Education Series is starting!

[blue moon]

we are gonna give this a try.

Several industry experts have agreed to start some educational post. They will be similar in format to the White ink posts I did few years back (progressively advancing the topic).

Joe Clarke will start with Plastisol and Richard Greaves offered to tackle Mesh. The posts will start with the absolute basics (something an outsider would understand) and slowly move up to very advanced (if there is interest in it). So the first question might be "What is mesh?" and will work through various topics related to mesh (selection, color, tension, elongation, flow and so on) as the previous post is answered. Feel free to answer at any level and please do not be shy answering the very basic stuff. We need those answers to build the proper foundation for later discussions.

 Also, to make things easier and not make us look like a bunch of idiots, please be respectful and stay on topic! The goal is to dive in very deep into the subjects and will thus have to go in order, from the simplest to the most complicated. Feel free to suggest topics, but they (Joe and Richard) might want to do this in their order. I don't know yet where this is going or how it'll work, we'll make adjustments on the fly. Please be respectful to the ppl taking the time out of their day to do something for us. There are few other high level ppl willing to help, but I am going to hold off getting them going until we work out the kinks and see that there is enough interest.

We are hoping that a lot of this information here eventually ends up in the Garment Decorating Encyclopedia we are working on right now.

play nice!

pierre

[blue moon]

we are open to suggestions!
Please let us know what we can do to make this better. Also, any suggestions on topics to tackle next are welcome.

pierre

[ericheartsu]

this is awesome. even though i've been printing for about 10 years, i'd still love to know and understand alot of the basics that i may have missed out on learning the first time around.

[mk162]

Well, the next obvious topic would be emulsion and light sources.

I think this is awesome.  There is a ton of really really bad info out there and it would be nice to have industry experts set the record straight.

[Homer]

topics:

creating the perfect underbase....
choosing the correct mesh / line count...
Proper curing "tests" - is the stretch test accurate?

[Shanarchy]

This is great!

Joe and Richard are two people I just love hearing talking about screen printing and know I can take their word as gospel.

[blue moon]

topics:

creating the perfect underbase....
choosing the correct mesh / line count...
Proper curing "tests" - is the stretch test accurate?

I think most of these will be part of a bigger topic like plastisol (white ink printing and thus underbase), mesh would cover the selection of the count and lpi and so on. . . Make sure we cover these in their respective topics.

stretch test is not accurate! So we could do something on why it is not the way to go and what does it really tell as part of curing.

pierre

[Printficient]

How about troubleshooting?  I would be happy to talk on that subject.

[mk162]

sonny=trouble. so troubleshooting would mean... 

[Sbrem]

I guess I would like to see them just dispense the knowledge as they see fit, knowing it would be all good stuff. Much of their info I've read over the years and was always inspired by it, not to mention having my eyes opened...

Steve

[jvanick]

I'd love to see some stuff on efficiency and best industry practice/benchmarks.

ie.  "Industry standard" is 5 minutes per color setup from empty press to ready to print.  (how do you get there... (trilock, etc)).

How long should it take on average to clean a screen from de-ink/de-tape to degrease...

etc.

[bimmridder]

I think if you just say to either of them, "I have a quick question for you", you'd be in for a few hour conversation   

[DannyGruninger]

Topic -

Hiring, Firing, Incentives, Bonuses, Tracking productivity, etc........ Dealing with growing pains, when you need full time hr, etc

[ericheartsu]

Topic -

Hiring, Firing, Incentives, Bonuses, Tracking productivity, etc........ Dealing with growing pains, when you need full time hr, etc

yes

[farmboygraphics]

Very cool...waiting to soak this all in!