# Full throttle



## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Starting Friday we have 400 dozen peices coming by freight. All white tees-I hope- 4 color fronts,
1 color backs, 2 designs.

We're gonna open up our new auto press for the first time doing such a long run. This is gonna be fun! Can't wait to see how fast we can actually print on this thing! 
We've been doing short runs, 50 pcs, 72pcs, 200pcs, etc., but no long runs and no hour or two continuos printing stretches. So I don't know what we're capable of yet.

I'm shooting for 360pcs/hr- WIDE OPEN!
I'll keep you posted on this odyssey.


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## n.signia (Nov 21, 2007)

keep us posted man, can't wait to hear how you do. I can't wait to justify an auto for us.

4800 shirts? wow. that will definately let you know what your capable of...


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## StickFigure (May 8, 2008)

the most we've printed is 10,000 and we just landed a 30,000 shirt order, that will be fun.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Stick, how r u going to handle 30k units? Robots?


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## StickFigure (May 8, 2008)

out da box said:


> Stick, how r u going to handle 30k units? Robots?


haha the deadline is a while away, just do some here and there, work saturdays


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## amp267 (Oct 11, 2006)

StickFigure said:


> haha the deadline is a while away, just do some here and there, work saturdays


what do you charge for a job like that, and can you go straight through the manufacturer of the shirts and buy directly


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## StickFigure (May 8, 2008)

pricing was tough, we had to bid on the order, and we just order some here and there, we dont have the storage for all of them at one time.


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## Ken Styles (Mar 16, 2006)

Wow, that is amazing. Who orders that many t-shirts? Unless it's like for an Orginization or a t-shirt give away at a HUGE event.
When I lived in Montana...there were less than 30,000 people that lived in the whole town. And that included women, children and I think even pets..haha


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## GreaseRags (Nov 29, 2007)

30,000!!!! I printed 60 and thought i was the poop!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

The thing you've got to realize when handling a job that big is the logistics.
When does shipment arrive? Where to stack them. How many cases of each color? Organize heavy cases of shirts. On and on....
We got our freight in today- a day early. 
Glad they got here early, so we can start first thing in the morning.
Problem is there is no artwork yet. 
I wanted to get a jump on the backs and get our timing and method down.
But we cant move yet. 
Got screens cleaned and boxes seperated and stacked and counted.
We operate as 2 man unit with one floater/troubleshooter.

5000 pcs stacked on your shop floor can make you intimidated. 

Hope we got enough tables to stack shirts.


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## Sheepsalt (Sep 12, 2007)

StickFigure said:


> pricing was tough, we had to bid on the order, and we just order some here and there, we dont have the storage for all of them at one time.


Have you talked with your vendor about blanket pricing? With that kind of quantity I'm sure you could deal direct with the manufacturer, lock in pricing for the full quantity and stagger the deliveries to a set schedule. You've probably already talked about this, but just in case...


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## macmiller (Jul 23, 2007)

I kinda know a guy who does 150k + runs somewhat regularly. I haven't been to his shop, but my buddy said it's floor to ceiling cases and has an ocean container full of shirts outside. I'm guessing that they come straight from the mfgr.

that kind of qty. blows my mind!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

I'll tell u what, its a major PIA!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

We managed 1600pcs, 1 color backs today. Here's pics


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

one changeover, took too LONG.
Did 400 backs and 1300 fronts today.
About the same production as yesterday- 1700pcs/10 hr shift.
We should be at 2400/ day.
The stop and go is killing us!

Take a note- DO NOT USE 230 MESH WITH BIG SPOT COLORS!!!
I had to use 2 strokes on the colors to get them opaque.
The back of this shirt used almost 4 gallons of genesis black in one day.
That was on a 110 mesh and a pretty big image area. Sucked ink like exxon gas.
So I burned the bottom colors on 230 mesh to save on ink- backfired.

Live and learn. Monday we'll do 2500 pcs.


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## neato (Mar 21, 2006)

Have you tried reducing that black a bit to get it to go through the 230 easier?


