Screen Printers Wish List

[mimosatexas]

Regardless, at a certain point I would tell someone off if they were wasting my time with quotes that never turn into jobs.  That time isn't trivial.

[TCT]

Is it just the cheap nail polish I'm using but ours doesn't like to let go when reclaiming.

Another thought Gilligan, WE are talking about getting the polish off screens.... My guess is you are having a hard time getting it off your nails after the weekend

A startup clothing line.

There is your answer right there.

[Gilligan]

Is it just the cheap nail polish I'm using but ours doesn't like to let go when reclaiming.

Another thought Gilligan, WE are talking about getting the polish off screens.... My guess is you are having a hard time getting it off your nails after the weekend

A startup clothing line.

There is your answer right there.

BaZing!  Guess I had that one coming after the brown box joke.

[Lizard]

I'd like a floodbar or even better a squeegee type blade for our fill stroke/flood stroke that when there is no longer ink in the well it will make some sort of a sound so the operator can hear that he's running low on ink.  Once every few weeks one of my guys will come to my desk with a shirt that was pulled from the press that is missing ink in the middle of the print area. 

Would you guys believe me if I told you this happened with a one color black ink on red shirts, ON THE MANUAL PRESS the other day?  How in the hell does that happen?  Out of all the dumbest things I've ever seen that takes the cake.  He flooded, didn't notice, printed, didn't notice, lifted the screen and apparently didn't look at the print and didn't notice, then pulled the shirt!!!  I'm still amazed by that one. #DUMB

Winged flood bars do whistle when dry but if you can't see a dry screen on a manual who is gonna listen to a flood bar?

[StuJohnston]

Heat set graphic inks that are more like plastisol in terms of curing. I realize that UV inks are sort of what I am looking for, but I already have a conveyor dryer that puts out heat and I am not really interested in buying another conveyor dryer and another set of screens to deal with the thinness of the UV ink.

[Inkworks]

Winged flood bars do whistle when dry but if you can't see a dry screen on a manual who is gonna listen to a flood bar?

I can hear a dry-flood across the shop while next to the running embroidery machine with a phone in one ear. Luckily both my printers are pretty good about keeping ink on the screens too, but it sure sucks when head # 4 goes dry and you have like 5 colours after it and have to double print a carousel full of shirts to fix them and 90% of the print is bulletproof and the middle is still a little lighter, drives me @&%$ing nuts.

[Evo]

My wish list?

It's short:

1) Standards.



No more mystery. Industry wide standards for color, registration systems, substrate suitability, etc etc.

Offset and digital printing has had this sh*t down for decades. Heck we stole (and for the most part badly implemented) their color standards.

You can arrive at a result fifty different ways at fifty different screen printing shops. It's never a question of what, it's always a question of how. Gimme standards.

[tonypep]

Probably (definitely?) never going to happen. Unfortunately opinions and sometimes egos (including my own) will always muddy the waters. To be fair to our industry however, there are far more interdependant variables than offset or digital. Sure, we have Pantone for color reference, however, aside from Union Tru-tone process inks, no SWOP standards to adhere to. With DC and WB inks we still don't have reliable formulation and that can change due to substrate. As can mesh count selection and tension, which in turn may change squeegee parameters; which include but are not limited to composition, durometer, supported height, pressure, angle of attack and speed. Which may chage due to ink rheolgy and viscosity. Which may change all of the above and far more. Which may change print sequence and flash options. Which include time, temperature, height, and the very nature of the unit itself. And all of the above and more is image specific.
Example, At Marc Eckos shop in NJ they were stacking gels and HDs like crazy. We'd get it perfect, using rasta bars and tri-locs etc. Problem was with four flashes on each auto the ink rheology and viscosity broke down and many prints colapsed like a bad souffle after about an hour. The variables had changed causing the other variables that were dependant upon them to consequently fail.
All that said it is of course important to establish a structure within each shop that is tried and true and proven to yield predictable results within in your shop. Our friend Dave, as with others, is a huge proponent of this. So here in this forum we can seek advice and opinions and that is obviously and usually helpful.
But that just muddies the waters even further doesn't it?

[sweetts]

I thought I saw block out pens or you could use nail polish which come in a pencil like applicator
For the registration marks why not change your registration color in your program ?

Nail polish doesn't breathe, and eventually does what tape does. (discharge seeps around it, making odd
discharge marks and ruining garments)

The printed color of the reg mark would have to be different, not in the art itself. RIPs treat everything as black.


Ahhh mist my discharge has been 100 or less so this is good to know. I see your Rip point, for 80% of the stuff I run straight from Corel with no issues. Thanks for making it clear to me.

