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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: IntegriTees on October 26, 2015, 10:03:59 PM
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About 90% of the time, I will be loading and unloading. But I want to position my dryer to be able be efficient in "steps" if I do have a large order that needs an unloaded. What is the standard?
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I would recommend you set it up for two people to run, but if it becomes awkward - load/unload from the unload station.... If space permits.
I will sometimes run our press by myself and I have no problem with doing a load/unload from where it is set up.
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I'm kind of backwards, but if your unloading mostly by yourself set up for your comfort, I,m left handed on most things so I set up that way no steps just a turn.
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About 90% of the time, I will be loading and unloading. But I want to position my dryer to be able be efficient in "steps" if I do have a large order that needs an unloaded. What is the standard?
you're buying a G3 to run solo?!
Very Impressed!
-J
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If you are having a Gauntlet 3 installed, trust me, the tech is NOT going to allow you to install it in an improper place. We for almost 10 years got used to have a lot of space between our Diamond Back and our dryer. Trust me, you DO NOT want to be more than 26 inches away from the side of your dryer with that press or you will hate yourself for doing so. Even if you run it by yourself. you can pull your shirt cart up into the space that the loading station is normally set to be. Set your index timer for enough time to pull, toss, and load. Trust me on that machine, you will be hiring someone to work with you fast. It really makes zero sense to buy on and try to run it on your own. We've had ours in now for about a month. Even though almost any of us here can run it on our own, it's smarter to just pull someone for the few minutes it will take to run a cart of shirts. It will take you a little bit to get used to it and comfortable because it's a bit intimidating, it's so dam fast. But, you will be running 700 pcs an hour like nothing and watch a 200 piece order get gobbled up very very verry fast on it. You want to have it placed about 34-36 inches, the unload pallet that is, from the side of your bet, end of belt, how ever you are configuring that part. Take your tech's advice. The guys who install these machines have lots and lots of experience. We wanted to argue with our tech to install "our" preference. Then a second tech showed up to help wrap things up, he concurred that the placement the first guy set was perfect. After the fact, Patrick Lashbrook came for some after install training with us, and said the same thing. The mind set has to change. A month into it now, I'm so glad I didn't try to put my foot down. It's too big to move because of a bad call at install so really really consider the advice. Even as a one man show with a machine like this, trust me, you can pull your cart into the loaders station and still operate on your own from the unloader and NOT have to take a step. This press, you start taking footsteps and you miss the big luxury of what it can do for you as far as speed and efficiency. If you need to pick my brain, feel free to pm me. There are several guys on here with either GT's or C3's that can all tell you experience with placing this beast in the PROPER spot.
Congrats man
Mike
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In the beginning at Liberty long ago when we were installing very very many machines it was long determined that 27" from belt to platen regardless of machine type or bran so that's about right
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In the beginning at Liberty long ago when we were installing very very many machines it was long determined that 27" from belt to platen regardless of machine type or bran so that's about right
Exactly right!!!
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About 90% of the time, I will be loading and unloading. But I want to position my dryer to be able be efficient in "steps" if I do have a large order that needs an unloaded. What is the standard?
you're buying a G3 to run solo?!
Very Impressed!
-J
Ditto. That's a lot of machine for one operator.
We have the sportsman setup for loader/unloader and gauntlet for single operator but both can be used the other way around. If you'll be solo 90% of the time, just setup optimally for that but leave room for the wingman when needed.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpfv4GV5V38&index=2&list=PLouUHry0Y_tJv3YQm3c-q4k3l97PZzt7s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpfv4GV5V38&index=2&list=PLouUHry0Y_tJv3YQm3c-q4k3l97PZzt7s) ;)
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Wouldn't of bought that machine to run it with one person. Here is ours. We had more of an issue with clearence from the dryer to head 16 with walking space between them. If we ever run it solo we run it from the offload position. Cart sits in the load position.
Arrange the press so your unloader doesn't move their feet and just twists.
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About 90% of the time, I will be loading and unloading. But I want to position my dryer to be able be efficient in "steps" if I do have a large order that needs an unloaded. What is the standard?
