# Your printing speeds with manual press?



## Deivid (Nov 10, 2007)

Just got this idea from another thread regarding automatic presses. Those of you using a manual press - what is your optimal/top printing speed with,say, simple one color printing jobs?

Yesterday I was printing Cotton Canvas Bags, just a simple one color logo and I noticed I was printing approx. 120 bags per hour. I can't really say how many shirts I can print in a hurry.

How fast is it really possible to print with a manual? What is the top speed of a screen printing master?


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

We can do 144 pcs/hr or more one color on a manual. It's possible to do close to 200, but you have to BURN!
Probably couldn't do it all day.
WE print 100- 4 color designs in an hour.


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## brent (Nov 3, 2006)

I can do around 150 simple prints an hour.
short sleeve prints are the easiest, I can do about 4 a minute...


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## youtees (May 19, 2008)

This is like asking "how fast does a car go". 
I have 27 years experience in SP and have operated about every manual press out there on every kind of job. There are so many answers to this that it buries the question.
1.) depennds on the skills of the printer.
2.)depends on the weight and size of the press.
3.) depends on the print(light ink on dark or dark ink on light?)
4.) depends on the number of colors/sreens
5.)depends on how fast your drier is.
6.) depends on if you are running it alone or double teaming.
7.) You have to add the FOLD time in as production time(cheaters!)
8.) Depends on what BRAND of ink you are using(oneshot will be faster than two flash Union or qcm or...)
9.) depends on how many beers you had.(Don't Drink and Print!)
10.)depends on if you talk on the phone.
Depends on how many stations you are running(even on a one color)
11.)Depends on what DVD you are watching as you kill another long night printing.
12.) Depends on how clean a printer you are(gotta deduct time for spot blasting!!!)
13.) Depends on if you are working for yourself or lining somebody elses pockets with YOUR speed-slave-printing(Bleh!!!)
14.) depends on if you LIKE that somebody else you are s-s-p' ing for?
15.) Depends on your screen print bio-rythms( you know what I mean...some days the LAST thing you want to see is that press or never ending job)
16.) Have you done all that the Screen printing Gods demand of YOU...to have a good day screen printing?
17.) Did your girlfriend just leave you BECAUSE you are a screen printer(happens...and it will slow you down unless you already found another!)
18.) Do you have a winning lottery ticket in your pocket? Screen printing and suspense do not mix.
19.) did you get a good screen or does it look like a starry night(pin-holes) the longer you print with it(gotta deduct that blockout time!)
20.) Are you the ONLY guy screen printing a job today where NOTHING goes wrong and so the WHOLE job(not that little time where you were inconsistently 'amazing')fast and perfect?

then there is really no point in asking. Just do the best you can. Sometimes I blister stuff out on the rotary I built(super accurate and quality ALWAYS being first)...and sometimes I just mosey along and talk along with some movie I have watched way too many times. The better question is what are YOU actually getting out of the job? There will always be some guy running an auto or even manualwho doesn't even put down the squeegee to take a shower(if he takes showers at all?) . That is robot printing. Is that where you want to be?


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## macmiller (Jul 23, 2007)

lee, that was awesome!

one color on light I run 100-150/hour. prints like that i only use one station, it seems to go a lot quicker. on dark with a flash print it slows to about 70/hr. That's by myself loading & unloading, letting them drop into a box. sometimes my wife catches them off the dryer.

I know a guy who can print 20 doz./hr on a all heads down manual with 2 people printing. I'd like to see that in person!


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## Deivid (Nov 10, 2007)

A wonderful analysis. Lee, I salute you. Yeah we all know everything depends on everything but all those things weren't meant to be taken into consideration. I wanted to know what 'max speed' is! And man, these guys here get busy! That means I can get better too. Sure, I work with a piece of crap but no excuses. No, Sensei! I must train the art of screen printing relentlessly so one day I might carry a Black Belt around my waste. 

But I think Mr. Miyagi once said it best - "Someone always know more".


