Quote from: AntonySharples on March 11, 2026, 10:59:47 AM

Large scale screen printing production isn't going anywhere.  However, the small shops that have a shelf life anyways, this is just speeding up the inevitable.  Unless you are a massive online POD, no one has ever made money from doing low qty, one offs, etc. in the history of this industry.  DTF is a tool.  I visit 500 shops a year, some really massive places and lots of small shops.  The sky is falling people don't leave their towns and listen to every thing on FB.  I'm telling you, as a distributor, screen printing is alive and well.  DTF is losing steam.

Antony, define Large Scale Shop

As Pierre said, I should redefine that in 4 plus autos.  I would say I am mostly in shops that are 1-3.  I think that is a sweet spot.  Overhead isn't crazy, easier to manage and with a little digital in the mix to fulfill those odd requests or hard to print items, you can make a good business. 
Andy Anderson told me something years ago that I wish I would have listened to sooner. "Add promo".  Promo is really killing it for shops that I can see.

Pantone wants to get paid for Adobe using it.

They want a subscription price for them.
Shane

The problem with the shurlocs is that the mesh is something like $40 or more. We have to ship from the other side of the country. Then we have to take apart and clean the frames, which is at least 20 min per frame. With labor and shipping, we are around $50 each to put into production. I can have statics redone and landed for about $25.
We have about 1500 screens, so just build a palette or two and send out 200 out at a time. Dont really care how long it takes as there’s plenty left behind.
So this works for us. If the eco frames are much easier to clean and mesh is cheaper, it could work.
pj

Shurloc are not the same. You nailed my concerns. They’re harder to get and more expensive to make than an eco frame. Plus the flap thing catches a lot of crap.

With statics. You still have relabelling them if you do that.

We can get a new panel in, in five minutes for sure. Cleaning them is the longest part though. Good tape job is key.

Ryonet has hidro thin thread panels for $22 right now.

At $25 a pop to remesh and sending 200, that’s a batch of $5000 extra screens required to keep your 1500.

So someone could replace with 200 less Eco Frames and never know the difference.

The main key is I am far from a good stretcher. Even my static screens direct from MURAKAMI were never good though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote from: blue moon on March 16, 2026, 03:24:20 PM

Quote from: Zelko-4-EVA on March 16, 2026, 11:15:14 AM

we stopped remeshing our roller frames and have been switching to the Shur-Loc EZ frame system.  we still have some roller frames (maybe 60 or so?)  in circulation but they are getting sent to the recycler once they pop.

the shur loc system is faster for us to clean and remesh - but our roller frames were quite old and needed lots of maintenance every stretch.

We have about 200 shurlac we are looking to sell. Any interest?
pj

Hey hey,
first, real glad to see there' still some traffic here. Just sent you an email asking about the frames. hope all's well!
-will

I think we talked about this and we have shurlocs which is not what you use. Do i remember that right? Will call you in few days just to catch up. Be back home later this week.
pj