Ok I will add one.

A database of bad customers. Guys that don't pay, that are pain in the ass, one that quote all the time but never order, ones that after the job is printed complain about anything and everything to try to get a discount. It would be a industry website that all screen printers could post to.

I have about five I could add to the list right now.

Dude no foolin'. We're pretty lucky with not having the after the fact guys, but we do have a few effing weirdos that request 17 quotes once a month or so,
never ordered anything. One guy calls just about every week, and after getting his estimate says "this is great, I'll call back later today to place the order!" and never has. This industry attracts some strange ones.

Kiwo Blockout WR

Been using it for a few months and works very well.  Ran 1,000+ with no problem.

Thanks! I though I remembered someone mentioning one, I'll have to see if I can get it in.

Ahhh most my runs are short and I run. 80% of films without a different rip so I see now why my answer was overly simple, thanks for the education. Always learning

Roger
RT screen designs
Www.rtscreendesigns. Com

[mk162]

my biggest:

A solvent dishwasher.  A place I can put all of my squeegees, floodbars, ink knives, mixing trays and so on in and get them all cleaned.  This is more important for ink knives frankly, but something that would take 15-20 minutes maybe to clean ink off a load of stuff.  I am a huge fan of automation, something that an employee can start, walk away from and come back to them ready to use.  Something similar for screens would be great too, i know they exist, but the price tag is just a little too high for most shops.

[alan802]

Sometimes you can hear when a screen is dry but most of the time you don't hear it at our shop.  Maybe it has something to do with our fill/flood techniques, emulsion, ink, etc.  My guys probably wouldn't notice it anyway if we did have something that was loud enough, they aren't very observant. 

[3Deep]

My wish list would this....

#1
     A screen print super supply store, where I can buy all my supplies in one place all brands of inks, emulsions, screen's etc.
#2
      A T shirt supply house a few miles down the road from us so I can just go pick up our orders.
#3
      This dam Anatol auto of mine had a green light to tell me when table is in the right position to lock the table, instead of me eyeballing the forks and being off just a little and hearing that banging sound.
#4
      Customers that believe White and black inks are real printable colors

Darryl
  PS more to come later LOL

[ScreenFoo]

Sometimes you can hear when a screen is dry but most of the time you don't hear it at our shop.  Maybe it has something to do with our fill/flood techniques, emulsion, ink, etc.  My guys probably wouldn't notice it anyway if we did have something that was loud enough, they aren't very observant.

I'd +1 the earlier comment about winged floods, but ours aren't winged and I can hear a screen that's out of ink thirty feet away on press here.

Of course, that doesn't keep people from out of ink misprinting, so I guess we need some sort of invention.... perhaps involving some sort of machinery that kicks people in the butt? 
 

[TCT]

Darryl, I am with you on #1. We will have to discuss who gets the royalties on the idea, because I have been thinking about trying to do something like that(even though I know NOTHING about making a website or the supply side of things) for a while. It would be great, but would have to have no more than a 2 day ship. I think why it hasn't been done is from my understanding the bigger companies don't want someone selling the competition in the same venue. It would be harder to push company "A's" products when you also sell Company "B", "C" and "D". All with very little differences. When was the last time you saw a Chevy, Ford, GMC, Cadillac, Toyota, Dodge and KIA dealership all under one roof? It is too bad because I think it would only benefit the end user(us).  Comparing would be a breeze and convenience, forget about it! Sure would be cool though! Maybe you and I can start, we will take out ad's in the classified part of the newspapers all along the Mississippi, it will be huge! 

Your #2 is over rated so don't feel bad. We have 2 here(well sort of, if you can even consider Rivers End one anymore) and we have pick up a orders maybe 3 times this year. With free shipping from so many vendors, it really usually isn't worth your time, let alone gas!


I have the same knack for hearing a scraping flood bar from across the shop. I feel old when I have to tell the guys to turn the music down! They don't know it is because I am trying to listen if they are going to mess up!

[ebscreen]

A solvent dishwasher.  A place I can put all of my squeegees, floodbars, ink knives, mixing trays and so on in and get them all cleaned.  This is more important for ink knives frankly, but something that would take 15-20 minutes maybe to clean ink off a load of stuff.  I am a huge fan of automation, something that an employee can start, walk away from and come back to them ready to use.  Something similar for screens would be great too, i know they exist, but the price tag is just a little too high for most shops.

Yep, this would be a big one. I wonder how much pressure you'd need to remove white plastisol from an ink
knife?