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Sure, you wouldn't want to print manually all day, every day at s cases per hour, but .....
When you need to, you need to. 1000 pcs * 1.00 = 1,000 bucks. Do that in a day and a half or even 2 days and guess what? Most people dont make that in a week!
You don't work, you don't eat... that's my motto. 
Keep it spinnin' !


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## ironhead (Dec 28, 2005)

Me and my partner just did a one color logo on 100 tees the other day. He prints, then hands it to me and I wait for them to dry under the flash and fold.
We were doing about 30 shirts an hour.

Now we've both only been printing tees for just over a year and still inspect very closely at every shirt that comes off the printer. We could go faster but that will come with more experience and a faster way of drying.

We still made over 200 dollars a piece net profit for just a little over 3 hrs of printing. 
That's more than I usually make at my real job in 8 hrs so I can't complain.


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## acanvas (Sep 27, 2007)

Lee you are so right, it totally depends on the day, my mood, I usually am printing alone while Ivett is reclaiming or doing art prep for clients or she prints alone while I create development packages for clients or try to remember I am also a mom and even though my son is a teen, at least once every couple months he might appreciate me putting him before our clients....
We were told when we started, if your time equates to a minimum of $60.00 an hour your fine, just don't go under that. We rarely are near $60.00 usually over $100.00 but that compensates for when the pin holes and boredom and phone calls and i just want 1 more smoke break all take us well under the $60.00 an hour. We are looking at what we need to bring in per month to have the salaries, savings and capital investment funds we personally want. If our roller coaster speed meets these numbers, we're o.k.


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## youtees (May 19, 2008)

There is no max speed. Unless you drop your press out of a plane and then there is a terminal velocity/max speed...but otherwise you just cannot remove the human element and the subjectivity that is built into that. Oh yeah...I forgot to list weather/temperature. If you are printing in a 110 degree shop and sweating in your screen(I printed 8 years in Arizona)you won't be as fast as someone printing in 70 degrees. Union has released an Ink that is impervious to sweat. I believe it is labeled: AZ- 110...not sure...feel free to call their 800 number and ask.


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## youtees (May 19, 2008)

If I eat more than 5 cans of Beef-a-Roni in two days....I know aI need to do some sales.


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## rusty (Feb 9, 2007)

You also have to realize that as your speed goes up, your quality control goes down. I personally prefer quality shirts and return customers rather than seeing how fast I can print.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

I prefer both.


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

One of the few times that I have timed myself, I printed 150/hr. That's 1 color prints, and I had to stop and fold between size changes. You definitely have to be in the mood to print to get fast. Some days I just don't feel like printing, so my print speed is alot slower.


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## rusty (Feb 9, 2007)

out da box said:


> I prefer both.


Who wouldn't? And I would like to live on pizza and cookies and have rock hard abs.


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## youtees (May 19, 2008)

rusty said:


> Who wouldn't? And I would like to live on pizza and cookies and have rock hard abs.


Yes! and you can do all that. Especially with the new BEERFLEX fitness equipment(I actually have tees of this!) That "I prefer both" comment one poster made?...come'on now...that means nothing. We go as fast as we can or want to and it is different based on skills/equipment/job/mood.etc. Nobody is kidding anybody on this erroneous speed issue. Wanna go faster youngsters?...get a motorcycle. Pro printing is not about speed. If it is...show us even ONE trophy you have won. What???! No Trophies??? Rusty is right. Put quality first. Speed comes naturally to the right circumstances. I have worked with more kinds of printers and presses than most here will ever do or see and reality ALWAYS rises above the claims people make. No one cares what we do speed wise(except for some customers who are never happy), but the quality you put out or do not says the only thing that matters TOMMORROW(when your speed is just a memory but the garments tell others what is REAL about your qulaity/ability).


