This is the place to talk about what it takes to get started. This would include what equipment to buy, space requirements, electrical needs and anything related to getting ready to begin screen printing. Have a question regarding what it takes to screen print tee shirts? Please post them here...
Hello I had talked to I think Jonathan on the phone about monday. Told him I would be making the account this weekend and being a man of my word. These are the hardware I have got so far and would be looking for information about anything that is missing and what else I need so that I can get started in the business of screen printing. I may the names wrong on some of the things and if so please excuse my noobness.
I was not able to take pictures of two items so far but have found a picture from google image search to use as a temporary place holder.
ColorSpan DisplayMaker 5000
HP DesignJet 2500CP
Geo Knight Jetpress 12 Heat Press
1 Color Benchtop Press
4 Color Benchtop Press
Daige Quickmount lll Cold Laminator
I also have the rollers for this one, just they are in the same place as the heat press so i couldn't take pictures
Looks like you have everything needed to print t-shirts plus some. Lol. As long as you have ink, transparencies and chemicals, you should be good to go from what I can tell. That's more equipment than I have
You're pretty much set for equipment. The only thing I'd recommend on top of what you have is a pressure washer for washout and reclaiming (and a washout booth/bin?) and possibly a conveyor dryer. What you have will get you going though, and you'll learn pretty quick what the biggest bang-for-your-buck would be on further equipment purchases.
I got all this from a storage, I do not have any ink, transparencies, or chemicals. Also both the ColorSpan and the HP printers seem to have problems that I need to repair. But finding information on them from a repair aspect seems to be near zero online. I did also get a cd binder of 29 disc of Vector art and fonts. CorelDraw 9,Vector Car Outlines, 4,000 fonts, Arcsoft panorama maker, arcsoft photoimpression. and the funniest thing it has a install cd for a epson stylus phtoto r300 series printer, I just bought a epson stylus photo r320 printer for $5 at a thrift store and forgot I had the driver disc for it. So the person that owned my hardware before me must have been using that style of printer for doing some type of prints.
The HP DesignJet 2500CP seems to have a bad drive in the printer/plotter (4GB EIDE drive), I can find a few online for sale but they are wanting $250 for a used hard drive. This printer from what I have been reading does a self test and then stops if any errors are found and will not continue the tests until that issue found is fixed. So I guess if I was to replace the hard drive with a used one that it could find something else wrong, and then repeat the process. I can find cheap vinyl cutters online for over $300 on ebay. But those ones on ebay do not say if they can do printing also or just cut the vinyl. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Vinyl-Cutte ... 46043e1d7e
I also found a "Artcut Software 2005" software set that was with the hardware.
Okay now this makes much more sense. You do have almost everything you’ll need to screen print. The only things I did not see are squeegees and accessory tools but those are easy to fill in.
I don’t know anything about the computer printers or plotters. One looks like a laminating machine or something.
The 2 little blue units on the pavement are bench presses. You have a 4 color and a 1 color. Looks like you have a heat press as well. The exposure unit looks like an old unit that was bought at one time. It does not look particularly home made.
The thing standing up with the dial on top and the heating element underneath is a flash cure unit. It’s just an old “oven” style heating element.
The screens look pretty shot but it may be that you can reclaim and clean them up. You’ll just have to try.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!
BoydRiver wrote:What does that colorspan thing do, is it a printer or print and cut?
The colorspan machine is a large format printer, that uses a CIS style ink system. Can handle prints as wide as 52 inches. From my research seems it was a machine for printing signs and posters.
The HP machine is a wide format plotter and cutter, with support for doing vinyl cuts.
Both machines are not in working condition but I would like to get them working again.
That 4 color table top press is the one I have, it was manufactured by Logos of Missouri. if you need any parts for it they are still in business and have most replacement parts as well as platens and brackets at decent prices, http://www.logossp.com/
Looks like you have all the main equipment, just need some supplies and minor stuff and you are good to go! Be sure to put that press on a good solid table/stand that will not move, I have mine on a 4 foot heavy duty table from my office at work, does a great job, I just got some of those big clamps that slide up and down to adjust to make sure the back is clamped down.