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## Deivid (Nov 10, 2007)

Holy crap those are some big runs! Last summer when I worked at a print house we managed about 400 pcs two color prints an hour (could've been a bit more). We had two guys on the press and one guy at the other end of the conveyor dryer stacking 'em up. I have no idea wether that's optimal speed or not but it required a lot of focus and we couldn't have done any more even if we had tried.

Edit: and if we had done this for 10 hrs we'd be dead already. So we had runs of 1200 shirts altogether...


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## spreadingink (Feb 10, 2008)

We regularly print over a thousand impressions daily - usually with a couple of setups. It can be done. As for the 230 mesh - you are on the right track. We have a job we often do that has a very large spot color in a custom mix gray - we put it on a 280 to save on ink - it works fine to do this and in fact we often do stuff for clothing co's that goes through 280 so you should be able to do 230 with no problem. If your inks won't run through the 230 you might reduce them slightly, but really I wouldn't think you have to do that, what inks are you using?

It's fun doing longer runs and less setups - lets you stretch your legs a bit!

Have fun!

Dave


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## Ken Styles (Mar 16, 2006)

Dude keep up the good work. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!! (green light for money), haha

so mesh count should have been around 156?

I use 156 now for just about everything from whites to black inks.

I used 110 the other day for a shimmer ink which came out amazing.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

3 days in. 
4600pcs. First half of job finished.
GRINDING....

Damn we're using ink!
Here's some pics.


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## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

Wow !!!!!! thats awesome . good luck .... JB


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## acanvas (Sep 27, 2007)

StickFigure said:


> the most we've printed is 10,000 and we just landed a 30,000 shirt order, that will be fun.



O.k, so where does one go to land 30,000 unit orders??? That is awesom! seriously, who do you primarily market too? I need to start marketing to people who need more than a few dozen to a few hundred per run.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Amen to that! THe public wants to know!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

1700 pcs today. Almost there. Another 2-3 gallons of black ink. 4 more screens to burn. 4 more set-ups.
1 color change, 80 dozen more shirts to do- front AND back.
I see tees in my sleep! I am ready for this to end.


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## Ken Styles (Mar 16, 2006)

80 doz wow....chaaching!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Finally broke 2000pcs today. Just barely. Guy just ordered 50 doz more peices.
This may not ever end! 

PS, the pay aint what you think =


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## Sheepsalt (Sep 12, 2007)

> PS, the pay aint what you think =


Especially if you quoted it expecting to do 2400 pcs/day, huh? Yeah, I know all about that...

Congrats on hitting 2000, though! That's working. And now if you can make those numbers for the addl 50doz, maybe you'll get closer to your margin. 

Keep it up, Brother!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Well we finally finished Wednesday morning. If I can get 1.00/shirt I'll live. Spent a lot on supplies, ink, and labor. Not to mention the cleanup, the 14 screens we burned, the 8 or 9 gallons of ink we used, and the tying up of our shop for 5 whole days.
I'll do it maybe once a month to keep us sharp and stretch that Diamond Back out.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Oh yeah my new dryer came last night! A dollar short and a day late. But we needed it! 
Ask me how we ran 20-40doz shirts through my old dryer and the ink didn't fall off =


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## coolkyle (Feb 9, 2008)

In my opinion, the most important and most commonly overlooked part of running an auto quickly and getting a lot done is the......press assistant. If you have someone slow or inexperienced as your #2, downtime can double/triple that of having two good printers running the machine. Also, the puller should be in charge of heads/screens (on an 8-color) 5-8 and the loader 1-4, in terms of staying inked-up and lint-free. It's not that tough getting 3500 prints from an automatic press in a day, you just need to minimize downtime.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Kyle, thanks for the heads up. We ran up to 48 doz/hr during some stretches, but had too much stop and go. Especially inking up and cleaning up.
I had a friend come over and adjust my press- minimize delays.
I did 62 doz/hr on small hand towels few nights ago.
We'll keep at it.


