely fit on the your small in a gildan. Only 14 inches tall until I get my new G3 next month
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What size platens are you all using for 15" wide prints?
I'm considering bumping standard sizing down to 14" wide and it's jumbo printing up from there. I don't like the standard 23x31 screen, 16" wide platen, 16" wide blade/flood tooling setup for 15" wide prints, too tight for comfort. We also round our blade corners.
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What size platens are you all using for 15" wide prints?
I'm considering bumping standard sizing down to 14" wide and it's jumbo printing up from there. I don't like the standard 23x31 screen, 16" wide platen, 16" wide blade/flood tooling setup for 15" wide prints, too tight for comfort. We also round our blade corners.
We run 18" pallets for 15x17" prints...same for 15" (okay, sometimes 16") by 21"...but those are designed to run off the edge of the pallet/shirt.
...our jumbo pallets and screens are the worst "upgrade" we've ever done. 32x48" screens (downsized from 48x52"...no idea what that guy was thinking), the 12 color CH3 gets knocked down to 5 colors...if you are going bigger than 32" wide screens you are forced to double-index. That epic flasher...even more epic CTS...super expensive stretch table...the space they consume. The epic scoop coater. Massive quantities of emulsion, even more massive quantities of mesh. They barely fit in the dip tank. They throw water everywhere when you destencil and develop them. They take up most of the drying room...god forbid you have to coat and dry a stack of them at once.
Unless you reallllly want or need to differentiate yourself/services I highly recommend staying the eff away.
...as always, your mileage may vary.
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Thanks for all the feedback on this!