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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: Nation03 on January 30, 2017, 02:48:11 PM
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I'll try not to make this too long winded.
I happened to stumble upon a deal I couldn't pass up, just a few minutes down the road from me. A lightly used 2008 Workhorse Freedom. Comes with the compressor, chiller and flashback for $10k. Got the install/relocation quote from Workhorse and a rough estimate on the electrical work and it looks like all in I'll be under $15k.
Even at such a low price, my chest feels a little tight to drop that much money all at once. I was a part time printer up until a few months ago when I decided to go full time with running my business. My cash flow situation will still be in good shape, but I can't help but wonder if this is the right move.
Just a little background, I don't have a whole lot of volume just yet. I'm getting by with a manual just fine, but like my old mentor once said, it's better to plan for success then to plan for failure. My body has had enough printing on the manual. So even with the lower volume, I feel like the purchase is justified. I know the all air presses and the V-Squeegees aren't ideal, but I personally think any auto at this point will be better then not automating at all.
I guess I'd just like to hear some other experiences with how autos have changed your business. Has anyone here bought an auto before they were bursting at the seams on a manual press? Has anyone automated from the start and just built the business around it?
Forgive me for my excessive questions. This will be one of the biggest purchases I've made even though its a used press. My nerves are just through the roof right now.
Thanks!
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You're chest feels tight, but your back won't anymore. ;)
If you build it, they will come. You will have more freedom..pun intended. Honestly, though, you will NEVER want to go back to manual printing.
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Just do it, and don't look back...
Steve
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Congrats!
If I ever give advice to new printers anymore it would be to buy a auto right away. Regret nothing.
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we have all been there. I remember when we got our first one, I never saw an auto before until I opened the crate, no clue what I just bought.... And I bet with in a week or two, the larger orders started to show up. Funny how that works.
Congrats! You'll be happy you did it.
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Looks like a real good deal. Almost too good of a deal to be true. I would just make sure to pay when you pick up or when its delivered. Unless you know the person selling it is 100% legit
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Nothing like getting an "emergency" call for 1000 shirts, 3 col. and think "yeah we have an extra 3 hours tomorrow, no problem."
As long as there is business to be had in your area, you'll be very happy and probably never look back.
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Thanks for the reassurance everyone. I've been wanting to print on an auto ever since I started.
Looks like a real good deal. Almost too good of a deal to be true. I would just make sure to pay when you pick up or when its delivered. Unless you know the person selling it is 100% legit
I don't know him personally, but I went to his shop this morning. It was only 10 minutes from my house. Looked super clean and lightly used. He said heads 3, 4 and 5 were never even used because he didn't print more then 2-3 color jobs. Compressor and chiller didn't look like they had a lot of wear either. His space was pretty small and he wants to focus more on the embroidery side of things and semi-retire.
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Thanks for the reassurance everyone. I've been wanting to print on an auto ever since I started.
Looks like a real good deal. Almost too good of a deal to be true. I would just make sure to pay when you pick up or when its delivered. Unless you know the person selling it is 100% legit
I don't know him personally, but I went to his shop this morning. It was only 10 minutes from my house. Looked super clean and lightly used. He said heads 3, 4 and 5 were never even used because he didn't print more then 2-3 color jobs. Compressor and chiller didn't look like they had a lot of wear either. His space was pretty small and he wants to focus more on the embroidery side of things and semi-retire.
Very cool just wanted to make sure you weren't dealing with one of the bad brokers.
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Thanks Scott.
I appreciate the quotes you got me a little while back for the Sabre and Freedom Express. I just couldn't justify going brand new at this stage in our business. I'll get a nice new shiny press one day though!
Until then I'll definitely be getting some 23x31 s-thread frames from you guys. Best statics out there.
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Congrats, like everyone has mention already jobs will fly out the door giving you more time for sells etc, and yep big jobs will land on your door step :)
darryl
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I would visit again and check those heads that have never been used and be sure they work. They probably do but sometimes un-use can cause hidden problems
best of luck tp
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Headed back with a deposit tomorrow. I'm gonna have him run the press to make sure everything is in working order.
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AWESOME!!! Congrats bro.
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Thanks Alan. As always, I appreciated the info you've given me over the years. Keep up the videos! I love watching footage of that G3!
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Good for you. I know you have been looking to automate for awhile. You are going to love it!
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Just saw everything run. Printed a few shirts with it. All the heads are in working order. Put the deposit down. Spoke with Interchange and they will be doing the install. They're 5 minutes down the road from me. Should have it up and running within the next week or 2.
Thanks again everyone. I'm sure I'll be annoying more then a few of you for some advice and tips in the coming months.
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Congrats Jake -
Know it's been a long road to the decision - but now that you made it - don't it feel goooood...
Always just a phone call away,
Michael Jirasek
Anatol
847-582-1694
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Congrats! Hoping I'll be posting a similar thread sooner rather than later.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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You won't regret it. Like mentioned before larger jobs will pop out of nowhere, atleast that is what happened here. We rarely had jobs of over 100 to 150 pcs before we went auto. It's like word got around that we could produce more and customers put us to the test. Congrats, you won't look back.
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Yeah, Interchange will treat you right too!
Congrats
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Thanks guys.
I always knew that the Interchange guys were a mile or 2 away from our shop and I called them on a whim to see if they could install it. Really nice people and it's saving me a ton in travel expenses for someone to fly out from Arizona to Jersey.
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Congrats! That sounds like a great deal. You'll probably make the money back quick and should really help your business grow. Strategic planning usually pays off!
