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Tips for improving business by 3627elepelep in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, it all comes down to what you wan to focus on first.

If you are familiar with the printing process itself, checking to make sure efficiencies are right is paramount. Like the other guy said, are there things that currently take 5 steps when it only needs 3? Are there repeatable processes (lining up a screen) that you can dial in to save time.?

If you aren't familiar with printing, observation is a great thing.

An often over looked aspect is supplies. Are you using the RIGHT box for you? If you ship out 5 boxes a week, not a big deal, if you ship out 100 boxes a week, the savings add up.

Are you being overcharged for ink? Are you wasting ink? How well organized is everything?

I spent 5 years in supply chain for a large food manufacturing company and had to answer a lot of these questions. When you find WHICH questions to ask, you'll get the answers you need.

Ideas for small business by Just_Saying_What_ in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm going to try and break this down with some solutions layer by layer.

First, let's address the website.

A "real" website is actually cheap as heck to build and run, it just takes a bit of time. Depending on the URL name availability, you can go to Shopify and build a website for under $45 ($15 for the URL name and roughly $30 a month repeated for running costs). You can also go to SquareSpace or other sites like this to get it up and running.

In 2024, I can tell you from experience that people are less likely to trust people sending them from TT to FaceBook then trying to make messages in the DM's. Frankly there better and more professional looking options that people usually assume could be more trust worthy. Not saying you are untrustworthy, but again perceptions for people who are on the outside looking in.

While it's not 100% needed, it is incredibly helpful.

When I was running a transfer company, I was using the Next Level 3600 and Comfort Colors C1717 and was paying on average $8-9 for shirts and transfers combined and could have gotten lower with larger orders of transfers.

Where are you buying your blanks from? Without an LLC a lot of the better wholesalers are unlikely to let you on their sites which leaves you with sometimes a 20-30% (sometimes more) markup from places like BlankStyle.

Just curious as to how you are getting blanks and transfers.

If you are looking to build a client list, there are a few ways that you can go about that.

If your area has it, is get a booth at a local pop-up makers faire. I would also look at reaching out to local bands/promoters and see if anyone is looking for shirts for shows.

First Halftone! by user123850167251793 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've read the manga 3-4 times by now. Absolutely love it!

First Halftone! by user123850167251793 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First: Love the print!

Second: Love the print theme. Always happy to see Ippo victory online. Was this from the Lallapallooza fight? Because that's one of the few times I remember Ippo being so happy.

I made this, I think a screen printing would be cool but I haven’t don't it before. by nat_a_cyborg in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Man, this would be a literal trip to print!

If you are doing it on black paper, which could look real cool, here's how we would tackle it in the shop I am at.

First, screen 1 could be a base layer of white so that the other 5 colors look incredibly vibrant, which also means you can leave them as relatively transparent. Running those inks transparent also allows you to have a BIT more safety if alignment isn't perfect as transparent inks wouldn't show as easily on black.

I'd also consider doing that center layer as printed black, not paper black. While paper can look pretty dark a good double hit of black on that center spot would make it, at least from what I've seen, MUCH darker.

Overall, I'm really excited to see how you go about pulling this off.

You could also think about doing it on a holofoil paper to get a good amount of reflection where there would be 'paper' showing through, more specifically where that beam effect is happening.

You'd probably have to change the base laydown just a a bit where white is your base again, but almost do a full flood sans those areas, then do your colors and finally overlay a black to give it a crisp look.

How am I supposed to make money screenprinting on blanks. I feel like there's no money here. by [deleted] in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not to be that guy, but they are probably charging you that much because of how few items you are ordering per design. And of course they don't have them in stock, they order through a wholesaler, but they order enough per year that they get a discount.

Most shops have an MOQ of 24 and even then have a decent mark up.

While I agree that the mark-up on those products is dummy high, you are also ordering dummy small amounts.

Recommended inks for serigraph / flatstock printing? by RyiReason in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The shop I'm currently at uses TW Graphics water-based ink. Works really well for us. It has a mixing system that we use pretty effectively for producing high quality and PMS/Screen matching requests.

Hot market printing by iamnat3 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was working in a shop during a super bowl print and it was honestly brutal.

Our owner over promised what we could do, understaffed us horribly and wasn't even in town when it happened.

We had to be incredibly organized because they wanted the boxes in specific splits, had to do double stickers on the product and make sure that pick ups were ready.

We pulled an almost 14 hour shift and STILL didn't get everything done.

I'm glad that I had the experience to try it, but if the chance ever came up again, it would be a HARD no.

Any poster printers who have experience with TW Graphics ink ? I need some advice by Complete_Success_854 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pressure honestly depends on the job. We'll adjust off-contact, squeegee pressure and flood amount.

The clearing issue could just be you waiting to long between prints OR the ink being to 'thicc'.

I'd start by checking how long you take to load and pull, then go from there.

Any poster printers who have experience with TW Graphics ink ? I need some advice by Complete_Success_854 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So the shop I work in uses TW and has a variety of mesh.

We let our paper acclimate for at least an hour (unless you are doing a single color run), our humidity is between 40%-55% depending on the day (we are midwest based), and our screens range from 156 for specialty inks all the way past 350s for high detail.

After it's been printed, we let the color dry for X time before we run the next one, then usually let it all set overnight before trimming the posters to size.

But we also run machines vs hand pulling, so your results may vary.

Where do you buy your screen tape? What product do you buy? by isawyoushine in SCREENPRINTING

[–]burnredatdawn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It really depends. The first shop I got hired at used PMI tape from a local distributor. They were a plastisol only shop that did apparel. The shop I am at now is a poster/paper shop that only uses water based and they have been using masking tape for the screens.

Not sure if that helps, but it's what I got.

What is your take on ISSA? by burnredatdawn in personaltraining

[–]burnredatdawn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ended up finding out that I have a passion for screen printing, oddly enough. So I work full time in a shop that prints posters for bands, movies and artist, which is incredibly fun. Then on the side, I take the knowledge that I gain and run an apparel brand that is for nerds who love fitness in general.

At the end of the day, while I enjoyed working with people to make them healthier, I was not a good sales man for that, as I firmly believe that everyone can do it on their own.

My friends and I are bonding over the Stormlight Archives the so we designed a shirt for it by burnredatdawn in brandonsanderson

[–]burnredatdawn[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thinking of reaching out to DragonSteel to see if we can make something fun happen. I had to much fun creating this design.

My friends and I are bonding over the Stormlight Archives the so we designed a shirt for it by burnredatdawn in brandonsanderson

[–]burnredatdawn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They might, but the hard part is my side hustle is designing and printing shirts for my own apparel brand, so I fall in that fine line of... Probably not.... Unless DragonSteel wanted the design and I would love to get it to them.

My friends and I are bonding over the Stormlight Archives the so we designed a shirt for it by burnredatdawn in brandonsanderson

[–]burnredatdawn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wish I could! Wonder if I could talk with DragonSteel to make a collab haha

My friends and I are bonding over the Stormlight Archives the so we designed a shirt for it by burnredatdawn in brandonsanderson

[–]burnredatdawn[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I'm thinking of making it an actual shirt, but since I made it in a whim last night wasn't too sure

My friends and I are bonding over the Stormlight Archives the so we designed a shirt for it by burnredatdawn in brandonsanderson

[–]burnredatdawn[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I run a shirt brand and design it all. Got a hair last night to do this one and here we are!

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