So at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, say 1-2 years, I am looking at finally moving the "shop" from the house to either part of a garage or one of those pre-fab shed type buildings in the back yard. I will also be upgrading equipment, not sure what yet but the usual stuff:

6 color 4 station press minimum
conveyor dryer, probably not the "compact" version but likely electric and not a really huge one
Flash Dryer (have a BBC 16x16)
Heat Press (have 16x20)
Shelving and storage for supplies/ink/screens, etc
Washout booth (I can probably just put this on the outside if we do the shed, but will be indoors if we build a garage)
Anything I am forgetting???

So what kind of space should I be looking at? Making the most of a smaller space is likely what I will need to do, thinking 10'x12' or so, or is that too small? I do not plan to have any big extra space for anything specific since I do not bring clients to my place. most of my business has been online and via e-mail and I expect it to continue that way.

I'll be in the same boat sometime in the near future, I hope, so I can't provide too much input other than to say I think the Ranar Vista rotary press has an 8' diameter footprint. So 10' x 12' wouldn't leave too much more room. With a smaller space, you could always go for a low-profile conveyor dryer - one of those under-the-press types - to save some room, but any extra square footage you can snag means less corners that have to be cut. Maybe Jonathan can chime in with some rough dimensions of his shop? I know he did a video showing the overall layout and how he's maximized his space, but I don't remember if he ever said what the approx room measurements were.

Yes, my shop is about 500 square feet. The office is 300 so I have some room to work with in the office for storage and such. But the shop itself with the equipment you suggest would work best in a shop at least as big as mine. Any smaller would be tight.



You'll need an exposure unit which depending on the type can also take some floor space.

Then you'll need to consider electricla needs:



These days 220 in a residential setting will simply be two 110 lines used together. So it is the same pricing. It used to be years ago in retail spaces in NY that we would have 2 fuse boxes with 2 meters. One would be 110 and the other 220. They would give us a better rate on the 220 as it was running machinery often. I think this is no longer the case in any retails spaces

I'm a little old school... LOL

Oh, and speaking of "under the press" style conveyors, I forgot that Ranar makes their "Cruiser" series press/conveyor combo which is targeted at space and mobility-conscious printers: http://www.ranar.com/All_in_one/Cruiser_series.html

Shamax wrote:Oh, and speaking of "under the press" style conveyors, I forgot that Ranar makes their "Cruiser" series press/conveyor combo which is targeted at space and mobility-conscious printers: http://www.ranar.com/All_in_one/Cruiser_series.html

Yes, we often have this unit at the shows. It is pretty cool and it has caster wheels so it can be pushed around easily. Many people use this type of press and dryer combo for on location printing as well.

Don't forget, Catspit Productions is an authorized RANAR dealer if anyone needs any help with equipement purchases. I'll be happy to help out in any way