Integritees: Looks like you got your answer on optimum dryer placement of 26" - 27" from the unload station to the edge of the belt. It also looks like you have surprised a few people with your plans to operate the press with a single operator most of the time. Your approach is actually not that far out there as I know of large textile decorator that a runs a whole shop full of M&R 3 series presses with a single operator most of the time.
One thing they do to speed up production is to use a flash-cure in the last head to flash off the print before the unload station. This helps to greatly increase the speed of unloading because the unloader can just pull the garment and toss it onto the belt without worrying so much about having to lay it totally flat on the belt.
Good luck with the install and operation of the new gear
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Thanks all!
Yes, it is probably overkill for me to get this press but I'm moving up from a 6 color all air sportsman that I've had since 2004. Just need the extra colors and figured I'd get a press with the latest tech.
Coming from a two person shop on track to do $900k in sales this year, I'm hoping that I can cram an extra one or two jobs in a day so I can have an extra day to deal with actually running a business.
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Teach your screen cleaner to pull shirts. Ran our G3 at 82doz/hr all day long today. Literally what it's built for. If you've got the cash...I'd go for it. But if its going to be 90% Solo... at 40-50doz an hour...Would put that cash to work elsewhere to make your life easier, CTS ;). Settle in a nice sportsman exg, and still have capability to run 75doz/hr if you wanted two people. I've got both if you want to come play.
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Wouldn't of bought that machine to run it with one person.
Why is this the mentality? He can add an employee at any point or a friend to help or whatever he likes to speed up his printing. What he can't do is 4 months into buying a much smaller or a press with less features is decide it was too small or too slow or didn't have the features he wanted. It's too late at that point, he's already pregnant. A 2 person shop doing 900k in sales as he reports, a G3 is not remotely expensive and hes got what sounds like low overhead, well certainly no major labor draw. He's going about it right if you ask me.
When I was just a 2 person shop I was told to get a entry level auto because no way we could afford a better one, I almost did. I went more mid level and got a sportsman, which turns out just 2-3 years later was WAY small for us. Wish I would have swung for the fence on my first auto, I could have done it but was being conservative. That ended up costing me more money in the long run.
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Brandt, sometimes it hard to take that risk though. At the time it was probably the right choice.
I would rather have a press that can scale up as needed. Get an extra person to unload and fold and you're set for any monster jobs. We mainly run the auto with one person now, works great.
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Brandt, sometimes it hard to take that risk though. At the time it was probably the right choice.
I would rather have a press that can scale up as needed. Get an extra person to unload and fold and you're set for any monster jobs. We mainly run the auto with one person now, works great.
It is hard, but that's why I am making the post/point I am now that it should be considered. For my business in 2011 to buy a CH3D would have been hard. BUT had I done that I would have saved myself a few grand in shipping/electrical changes/etc going from manual to sportsman to CH3d. Would my business need a press that size in 2011, no not at all but are we all really building our shops for today or for the future? Reality is we could have made it work though. I know this, 2 people manually can't even print a faction as fast as 1 person on a auto. So start doing your maths on wasted production time. In my shop it was critical as we also did artwork/embroidery/etc and any time we can save printing is time we can do other things. Output goes up in the whole shop as a result in that configuration. Then just add employees as you need printing to move faster.
Remember even a big auto is cheaper than an employee.
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Dang, a 2 person shop doing $900K? Unless you're paying your guys $50+/hr you've got a labor to revenue ratio that I doubt anyone on this forum could come close to, with the average shop not getting to half of that ratio. You should be able to pay cash for 2 G3's and work 1 day a week with that kind of production efficiency. That's damn impressive. There's probably a big difference in the types of jobs our shops run but I need 4 guys to do 1 mil, but it's a lot of very small runs of 3-7 colors.
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With a 2 person shop pushing out $900k in sales. How does that work exactly? What is the average size order/run?
Is the second person spending their time at the end of the dryer most days? Who is answering the phone/replying to emails all day?
I'm just at a loss at how anyone could make that work with only 2 people. Maybe I need to examine my efficiency. :-\
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i am thinking the same thing...there is no way we could do that and we are fairly efficient around here.
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900k for 2 people is impressive period. I dont know how you'd handle the communication/sales and then having time left to make everything doing 900k with just 2 people. But if you are doing that, there is ZERO reason you shouldn't buy a huge press. Don't look back.