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## spreadingink (Feb 10, 2008)

True, 3500 prints is do-able as long as it is one design and you can just keep it inked up and go. If it is multiple designs and setups that is when it becomes much more difficult. Do to the size of most of the runs we do we try to do about 1200 - 1500 imprints daily on our 12 color machine. Of course, we are doing 4-6 setups to get there though and that is where the real challenge comes in. I wish we could set up daily and run one design for 8 hours, but the reality is that there are not that many jobs that are out there like that. Most are smaller numbers than that.

Dave


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

We're averaging 200pcs per hour with one or two people on the floor. 1000 shirts per day for 5 days or so this past week. We worked Saturday. We'll print all day every day until the end of the month looks like. Which is good.
Having set-up issued, ink color issues, table space issues, etc is not.
I really like the challenge of heavy production- it really forces your hand. I wish I could print steady some days just to make sure 2500pcs in a 8-10 hour day is possible with consistency and proper image placement.


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## spreadingink (Feb 10, 2008)

I wish I had one or two people on the floor! I usually have from 9 - 15 depending on the work load (running two autos and one manual daily).

It is a challenge sometimes though - no doubt!

Dave


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Dave, you guys are pushing units! That's great. 
I didn't think we'd be doing this type of volume when I first got the auto.
Got my hands on an old six color manual which I refurbished last week. So now we have a second production machine to set-up on. Just need some good help.


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## spreadingink (Feb 10, 2008)

That can be a really big challenge as well.

Thanks,

Dave


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## printing40years (Dec 27, 2008)

try out 160 mesh...no higher unless doing process work with fine dots


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## alan802 (Mar 24, 2008)

One day last year we did 3000 pcs in one day on an 18 year old press, 15 year old dryer and three guys. The next day we weren't worth a damn, only got 1900 done. Today we did two different jobs, three setups two colors each and about 1300 shirts. We took it easy and didn't push too hard. Today was the first day with an extended run on the new press. The pallets are about four inches higher than the old press and that really makes a huge difference on your back. 

Good to see shops doing some good numbers. Keep it up Ridge.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

This week we had a good stretch on a big order. 2500 shirts front and back, 2 designs, 12 screens, 4 set-ups. 4 people on the floor most of the time.

2 day production time- total 20 hrs.
2500 shirts per day. We had the machine set for 50 doz/hr and rarely stopped.


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## spreadingink (Feb 10, 2008)

That is the way you do it! It starts taking a lot more people with more than one press though - got feed them shirts, inks, screens - it never ends!

Great Job Ridgely!

Dave


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

out da box said:


> This week we had a good stretch on a big order. 2500 shirts front and back, 2 designs, 12 screens, 4 set-ups. 4 people on the floor most of the time.
> 
> 2 day production time- total 20 hrs.
> 2500 shirts per day. We had the machine set for 50 doz/hr and rarely stopped.


She's bare foot! I print bare foot sometimes too lol. I need an auto, jeez. It took us 7 days to print 1500 shirts, 5 designs, 20 screens. Turning jobs out like that must be nice.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHgNi-Hv0ak[/media]


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

Cool video.


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## acanvas (Sep 27, 2007)

WOW that makes me want an auto SOOOOOOOOO badly! But for now, I'm off to print...manually....uhg


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

New Pics. I'm so glad we're getting busy. I've got video later.


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## jim.goodwin (Jul 8, 2008)

out da box said:


> Ask me how we ran 20-40doz shirts through my old dryer and the ink didn't fall off =


 
I'm gonna guess you put a flash dryer over the end of your tunnel dryer. (I think I may end up doing the same thing if we have all three manual presses running at once.)

Those numbers make me dizzy. We usually do less than 100 shirts per order. Thinking in dozens is not something I want to do.


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

out da box said:


> New Pics. I'm so glad we're getting busy. I've got video later.


Getting busy? You've been busy .


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

One man loading and unloading at 42 dozen per hour. Having fun at the shop. VIDEO.

[media]



[/media]


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## Babs (Dec 3, 2007)

Hi,
I like the design on your black t-shirt display! I also like your enthusiasm for what you're doing. Subway Soaps is the name of my t-shirt business. I haven't done black tees yet but I will in the future. Wish you well!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

That's not me printing, in fact i'm in none of the pictures or videos. That's Kahayr, he's showing off.


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