What's it worth?

[bimmridder]

I am curious about something. This is directed towards people using a computer to screen system now. Brand, size, etc doesn't matter.(I know I left an opening there) I don't want to hear about what brand is better than another. Nothing to do with my question.

I've seen and heard people say they can't live without their CTS. So I was wondering this morning.....What is it REALLY worth to you. Knowing what you know now, would you have paid more than you did? If it cost 1.5 times as much, would you still have made the purchase?  Would you have done it sooner? How valuable is it to you? Heaven forbid, if you lost yours in a fire or other event, would you replace it? Is it a fad?

I am just curious of the worth of the machine to you. Not hunting, not digging, not on any mission. Just curious.

So current users, care to share your thoughts?   

[jamiem]

We would never go back, in fact, every once in a while we will make film for something or another and all reflect on how horrible that process was.  The amount of time saved is incredible, both in the handling and the accuracy when you get to press.

[jvanick]

if it cost 1.5 or 2x as much, I'm not sure we would have been able to purchase it when we did...

however, now that we have it... it's worth 4x as much.

cart before the horse?

[GKitson]

if it cost 1.5 or 2x as much, I'm not sure we would have been able to purchase it when we did...

however, now that we have it... it's worth 4x as much.

cart before the horse?

What Jason said, I agree totally with his analysis.

~Kitson

[Sbrem]

We don't have one, and can't see spending the money on it. We make upwards of 40 screens a day tops. I'd really like to see the ROI if anyone could share. Maybe if they were half the price, but even then. I'd rather get a newer press to replace our '94 Gauntlet. (We also have and MHM 10/12) That's this old guy's take anyway...

Steve

ps. When we switched from photo film to inkjet, it was no brainer, and the cost to covert was pretty short money, even 3 -1400's and a 4800 later...

[Homer]

We don't have one, and can't see spending the money on it. We make upwards of 40 screens a day tops. I'd really like to see the ROI if anyone could share. Maybe if they were half the price, but even then. I'd rather get a newer press to replace our '94 Gauntlet. (We also have and MHM 10/12) That's this old guy's take anyway...

Steve

ps. When we switched from photo film to inkjet, it was no brainer, and the cost to covert was pretty short money, even 3 -1400's and a 4800 later...

that really depends on what your time is worth. that is the only thing money can not buy and this machine gives us some of that back. Quality of life is improved and that, to me is priceless. You can always make more money, you can't make up time. but that's this young guys take.

[whitewater]

We don't have one, and can't see spending the money on it. We make upwards of 40 screens a day tops. I'd really like to see the ROI if anyone could share. Maybe if they were half the price, but even then. I'd rather get a newer press to replace our '94 Gauntlet. (We also have and MHM 10/12) That's this old guy's take anyway...

Steve

ps. When we switched from photo film to inkjet, it was no brainer, and the cost to covert was pretty short money, even 3 -1400's and a 4800 later...

I would look at it as to buy the films and ink to print them..maybe $45 per day - at 40 screens per day. Just averaging.  multiply that by 30 days - $1350 per month.

Maybe thats the payment on the CTS , so pay same price just to make things much easier. Seems to me a no brainer. LOL

[Sbrem]

we don't go through anything like that for film. We print a ton of reorder work (a couple dozen contract customers with 15 - 20 year histories) so a lot of the films already exist. We always have a few jobs ready to go at the presses, and I find it hard to believe that a quick remake would go faster than putting the film on the screen and burning it (The MHM FPU is super fast). I appreciate the help though, I'm going to do some more work when I have a chance...

Steve

[Homer]

no matter what we did, we could not keep films organized and would always loose one or get water on it or some stupid thing. So that slowed us waaay down on the reruns. The time lost in searching for films was brutal. Plus the glass heating up on the star light was getting annoying...

[3Deep]

If my company was going thru 60 or more screens a day with different art then yes it would be a no brainer to go CTS to move production faster.  I will say this the next big thing will roll out and everyone will jump on that as well and wonder how they ever went without it, just like having a cell phone now days, for some the CTS is money very well spent for others it's just a hey I got one too!!!

ps I think CTS is here to stay and more companies will jump on board and the price might come down some maybe, what where screenprinters using before the epson and inkjet film came a board in 2005?

[GraphicDisorder]

Knowing what I know now, id pay more. Not sure I could have done it at the same time but would still do it sooner than later.

[Doug S]

I know for a fact that we could not cycle through as many jobs per day when we are busy without it.  As far as film cost justifying the purchase, it doesn't but even if it cost me the same as far as materials to produce a screen using cts, I would still do it just because of the ease of setup now.  I could go back if I absolutely had to but it wouldn't be happily.  Before I did though, I would beg, borrow or steal from Peter to pay Paul to replace it.

[Sbrem]

no matter what we did, we could not keep films organized and would always loose one or get water on it or some stupid thing. So that slowed us waaay down on the reruns. The time lost in searching for films was brutal. Plus the glass heating up on the star light was getting annoying...

As long as they get put away in the right place, it's great. We have the fortunate combination of 5 people (myself, my partner, our artist, our screen guy and production manager) having worked together upwards of 30 years (almost 40 with the artist) so we have a system (the alphabet, pretty technical) but maintaining is the important part. At my old shop, where I was the screen guy, and my current screen guy was my assistant, we had custom cabinets, and custom large manila file folders made.

Steve

[Zelko-4-EVA]

we save about 1.00 per screen in just materials

before - average 4 rolls of 36"x100' film per month

after - average 1 bottle of i-Image ink


average for the past 11 months:

51 screens per day
1074 screens per month
11 bottles of ink

[GraphicDisorder]

Film for us was always a pain to dig up. I can't tell you how many times we'd dig up a job and find 1 of the flims was missing or some issue with it. Sure we could have been better at it but we no longer have to worry about that.  So when your doing film you must count time spent putting it away and finding it again plus time spent lining it up on your FPU.

I wouldn't go back, id even suggest id take a less amazing press than ditch my CTS.