What is your set up?

[Free Man]

back lit wash out pic sideways sorry

Last pic. any how, thats my shop. Oh wait I havent got any photos of my work desk and computer. Ill hold off, too many messy pics. haha, got to figure out how to up load quick video, as they say its worth a thousand words, right., Err..wait that is a photo saying. Ok, so , .....video is the new photo worth a bajillion words. Gotta learn it.

[Leadfoot]

Looks good! Nice work you have done. I hope to be out of the house within the next 1-2 years. Just got done moving out to the dining room (we don't use it for that anyway)...will try to remember to take a few pics or do a quick video.

[ApeShirt]

Nice Free Man! Good job on the remodel. I'm a small operation out of my basement. FOR NOW! My dream is to move outside the city and have a huge pole barn where I can set up shop. Have a nice office and work area partitioned off from the rest of the pole barn. That way I have a nice area to work and for customers to come to while still having space for a man cave, workshop, and to work on vehicles.

[Free Man]

Thanks, funny you say barn, the co. I bought my gear from was in the middle of no where. Im talking 20 min. dirt road drive to get to their barn which they worked out of. They up graded to robots and sold off old stuff to me. The most impressive part of all is that they didnt have a store front, other than a dinky website they did not advertise, they had no employees. Just a married couple that never saw a customer. People called from the website. Art work and proofs done through email. UPS delivered blanks, and UPS picked up to deliver finished product. They worked 8 hour days 5 days a week with the equipment I now have and their taxes for the year were $180,000 gross. I gotta imagine that if they could do that, then so can we. I just have a learning curve to go through. I have some friends recently wanting to hang out and help while im printing. Helps to have football on, a mini fridge, and microwave, haha. Trying to figure how to do things with more than myself has been a challenge, but I can see how things can go waay faster with just one extra person.

[ApeShirt]

Thanks, funny you say barn, the co. I bought my gear from was in the middle of no where. Im talking 20 min. dirt road drive to get to their barn which they worked out of. They up graded to robots and sold off old stuff to me. The most impressive part of all is that they didnt have a store front, other than a dinky website they did not advertise, they had no employees. Just a married couple that never saw a customer. People called from the website. Art work and proofs done through email. UPS delivered blanks, and UPS picked up to deliver finished product. They worked 8 hour days 5 days a week with the equipment I now have and their taxes for the year were $180,000 gross. I gotta imagine that if they could do that, then so can we. I just have a learning curve to go through. I have some friends recently wanting to hang out and help while im printing. Helps to have football on, a mini fridge, and microwave, haha. Trying to figure how to do things with more than myself has been a challenge, but I can see how things can go waay faster with just one extra person.

Surrounding yourself with the right, positive people is an important aspect to achieving our dream. I hear many stories similar to this one. It's encouraging hearing others having success in this industry while not being tied down and being a slave to the grind.

[Free Man]

oh man youre so right about surrounding ones self with the good co. and not being a slave to the grind. I wish I could just grab any one of a huge number of you guys from here and partner up. Im in Hayden, Id. Curious if any one is near by? How about a shout in regards to where people are from!

[ApeShirt]

I'm in Lansing, Michigan for now. I hope to move a bit south eventually though.

[ppdlao]

How long have you been screen printing?
Do you do screen printing full time, part time or as a hobby?
Type of "shop" (in home, garage, retail space, etc...)
Press type and size (manual or auto, # colors/stations, etc)
Ink Types you use (plastisol, water based, discharge, etc...)
Curing Equipment
Anything else you want to share

*I´ve been printing for about 9 months barely I started officialy printing my self on May 2012
*I do it for full time, it´s my Job but also my hobby (it´s not really a Job for me, it´s most like fun )
*In home, in the garage (we just built a room for it)
*Manual table top press, 3 color/1 station
*I use Routland Phthalate free Plastisols and Albatross shemicals for reclaiming and cleanning
*I use a heat gun for "flashing", and a 40cms x 40cms heat press for the final cure

I´d love to afford a 6 color, 4 station manual press, with micro registration (my press poor registrations, gives me head ahces everytime I have a multi color Job )

[ppdlao]

current set up

wow! looks great! looks big Free man! congrats, by the way, I´m pretty far away, in the very south of Mexico

[OffsetnScreen]

STILL SETTING UP - Had a buddy mention something about a free screen press that he had returned to another guy that had given it to him because he knew nothing about screen printing. I asked him if it was still available and ...voilla...it appears to be a ryonet startup system with a 2 station 4 color rotary head on it. I have a 1500 sq. ft. building with 2 ,2-color offset presses in it taking up only 500 sq. ft., so finding room to build the 8x8 darkroom and place the press wasn't an issue. I made a shelving area for the plastisol inks that came...(made note of the imaginary ink boundary line from the video) ( Can't wait to try the phthalate free stuff as soon as I run out of this old stuff), McGuyvered a washout sink and multi-stage drain filtration system consisting of 10micron mesh to a household cartridge type to a multilayered charcoal and sand under 50psi 12volt marine water pump. Built a 6 shelf light tight screen drying box...no forced air as of yet..Made a scoop coater that will get me by until I can order one out of aluminum drywall corner bead, coroplast, duct tape, rivets. I am currently in the process of perfecting my screen coating techniques and exposure techniques. Next I plan on working on flood and squeegie technique for my first shirt. I cannot say thank you enough for all of the valuable info I am exposed to on this website. The graphic arts work is basically childsplay for me having been an avid user of PhotoShop and Illustrator for years...self-taught, however, I am expecting issues when I attempt my first halftone screen or duotone. I have noticed play in the rotary press platen which is sure to cause registration issues when I get to a 2 color job. The press also has no micro-adjustments, so I look forward to having registration issues there as well when I get that far along.....wish me luck...peace.