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Thanks! Looks like we're disassembling it this Saturday. I'll try to get some pictures of the process of getting it into our space. I'm on the 3rd floor, HA. We've gotten some crazy equipment up and down the elevator before, but this should still be interesting.
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sweet! i only wish i would have bought mine sooner!
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Just to update. We picked up the press this past Saturday. It wasn't easy, but we managed to fit it in our small freight elevator and get it to the 3rd floor. Electrical work is being done at the moment. Ray from Interchange should be back this week or early next week for the install. I'll try to get some decent pictures. Working on cleaning it up and it's starting to shine like new. Can't wait to start pumping the shirts out.
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Just to update. We picked up the press this past Saturday. It wasn't easy, but we managed to fit it in our small freight elevator and get it to the 3rd floor. Electrical work is being done at the moment. Ray from Interchange should be back this week or early next week for the install. I'll try to get some decent pictures. Working on cleaning it up and it's starting to shine like new. Can't wait to start pumping the shirts out.
Thats awesome! Keep us updated.
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Great
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that's fantastic, I agree, keep us updated.
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Install should be all set today. Here's a quick overhead shot. So far so good.
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Sorry, but that place just looks too damn clean. I can't look at that!!!
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We'll fill it with more crap soon enough!
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So I've gotten my feet wet with a few jobs on the auto so far. Definitely an amazing feeling to have the shirts printed for you haha. I've never really liked to print with a lot of off contact and the tech set the press up with nearly a quarter inch of off contact. I didn't see any central adjustment so yesterday I popped 2 square 1" metal bars in head 6 and proceeded to raise the OC on each pallet to a little under an eighth of an inch (3 point leveling is a little tricky). This immediately gave me better print results. The higher OC made it nearly impossible to print without maxing out the pressure. Looks like I can clear the screen with one stroke much easier now also. I'm also using crappy screens from a local supplier. I have some s-thread statics coming in from Spot Color within the next weekish, and I think that will definitely make my life easier as well. I have at least a 1600 piece order and a 400+ piece order coming in April that I can't wait to run, but so far even the 50 piece orders have been a blast to print. I'm already looking forward to out growing this press and shopping for a bigger badder new shiny press haha.
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So I've gotten my feet wet with a few jobs on the auto so far. Definitely an amazing feeling to have the shirts printed for you haha. I've never really liked to print with a lot of off contact and the tech set the press up with nearly a quarter inch of off contact. I didn't see any central adjustment so yesterday I popped 2 square 1" metal bars in head 6 and proceeded to raise the OC on each pallet to a little under an eighth of an inch (3 point leveling is a little tricky). This immediately gave me better print results. The higher OC made it nearly impossible to print without maxing out the pressure. Looks like I can clear the screen with one stroke much easier now also. I'm also using crappy screens from a local supplier. I have some s-thread statics coming in from Spot Color within the next weekish, and I think that will definitely make my life easier as well. I have at least a 1600 piece order and a 400+ piece order coming in April that I can't wait to run, but so far even the 50 piece orders have been a blast to print. I'm already looking forward to out growing this press and shopping for a bigger badder new shiny press haha.
Congrats! Shop looks awesome. Sorry if this has been mentioned already but how many square feet are you in?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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So I've gotten my feet wet with a few jobs on the auto so far. Definitely an amazing feeling to have the shirts printed for you haha. I've never really liked to print with a lot of off contact and the tech set the press up with nearly a quarter inch of off contact. I didn't see any central adjustment so yesterday I popped 2 square 1" metal bars in head 6 and proceeded to raise the OC on each pallet to a little under an eighth of an inch (3 point leveling is a little tricky). This immediately gave me better print results. The higher OC made it nearly impossible to print without maxing out the pressure. Looks like I can clear the screen with one stroke much easier now also. I'm also using crappy screens from a local supplier. I have some s-thread statics coming in from Spot Color within the next weekish, and I think that will definitely make my life easier as well. I have at least a 1600 piece order and a 400+ piece order coming in April that I can't wait to run, but so far even the 50 piece orders have been a blast to print. I'm already looking forward to out growing this press and shopping for a bigger badder new shiny press haha.
Congrats! Shop looks awesome. Sorry if this has been mentioned already but how many square feet are you in?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sorry, just saw this now. I'm in 2800 sqft. There are 2 back rooms, one was an old paint booth that we're trying to clean the crap out of so we can make it our dark room/screen room. The other room has our air compressor and we might move all the ink back there to keep the messy side of things hidden from customers. Only down side is that it's the 3rd floor and the freight elevator isn't that large, so I'm not sure how much bigger of a press I'll be able to get up here when the time comes to upgrade. Looks like I'll be in this location for a while so my goal would be to get an 8 color auto up here eventually. I think if we get crafty we can fit a Sportsman EX or we may just squeeze the base of a Roq in the elevator. I'd entertain a Volt as well. Other thing I'm a little worried about - when the pallet tables lower, you can feel it on the wood floor, so a bigger press might just not be doable. I'll probably start retro fitting the heads with choppers soon and I'll make this setup work for as long as I can to keep the money in the business. After seeing the Roq at ISS, I'm determined to try and get one of those things in here. But for right now, I'm more then pleased. Getting these pallets consistently parallel is a real pain though. That being said, I'm getting the hang of it and the results have been passable for the most part.
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My name is Howard Ray. I worked for TUF prod from 1990 to 2002 when Workhorse bought us. I then worked for Workhorse, untill I was asked to semi retire,
If you ever have any questions call me. 713 344 8604. I will be happy to help you.
There again, Howard Ray 713 344 8604.
Good printing for you.