# How many use a Flat press for cut and sew dye sub garments, vs. a roll press? Pros/Cons?



## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

How many use a Flat press for cut and sew garments, vs. a roll press?

pros/cons?


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

I really do not get the roller press unless you are trying to do projects that are beyond 60". They are very expenisve with the basic models around $20k and limit what you can press. On the basic models you still are going to have the hassle of taking off the roll and cutting out the pieces so not sure where the real time savings are to be found. Also not sure how you would ever have it serviced without paying for someone to fly in and repair them as maintenance has to be an issue compared to a flat bed press where you can get a part and fix in a hour. 

It is my understanding their are cut piece roller presses that are huge money but I have never really understood how they worked.

If you take a single press and operator you can do 1600+ jersyes/shirts/etc in a single shift month.


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## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

so you in your experience is there not much cost savings in a 60" wide format vs a 44" wide format?

My only hands on experience is with a former employer that had a 60" printer and roll press. So i'm curious to know if 44" printer and a flat press will still result in similar results. 

Granted at this time, I'm not a huge operation, i only outsourced about 2000 cut/sew shirts this year.


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

We use a 54" Roland and a 44" Go Rio. I like the 54" Roland better. We do a lot of Cut and sew and Oversize pressing on our Duel platen Maxi press with air.


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## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

30x40 or 40x64 maxipress?


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

40x64 duel platens


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

What press, etc really depends on who and what you are selling unless you have unlimited funds then you just go as big as possible. If you plan to crush premade shirts and they are going to be to the 2X or above market you would need a 40 x 60. Other than that there is not much difference in fact we even started to use 36" paper simply because everything we do is well under 40 inches. A dual platen also would be handy if you do a lot of premade shirt crushing just cause of all the time needed to set up the shirt. For cut and sew there is not much to be gained in productivity. 

If the vast majority is cut and sew a Epson 7900 and a 30x40 Maxipress gets you to 1500+ jerseys, etc a month at a pretty low entry point.


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## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

I would be doing cut/sew jerseys, long sleeves, hoodies, up to 5xl


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

FatboyGraphics said:


> I would be doing cut/sew jerseys, long sleeves, hoodies, up to 5xl


I have no clue how big a 5X is but if you take the end results that a 5X is to be completed add "1 to width as you will 1/4" on each edge to sewing and add 3/4" to the length for the same. You also want to get a good idea how he size is done in each sport. The crazy part is softball guys and fisherman are more vain than women. They still insist they are 2X yet have trouble fitting in a 4X. Luckily we seldom have a jersey above 1X.


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

FatboyGraphics said:


> I would be doing cut/sew jerseys, long sleeves, hoodies, up to 5xl


If you are printing and pressing 5xl you may want something bigger that 40x64 for a press and the printer should have a 54" width. Call Practix Mfg LLC 877-225-2844 ask for Terry.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

I went over to Animal Paintballs site to get a better understanding of how big a 5X jersey is. 

A 5X finished for their paintball jersey, which will be a baggy fit, is 31 x 35". To achieve these finished dimensions you would need your front/back to be 32" x 35.75". Very easily fitting on a 40 x 60" press and a 44" printer. You can even get away with a 30 x 40" press by adding mesh side panels which is a huge upsale in sports jerseys. We used to do mesh side panels as an upsale and it became so popular and set us aprat from the competition we made it a standard feature. By adding 3" mesh side panels you can do a 5X on a 30 x 40" with no problem.

You are at the spot we were at a few years back in bringing it all in-house. Our magic number was 200 jerseys a month. If you are not close to 200 a month it is not worth the investment. If funds are unlimietd go big as you can go. If you are like most startups and funds are tight you can do 1500+ a month with a 44" printer and even a 30 x 40" press.

Good luck with things.


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

When we do cut and sew we print the front and back at the same time and we gang print the sleeves 6 at a time. We could not press a front and back of a xl on a 40x30 press. Nor could we do our oversize printing that we do 50% of the time daily up 6xl.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

skdave said:


> When we do cut and sew we print the front and back at the same time and we gang print the sleeves 6 at a time. We could not press a front and back of a xl on a 40x30 press. Nor could we do our oversize printing that we do 50% of the time daily up 6xl.


No arguement here - as stated if funds are unlimited than go as big as you can. If funds are limited and you want to spend more on marketing/sales and less on capital equipment than go 44" and 30 x 40". If someone is in the market to crush premade shirts and needs to crush large shirts 2X or above you would have to have a 40 x 60. The vast majority of cut and sew shops do very little premade shirt business simply due to the margins. 

The time you out grow a 44" printer and a 30 x 40" press (1500+ jerseys a month) you have all the capital you need to buy the biggest, badest equipment on the market.

Sometimes we all get hung up on equipment - the real money should be spent branding your company and marketing to your target niche.


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

Mark ,we are in agreement. 
The cost of marketing is the real killer. We are showing at two shows in Orlando in Jan. the ASI and the PGA shows and the cost of the booths and doing the show is more that a maxi press and each show only last 3 days. At least the Maxi press last longer than 3 days in most shops.. We will be introducing our new line of Mesmerized Polo's and need to sell a ton of them to break even. But over 6000 golf proshops will be in attenance and a few big box stores at the PGA Show.
Over 10,000 will attend the ASI show looking for new logoized Mesmerized Polo's, I hope.


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## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

Thanks for all the info guys. Flat press is my next investment. Doing fully sublimated shirts in house is the step after that, but just getting the press in and allowing myself to do everythign i want to do besides full sub shirts would be huge for me.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Being that you are not in a huge hurry start looking for used presses - they are bullet proof for the most part. They are not easy to find but once in a while you can find someone who is shutting down or going a different direction. The other option is to contact Aaron at Geoknight and see if you can get a show press - won't save a ton but every little built helps.


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## big frank sports (Aug 7, 2008)

Everyone is talking about printers and presses - what about the actual sewing of the garments? 

Frank


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## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

all i know about finishing the product off is that i have two vendors jerseys in my shop 1 looks like a 2012 Lexus, the other looks like a 1985 YUGO....i know how a finished product should look. Will just need to find someone who knows how to do it.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

When looking for seamstresses you want to insure they have industrial machines. There are 100's of people with "sergers" that think they can do this work. The absolute best are ones that have experience in dance or gymnastics wear as they are used to dealing with synthetic stretch fabric. If they do not have this experience you will see a lot of gathering around the collars, etc. Craigslist is a good place to look.


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## ArmandoG (Oct 16, 2011)

Hello, 
we have a 40x60. We use it for large banners, lanyards, headbands, etc.. Many things that our competitors can't compete with because they only have the 30 x 40 press'. This gives us a huge advantage. 1 team could come with us specifically because of the size of stuff we can offer upto,
which can mean $1000s of dollars on 1 team alone, so the 40x60 has served us well.

So well, that we are moving to a Roll Press. We are very excited about it as we can produce upto 100 jerseys a day and the roll press will definitely help with our print time. 

PS
If anybody is interested in our Used Maxi Press 60x40 (mint condition) contact me or post here as since I am new, I am only allowed 5 emails (does anybody know how to up that by the way?)

Thanks again and Riderz Ready, I am really impressed with how honest and helpful you are.

PS2PS.
I must admit you make me blush a bit "Riderz Ready" every time you mention our company name 

Cheers
Mondo


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## Richard (May 23, 2007)

Hello,

Is your Maxi press still for sale?

Thanks,

Rick


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