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## cmyk (Dec 3, 2007)

i have a one color press and waiting for my 4 color 2 station press to arrive at the end of the week.

using my actual press i can print 20 - 25 tees/hour, one small white logo on dark shirts.

usually i work alone, and i pre/cure with a heat gun and use a heat press for the final curing.

i've beend screen printing for almost a month now


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## youtees (May 19, 2008)

hint: LOSE the heat gun. I cannot believe that 'R' is telling people that is a way to flash anything! You can get faster and less spotty "pre-cures" with a $10.00 500 watt halogen work lamp. Why are you "pre-curing" on your press? Print next to your electric oven and you can full cure on the spot in about 25 secs each(to 35). If you are going faster then you can still use the electric oven to flash(or 'precure as you say)and do that in about 6 secs. I KNOW from what you say you have WAY to much time and effort spent in precuring/curing the shirts. I can guess where you are getting your press(with zero micro tuning right? that will introduce you to a whole different set of problems. ) based on that you are using a heat gun in your process. Cringe. Welcome to screen printing! As it were.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Why can't you go fast and have quality? I would hold any one of my tees against anyone's and I'll tell you that my quality is excellent. Everybody screws up, granted. You make mistakes when rushing.
But when your art is right, your screens are right, your press is tight and registered and you're set, then get it on get it down and get it off, that's how we run em.
Time is money, we print a lot of shirts and it's ALWAYS a rush order. We grind hard.
I'm paid to be a efficient as possible AND still have excellent quality.
True dont sacrifice quality for speed, but don't sacrifice speed for incompetence.
Keep it spinnin'- 1700 pcs today.


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## rusty (Feb 9, 2007)

out da box said:


> Why can't you go fast and have quality? I would hold any one of my tees against anyone's and I'll tell you that my quality is excellent. Everybody screws up, granted. You make mistakes when rushing.
> But when your art is right, your screens are right, your press is tight and registered and you're set, then get it on get it down and get it off, that's how we run em.
> Time is money, we print a lot of shirts and it's ALWAYS a rush order. We grind hard.
> I'm paid to be a efficient as possible AND still have excellent quality.
> ...


I don't care to get into an argument over who's better and who's faster. But the simple fact is that as your speed increases, your quality goes down. Say what you want, but that's reality. If you print 150/hr and I'm printing 100/hr, everything else being equal, I guarantee you that I will have better quality shirts. Now at 150/hr, your shirts may have "acceptable quality" to you, and may not be acceptable to me. It's all objective.

I'm curious, are your shirts lint free? Do you never get any pin holes in your prints from a piece of lint on the shirt? Because there is no way you can repair the lint holes and remove the lint from the screen and still do 150/hr. Or do you use a lint roller before you put each shirt on?


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Do 1700 pcs in a day on an automatic or 600 pcs/ day on a manual, than ask me about a lint spot or pin hole. 
I will say this, I rarely have a customer bring shirts back.
Like I said we move units- fast. We don't have the time to b.s. You can print fast AND good. Trust me, been doin it a while. You ask anybody who has a lot of volume- what's their production rates and expectations, If you can't move- I dont need you. We burn screens in 15sec- with or without halftones.
I go from inkjet to press in less than 30 minutes.
Time is money.
.


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## rusty (Feb 9, 2007)

out da box said:


> Do 1700 pcs in a day on an automatic or 600 pcs/ day on a manual, than ask me about a lint spot or pin hole.
> I will say this, I rarely have a customer bring shirts back.
> Like I said we move units- fast. We don't have the time to b.s. You can print fast AND good. Trust me, been doin it a while. You ask anybody who has a lot of volume- what's their production rates and expectations, If you can't move- I dont need you. We burn screens in 15sec- with or without halftones.
> I go from inkjet to press in less than 30 minutes.
> ...


