whats your biggest "time suck" in your shop?

[ericheartsu]

ericheartsu,

My advice for you on your press...keep everything consistent. Set the off contact and then just leave it the same on every job. I have my press so all the heads print the same speed and same everything. The white is really the only head that gets messed with. Yes i adjust a little here and there but not too far from my base settings is needed. This gives you a solid starting point on every job. With time it will be second nature how much from your base setting to adjust to get the print dead on. Thats all I have for you. I am no expert.

from screen to screen, it really does vary, and i'm trying to figure out why they do so much. We only use m3 frames on our press, which puzzles me as well

[Screened Gear]

ericheartsu,

My advice for you on your press...keep everything consistent. Set the off contact and then just leave it the same on every job. I have my press so all the heads print the same speed and same everything. The white is really the only head that gets messed with. Yes i adjust a little here and there but not too far from my base settings is needed. This gives you a solid starting point on every job. With time it will be second nature how much from your base setting to adjust to get the print dead on. Thats all I have for you. I am no expert.

from screen to screen, it really does vary, and i'm trying to figure out why they do so much. We only use m3 frames on our press, which puzzles me as well

Sounds like you need to put in some hours of adjusting the press..

[ericheartsu]

We even had it completely rebuilt last month!

[Spreading Ink]

We even had it completely rebuilt last month!

After rebuild did you have the heads all leveled, pallets leveled and the press calibrated?  Sounds like you may still need to have this done.

[ericheartsu]

We even had it completely rebuilt last month!

After rebuild did you have the heads all leveled, pallets leveled and the press calibrated?  Sounds like you may still need to have this done.

yep! this press is weird, it has ONE fork for registration. it's pretty silly.

[T Shirt Farmer]

Eric

What make and model press do you have?

[ericheartsu]

Eric

What make and model press do you have?

it's an M&M/AWT Xpress 10/12

[TCT]

Eric- How long have you had the press? I know when I first got a auto I hated setting it up because it took so long, but with time it got better. Then we got a better press. The new pre reg system our S.Roque uses in my opinion can't be beat, possibly rivaled by MHM POSSIBLY. But I guess I don't know all the ins and outs of the MHM system.

[alan802]

So is most of that time spent test printing...adjusting micros...test printing...adjusting micros...adjusting off contact...test printing?  Or is that from screen exposure, dry, tapeup, screen registration, test printing, adjusting, etc.  I know back in the centurian days before it was calibrated and using 10 newton statics it would take an hour to two hours to set up a 4 color job and test print till it looked decent.  Do you mind walking us through what a typical setup feels like with time spent on certain tasks?  That could answer some questions if we knew exactly which process is causing you the most grief.

Without a regi system and manually setting screens a 4 color should be 15-20 minutes and 3-4 test prints then production.  Regi system and that job from screen on press to final test print should be 10 minutes or less.

[TCT]

Our biggest time waster depends. For the "front end" it is dealing with clueless customers. For the production end of things I would say it is mixing specific discharge colors and like Kitson said "100% ship polices". We try to put individual packing slips in each box, that takes time. But I think I got a "system" almost set up. I'm trying to use our UPS printer to print packing slips from a template. Then we just fill in the blank on the computer and print.
MY personal time suck is the damn phone!!!!!! When I started out I never thought I would say it, but I hate to hear the phone ring!

[GraphicDisorder]

Our biggest time waster depends. For the "front end" it is dealing with clueless customers. For the production end of things I would say it is mixing specific discharge colors and like Kitson said "100% ship polices". We try to put individual packing slips in each box, that takes time. But I think I got a "system" almost set up. I'm trying to use our UPS printer to print packing slips from a template. Then we just fill in the blank on the computer and print.
MY personal time suck is the damn phone!!!!!! When I started out I never thought I would say it, but I hate to hear the phone ring!

Don't answer it, if they love your service and print work enough they will do businees your way! 

[Screened Gear]

Eric- How long have you had the press? I know when I first got a auto I hated setting it up because it took so long, but with time it got better. Then we got a better press. The new pre reg system our S.Roque uses in my opinion can't be beat, possibly rivaled by MHM POSSIBLY. But I guess I don't know all the ins and outs of the MHM system.

Nothing beats the MHM system.

You can load then in backwards and they are still registered. Hell, You can load the screens upside down and they are still registered. (Not sure why you would do that)

[ericheartsu]

So generally i have all of the screens for the day made by 9am, taped up and blocked out by 10am. Typically on press by 11am.

Each screen is put into a head, using our newman pin lock system. All of our screens are between 30 and 40 newtons, on m3s.

Screens are lined up to the pin lock, then each corner of the screen is checked to make sure off contact is equal. After one head is set up and checked, it's then on to the next one, then the next etc..etc...

after each screen is checeked, and registered, it's then inked up, then squeegees and flood bars go on. We use Action winged flood bars, and either smiling jack or 70 duro squeegees. Sometimes tripple duro, if we feel it needs it.

after that each screen is printed one by one, and this is usually where the longest part comes in. Even though we use the pin lock system, we've found that we have to micro register each head several times to get it in perfect.

Now it could be that we've been printing this press so much, that it needs to be re-registered (even though it was re-registered and leveled about a month ago). And to answer TCT's question, we've had this press since summer of 2012. and before that we had a challenger 1

[Screened Gear]

If your press does eventually register then its registration is fine. 4 hours is a long time for what you just said. I did a 8 color on my press with no prereg (before I got one for my press) and it took me only about 1.5 hours and that was taking my time. Maybe your just really slow? How old are you? Do you walk with a crutch? Are you in a wheel chair? Are you missing both arms so you use your mouth to put the screens in? Are you Blind? These are all things that my be why it take you so long. Ok, kidding aside. How long did it take to register on the Challenger you had? It must me so frustrating for you to print.

[ScreenFoo]

If you're reading 30-40 newtons on screens you're setting up multicolor, that may be part of your issue--try a set of screens that are all 30N. 
If you slip up mesh inconsistently, you can still have low and high tension pockets--are you measuring tension on five or nine points, or just in the middle? 

I'd have to agree, four hours is rather excessive, might be time to go through that thing with a good tech and level it out, make sure nothings loose.