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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: ericheartsu on September 25, 2012, 11:58:44 PM
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We have a garment runner back there right now, but it seems more and more im having my folders doing other little tasks to get more jobs out the door.
We need another bin, but i'd like to try and build one myself.
What do you guys have at the end of your dryer? i'm looking specifically at mid to big size shops. what do you got?
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Poor man catcher --- We use a box that a clothes dryer, refrigerator or some similar home appliance came in and we cut it down so it is about a foot below the dryer belt level.
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why would you not just let the shirts drop into a box of reasonable size?
We are a pretty small shop and don't qualify as serious production but if we were I think we still would use a large catch box.
We (on large oreders) pull the box by size so we have all the small, med, larg, etc ganged by size ESPECIALLY if we are going back to print a second location.
We find the drop off the belt stacks the shirts nicely in the catch box, we have a 40 inch square box about 30 inches deep.
Lastly without a catcher we use a cool down station ( a fan hanging from the ceiling softly directing air flow at the print just before it drops off the belt. Keeps the hot heavier inks from sticking together when the shirts fold against itself when they drop into the box.
mooseman
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Big plastic storage bin
Sent from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)
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I think I have 40 gallon storage bin with a small wheels on the bottom.
I believe I spent $30 for everything
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a box my screens came in...smaller runs i have 4 laundry baskets i used with my manual i put in there for sizes, but larger runs i just use the large box..
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why would you not just let the shirts drop into a box of reasonable size?
We are a pretty small shop and don't qualify as serious production but if we were I think we still would use a large catch box.
We (on large oreders) pull the box by size so we have all the small, med, larg, etc ganged by size ESPECIALLY if we are going back to print a second location.
We find the drop off the belt stacks the shirts nicely in the catch box, we have a 40 inch square box about 30 inches deep.
Lastly without a catcher we use a cool down station ( a fan hanging from the ceiling softly directing air flow at the print just before it drops off the belt. Keeps the hot heavier inks from sticking together when the shirts fold against itself when they drop into the box.
mooseman
when you are doing 3,000 shirts it gets to be a pain to have to run back there, and switch out the boxes every 100 shirts are so. Especially when you have 500 of one size, 1,000 of another. it just gets to be such a big hassle!
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Yeah at 200+ orders I have a catcher sitting there stacking shirts, it's worth every penny he gets paid too. Had him trying to keep up at 43dz/hr the other day lol he's new and learning!
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the local bath and body works closed down a few years ago and they were selling everything. so i bought one of there big hampers on wheels. It didnt fit under the end of the dryer but after i removed the wheels and put wheels on the dryer it fits under it now. But you could make one pretty easy out of pvc, heavy canvas fabric, caster wheels, snaps and someone the can sew.
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Heck Ill make you one if the price is right...
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we just rigged together one out of metail shelving, cardboard and zip ties. it's not pretty but it does the job!
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Laundry basket. It only holds about 20 shirts but in my experience, any more than that results in wrinkled shirts, so I pull them out often and stack them on my folding table.
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Yeah, Rip, works for the small jobs, but the autos whipping out 300-400 an hour need something a little roomier.
The last multi-auto shop I was working in, had belt-wide boxes made from melamine covered plywood or particle board. These were on wheels so could be quickly changed out mid run or for size changes, and/or moved to a holding or folding area.
I'm with you on not liking them to sit scrunched up in a pile too long though.
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Well if your running production like that all the time I would think you'll have large catchers allready with wheels and stuff. What have you been doing? sorry but I think thats just crazy unless your production just pick up over the pass few months or something.
Darryl
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Not trying to preach here but I believe this practice should be temporary and only when absolutely necessary before it becomes habit. Try to think of having someone catching and folding garments as they come off the belt as a quality checkpoint. I've seen garments stick to eachother in bins and cause a huge mess. Shirts undercured. Discharge leaks. And so on. I know many of you here are owner operators but trust me things go much smother and faster with an extra person even if it's a friend or relative. And folding/boxing a huge bin of shirts takes a lot longer. As you grow and add people multitask train them so they can stop what they are doing and help out; then return to the task at hand. Need to think forward on this I believe.