Thank you. That's exactly my point. Your priority is speed, and you'd rather produce large quantities quickly without worrying about lint holes. That's fine and it seems to work for you. My priority is the best quality product. I do not let a shirt go out of my door with a lint hole in the print. I look at every shirt carefully before I pull it off the press. I don't care much about speed. This is my 2nd job that I do for fun, and I don't have to push out 600 shirts a day to make a living. And my customers also know they will get the top quality shirts from me, so they keep coming back. I turn down 3 or 4 jobs a week because I just don't have the time to fill them. I'm to the point now where I am not taking on new customers, and just trying to take care of my existing customers. So we have different situations, and both are great.

But the point I was trying to express is that as you increase your speed, your quality decreases. It's not all about how fast somebody can print. Each person has to find their sweet spot. How many shirts can each of you print, while still being satisfied with the quality of your product. The answer will be different for each of us. But let's not pretend than we can double our production rate without sacrificing quality. For me, my top speed is about 100/hr while maintaining the quality level I require.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

fair enough


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

youtees said:


> *hint: LOSE the heat gun. I cannot believe that 'R' is telling people that is a way to flash anything! You can get faster and less spotty "pre-cures" with a $10.00 500 watt halogen work lamp*. Why are you "pre-curing" on your press? Print next to your electric oven and you can full cure on the spot in about 25 secs each(to 35). If you are going faster then you can still use the electric oven to flash(or 'precure as you say)and do that in about 6 secs. I KNOW from what you say you have WAY to much time and effort spent in precuring/curing the shirts. I can guess where you are getting your press(with zero micro tuning right? that will introduce you to a whole different set of problems. ) based on that you are using a heat gun in your process. Cringe. Welcome to screen printing! As it were.


Happen to came across this old thread but can't help but reply. Yes, a 500w halogen is much better than a 1500-2000w heat gun. The air is supposed to make heating more efficient but the small opening seems to be its undoing insofar as curing shirts is concerned.

When my heat gun, which I use for curing, broke down. I need an emergency heat source and the only thing that can deliver is my old exposure lamp which is just gathering dust since I switched to mercury. To my surprise, it can cure shirts relatively quickly and efficiently.


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## kedkennels (Feb 25, 2010)

I like this topic. Now how fast can you go and what press where you using?


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

In case the question is for me, firstly, I am neither a commercial nor a volume printer and speed is not a priority. 

I use a 3 station line table press with unlimited colors. However, my operation is not yet streamlined so there is really no speed to talk about. For example, I often cure only after all the printing is done. I print from home before dawn, before shower, before breakfast, before all those chores before I leave for shop. I sometimes print with eyes still half closed. I've printed on platens before I loaded the shirt. lol. 

Speed is also a function of your inks and what you are printing. I can be very very fast (for a 3 platen press) if printing with 1 color military-inspired designs with waterbase inks that dries to the touch very quickly. No, I am not a speed printer but I have to be fast lest the shirts get scorched by a 1500w halogen or my hands get a good suntan. LOL. I am not trying to be funny but that is a serious problem with the DIY halogen dryer (versus a proven and well made equipment). 

*A normal printing session for me is done at a leisurely pace.* 


For others, I think their capacity and speed were already posted.


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## 2020 PrintWorks (Apr 22, 2011)

I've never time myself with a one color on white. I know I'm over 200 an hr. I did a 2 color on black one pass per color 260pcs in an hour and fifteen minutes.


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

That's 3min 28 seconds per shirt. 

Do you flash or is it wet on wet?


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## 2020 PrintWorks (Apr 22, 2011)

I do both. Depends on the print. I times a white run today. Heartcrest on white. 90 in 20 mins.


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

That is slower at 4-1/2 minutes.

The 260 pcs in 1h 15min, is it wet on wet?


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## 2020 PrintWorks (Apr 22, 2011)

The 260 black shirts I flashed. Your calculating backwards. Its not 4 1/2 mins per shirt. Its 4 1/2 shirts per min.


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

I did commit an error. The 2 colors is 3-1/2 shirt per minute(17.1 seconds per shirt) and the single color is 4-1/2 shirt per minute(13.3 seconds per shirt)


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