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It would be the ideal business model to do lot's of high-end garments and fairly long runs. In much the same way we've somehow managed to go in the opposite direction in that our runs are getting smaller and more complex, it could be possible to go the other direction. I'm still not all that knowledgeable with the labor-to-revenue ratios but since Joe's visit it has been my main focus aside from running production. 2 employees to $900K in sales would be a dream come true for me. I really would pay someone $30+/hr and myself a solid six figure income if we were that efficient and I'm thinking I'd have the biggest, baddest auto in the world out back.
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Also curious about what kind of magic is happening to pull down 900k in sales with 2 staff.
I think we average around 130-150k in sales per employee, just a general ratio. 450k per employee sounds unreal for the type of work a typical textile shop does.
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Id love to be at 450k per employee, maybe id have my Ferrari already instead of the Z06. LOL
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900k!?
Good lord. Here I am thinking 300k was killing it for 1 person.
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Integritees, you got us all excited about your magic business formula and I forgot to say congrats!
If your business is growing and you have the cash for the payments there is no such thing as overkill when it comes to equipment. The 3 series presses have significant changes and advantages to the older models that will help you run no matter how many people are on the press. What's that line Filson clothing used to use? "may as well have the best"
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900k!?
Good lord. Here I am thinking 300k was killing it for 1 person.
Trust me, it still is.
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Wow guys, didn't think this would be about the sales. I have 3 customers that make up about 80% of my printing and they are all high end retail. Average job is 288 shirts and I print them nonstop all week.
I don't answer my phone. I use my iPhone's text message response to kindly ask customers to send an email and I get those done at night while I'm working on invoices and artwork.
I wish I could say that I was making this kind of money last year but I've just blown up recently. I'm moving my new equipment into a new shop that is 4 times the size of my current shop within the next two weeks. This (along with the G3) should help a lot with my production hurdles.
Another few things, I mentioned a 2 person shop meaning that I have myself and One helper doing all of the production. I also have a college kid come in for two hours each day to clean and coat screens.
AND, the 900k is what quickbooks is calling sales. That includes the apparel that I'm printing on which mostly consists of $6 American Apparel baseball shirts.
So there isn't a magic formula and it probably looks a little less impressive now. But I do put in 65-70 hours a week and my wife is hating me for it. I just keep telling myself..."feast or famine"
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A sale is a sale, if your are marking up that garment at all its something you sold for profit. So 900k remains impressive for 2 people. I have heard many times companies suggest 150k per person is pretty normal, so at 450k you are doing great things. Even when you factor in your part timer, great things. Keep that type of average up as you hire each employee and you will be rich beyond your dreams.
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All I can say is WOW! I thought we were doing good! We suck!
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Sounds very efficient too.
Just don't let it turn in to 10, 15 years.
Your wife is the important variable in the equation. :-[
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Great to hear things are going in the right direction for you!
Just a word of warning...we had our 3 person shop, (me and my wife and a part time helper) grossing about 400k.
Things were awesome. Good mix of smaller sub 100 pc orders and a few 3500 plus and plenty in between those numbers.
We had one client that sold his business to an international corporation. This cut us out of the mix for all the work they brought us as they had there own printer already in place and under contract.
With one swift move from one client we lost 52% of our gross sales.
Lets just say that things were tough for a few years while we grew the business again.
When I read that you had 3 clients making up 80% of your sales I felt the same sick feeling that I had 6 years ago.
I hate to be a Debbie Downer but be cautious of any one client that provides a large percentage of your income. If you can lose one or two of them and still be viable then no worries.
BUT, if any or all of them move on to a different printer where will that leave you and your business?
Again, I am happy to hear things are going well.
Bill
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We've been lucky in that our customer base covers so many different industries and organizations and our biggest customer makes up less than 10% of our total sales. And if they were to leave our cash flow situation would be so much better and most of us don't worry much about them leaving. The service we provide for them would never be duplicated by anyone within 1000 miles, in my opinion. And to make things more dicey is the owner of that company is a flat out crazy person who could leave at the drop of a wrong word. This is the customer that one day decided they'd go from net 30 to net 60 without even asking. If it weren't for the sales person doing all he can to hold on to them (they account for 90% of his commission checks) I could see us letting them go and never looking back.