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I've always seen running an auto as a 3-4 person operation. That's not even counting a set-up person (if used) as well as an operator/loader,
unloader and after dryer stacker, with perhaps someone also stacking blanks during the run if needed, as needed.
This one man mini auto thing is very new to me, but granted, a real back and arm and shoulder saver! If I was looking to stay at this much longer, I'd be a convert. ;D
But let's not get too far astray here from the subject of catchers, both human and non-human.
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Our dryer was used by a flatstock guy and has a big metal catch he built for that on the back. Works fine for shirts and holds about as many Ts as we're comfortable running before checking the back of the dryer.
Big runs, we do as Tony says every time. We are manual but when I get 1-2k pc orders I jump in to print and have someone load and catch for me. The catcher often struggles to keep up. On an auto going fast enough you might need two catchers- a QC/stacker and a counter/boxer.
Even if your catcher does keep up, you can then have them checking temp, checking for those discharge leaks Tony mentioned, major discharge variance in a run, staging the next sizes for the loaders, making coffee, fetching beers....
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We use 120 gallon plastic live stock water tubs from Tractor Supply. They will hold about 250 shirts, we have 5 and switch them out if they get full or size change.
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Having someone at the end of the dryer is a plus and a must in some cases, my wife does that for us cuz she hates for the shirts to stack up in the tote, she sez the shirts wrinkle up to bad and she hates bending down to pick them up.
Darryl
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I only have room for 1 box in my shop...No room to switch out.. now anything over 100 i try to get someone to catch...
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Big ol (30 x 24 x 24" tall)polypropylene bin on wheels that I got at a garage sale for $10. I think it was on a commercial fishing boat or something like that. I could use a second one for sure!
Sorta like one of these without the frame and the wheels bolted directly on the bottom:
(http://www.workplace-products.co.uk/media/uploads/images/Container-Trolleys-Handles.jpg)
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Epson 4900 box. I swear they built that box to go at the end of a dryer, its PERFECT!
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Talk about the perfect size. The box from crating included with our Sportsman EX 10/8 was almost as sturdy as our press. Ha! It'll last forever. --48"wide --Holds plenty!
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If you are doing runs of discharge you need to have someone catching at the end of the dryer. One missed pinhole on a large job and you could have paid someone for weeks to stand there for the cost to replace a big bin full of messed up shirts.
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I was just wondering what you guys did in the event you didn't have someone there!
Normally, i would LOVE to have someone back there All the time. But as a shop that works primarily with musicians, and entertainment industries, our fall season SWELLS. In the course of 1.5 weeks we've gotten 4 of the biggest orders we've ever had in our tshirt, button, and speciality sections.
For Instance, It took 6 people roughly a week to do 17,000 buttons, working 7 days a week. of those 6 people, 2 have been working with us since May, and the other 4 are friends of theirs we hired on as temp. labour. Now we finished the HUGE button job today, but we had to start a 3K tee print, and a 2k speciatly item we print called slipmats, while packaging 8K stickers that go along with the buttons!
With so much going on, we've been spread so thin, i didn't have a choice but to have the shirts fall into a bin!
But i 100% agree that someone should be at the end of the dryer whenever there is a run, especially if it's discharge! however, sometimes you can't always make that work when you are running around cross eyed!
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We use 8 bushel laundry bins, wheeled. Took them from my laundry business. They tended to use our larger ones, so they never missed them. Fit just under the egress conveyor.
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Not trying to preach here but I believe this practice should be temporary and only when absolutely necessary before it becomes habit. Try to think of having someone catching and folding garments as they come off the belt as a quality checkpoint. I've seen garments stick to eachother in bins and cause a huge mess. Shirts undercured. Discharge leaks. And so on. I know many of you here are owner operators but trust me things go much smother and faster with an extra person even if it's a friend or relative. And folding/boxing a huge bin of shirts takes a lot longer. As you grow and add people multitask train them so they can stop what they are doing and help out; then return to the task at hand. Need to think forward on this I believe.
You read my mind and beat me to the post..