New gear install - a mini blog.

[jvanick]

We're starting day 4 in the new shop today...

Some updates from this week:

Monday
Edgar from M&R got the press assembled and level.
Matt from T&J and I got the dryer assembled, and level.

Tuesday
Edgar continued leveling and dialing in the press...
Javier arrived and started the I-Image install
I built some custom brackets so I could run the starlight without glass and dialed in exposure times...

Wednesday
Edgar trained Tiffany and I on the operation of the press, and maintenance, we ran a few jobs, including a butt-register job that we trilocked and had on press with just 2 small micro adjustments (I'm sure it was us not holding the screens into the trilock platten correct tho)
Javier trained me on basic I-Image stuff and we made screens.

Today
HVAC guys are hooking up the new dryer.... we've been running on the old Workhorse 3011 dryer, which can absolutely not come close to having enough speed to cure shirts coming off the new press.
More I-Image stuff, and we're going to be putting a 9 color job on press... because we can

Thoughts so far...
Installers have been great... answering questions, showing us stuff, etc.
I-Image is awesome...  removing the glass from the exposure unit literally dropped our times in HALF... we're at 12sec for a 305, 13 sec for 225, 20 sec for 156 with SP1400...  we shot a 55lpi screen and it looks like we were holding down to a 2% halftone dot with no extra dialing-in...
The Sportsman rocks... I was running solo yesterday at approx 350/hr, with very little change to my technique... the fact that it indexes faster and table up/table down faster makes it WAY easier to print on than the Javelin.

The installers loved the fact that I was willing to get my hands dirty and jump in and help/install/do stuff, apparently that's not very common

[GraphicDisorder]

Congrats, your situation is going to improve a lot!

[jvanick]

already has, and we've had a crazy end to October orders... we're SUPER backed up now, gonna be printing all weekend...

I just got done making a few screens on the I-Image for prints today...  I'm so stoked on how fast everything is now...

[jvanick]

Been rocking the new gear all day today, and I have to say this has stepped up my printing game in nearly inmeasurable amounts...

We've now setup 19 different jobs on the new press, and burned nearly 70 screens with the I-Image.

Sorry film guys, but even our small shop that does around 20 or so screens a day can already see a difference in screen quality, exposure time, and setup time.  out of the 19 jobs, 16 of them were multi color, and I was able to hit 2 of them with absolutely no micro'ing.

While there's definitely some bugs in the Rip code on the I-Image that I'm not too happy about (mainly having to re-open the same file multiple times to get it to actually open without an error), the unit works great and is really easy to use.

The new press, well, what can I say.. I'm printing right now at least 2x, if not 3x faster than I was able to run solo on the old press.  We have roughly 5000 shirts to run this weekend, and will have plenty of help, I'm guessing we'll be able to push the press to at least 650-700 shirts/hr, and maybe even faster...  Gonna need to optimize the Sprint dryer speeds tho...  we're at 380 degrees, belt at 12fpm, and the shirts are around 340 right before they leave... I'd like to get the belt up to at least 15fpm if not faster... may need to lower the gates, as well as bump the temperature higher.

Rich: you were exactly spot on in how much faster I'm able to print on the new press...

[244]

Been rocking the new gear all day today, and I have to say this has stepped up my printing game in nearly inmeasurable amounts...

We've now setup 19 different jobs on the new press, and burned nearly 70 screens with the I-Image.

Sorry film guys, but even our small shop that does around 20 or so screens a day can already see a difference in screen quality, exposure time, and setup time.  out of the 19 jobs, 16 of them were multi color, and I was able to hit 2 of them with absolutely no micro'ing.

While there's definitely some bugs in the Rip code on the I-Image that I'm not too happy about (mainly having to re-open the same file multiple times to get it to actually open without an error), the unit works great and is really easy to use.

The new press, well, what can I say.. I'm printing right now at least 2x, if not 3x faster than I was able to run solo on the old press.  We have roughly 5000 shirts to run this weekend, and will have plenty of help, I'm guessing we'll be able to push the press to at least 650-700 shirts/hr, and maybe even faster...  Gonna need to optimize the Sprint dryer speeds tho...  we're at 380 degrees, belt at 12fpm, and the shirts are around 340 right before they leave... I'd like to get the belt up to at least 15fpm if not faster... may need to lower the gates, as well as bump the temperature higher.

Rich: you were exactly spot on in how much faster I'm able to print on the new press...

Sounds like you are going to be really busy for a while! Congrats!

[Dottonedan]

It's good to see my friends getting these. I'm installing one next week for another member.

I have much respect for Javiare.

[sqslabs]

Sounds awesome man, congrats!  Be sure to post up some pics of the final setup when you have a chance. 

[jvanick]

some pics..

[mk162]

all this to print shirts....anybody else find it crazy sometimes?

very nice BTW.

[GraphicDisorder]

Great looking set up man!

[sqslabs]

Nice!  And looks like you have room to grow as well.  Now let's see how clean you can keep those floors!   

[jvanick]

it's not super noticeable in the pics I posted, but all around the press, ink table, ink racks etc, there's 50# craft paper on the floor...  hopefully that'll catch most of the mess...

[dirkdiggler]

bet that double wall pipe out the ceiling set you back a penny or two!

[sqslabs]

it's not super noticeable in the pics I posted, but all around the press, ink table, ink racks etc, there's 50# craft paper on the floor...  hopefully that'll catch most of the mess...

I really wish I would have been intelligent enough to do this when I moved into my current location.  But hey, ink stains on the floor add character right?   

[jvanick]

bet that double wall pipe out the ceiling set you back a penny or two!

That was not a pleasant bill...

$50/ft for just the pipe.  plus everything else needed on the roof and install labor.

I will say this tho... we had the old Workhorse 3011 running in the new shop for a few days before we got the MiniSprint up and running... the 3011 definitely warmed the place up, a ton... the MiniSprint, we barely notice anything... the only major amount of heat that's coming off of it is the residual heat on the shirts at the end of the belt.