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What is the cost of setting up for screenprinting t-shirts?
What is the rough cost of setting up for screenprinting t-shirts?
and what is needed?
I’m looking for a 4 colour set up
Cheers
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21 Replies
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john,
set up can be a few grand, to loads a dosh. Manual or automated print?
5o a day or ten thousand? what sort of quantities are you looking at?
Its a very competetive market for large numbers, and even for small numbers, Do you have a "contract to supply" or If not I would invest in another way to make money,Peter
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I do one off’s and small runs at the moment(using flex) but I’m getting more and more people asking for larger orders so I’d like to get into it.
Just lookin for some advice
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have to go with what peter says john….unless you have the continuous contracts for printing….money just sitting wasting away…and its not as easy as it looks 😀
nik
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its doesn’t cost much… forget 4 colour process… if you thinking dark garmets then you must -1 colour for base white under most prints.
its the screen making thats takes a chunk of profit… look into that.
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quote Dave Rowland:its doesn’t cost much…
dont agree with you dave….if john is going to go with it full time hes just as well forking out for a four colour carousel..and dryer depending on space….then there is wash out booths… pressure washers……emulsions screens inks…..i could go on… no point with a one station a bit limited if the runs are going to be bigger 😀
nik
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exactly… its the screen making takes the chunk as i said.
the pin-register carousels can cost a bit with a good robust dryer but the second market for 2nd hand carousels is there… so thats what I meant.
I just typing quick as im working.lol -
Hi all,
As Nicola said you may aswell have a 4 col carousel because you don’t know what kind of job is coming next. The whole print shop can be set up on the cheap, all second hand. 4 Col speedbase carousel about £400, tunnel dryer about £400, flash dryer £200, wash out booth £200 , pressure washer £50, Light box-exposure unit, make your own out of mdf, bulbs for this about £30 each. Coating trough £15, Inks upto £40 a tub and emulsions upto £25 a tub. I use colenso for consumables and sericol for inks. Sericol is expensive but there inks are excellent. Screens are about £25 each – combination of 60 / 90 / 120 mesh needed. definately need at least 4 x 60 mesh. 90 / 120’s for small run stickers if you haven’t a hand bench and racks. Black out curtain about £5 a metre to make dark room for coating and keeping coated screens in. Palette knives £15 each, pantone book £90, spray mount £3 squeegies x 4 large & 4 small approx £120. A good laser printer for producing possy’s – minolta 2300 gives excellent black @ about £150 second hand. An electricity supply and money to pay the bill as the meter will wizz round as soon as you switch the dryers on. Water supply with drainage for washing screens, commercial refuge collection. A lot of space will be needed to house all this stuff.
Knowlegde of how to print – sometimes its not as easy as it looks.If I were you i’d visit all the local screen printers that print t’shirts and ask for special rates for supplying them with loads of work. put your % ontop and save yourself all the hassle. I print t’shirts for various companies acting as middlemen, I make a small profit on each job and they supply me with lots of work that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Hope this info is useful
Cheers John -
not forgetting drying cabinet, screen reclaiming chemicals, the variety of inks/bases and cleaners, hot air gun/spot curer/films and the garments!
Silk screen is made up of lots of small bits, when all combined and with regular work you can make money, but to print one job and get nothing for weeks would make the outlay a little awkward.
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quote Dave Rowland:not forgetting drying cabinet, screen reclaiming chemicals, the variety of inks/bases and cleaners, hot air gun/spot curer/films and the garments!
Silk screen is made up of lots of small bits, when all combined and with regular work you can make money, but to print one job and get nothing for weeks would make the outlay a little awkward.
Cheers for the post people 😀
Well I mostly do one off’s but I get 1 or 2 people coming in asking for bigger jobs from 30 to 300 everyday
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Take these jobs on be it 30 or 300 and farm it out to start with. Get a discounted price list from a good quality screen printer and add your %. If you think this is working then maybe invest to start a print shop. As dave said to invest in the whole shooting match you have to generate the work for it to pay. Summer’s fine for t’shirts – winter can be a bit slow. Ive never used a drying cabinet or hot air gun for screens. I’ve read the post on drying screens and perhaps this is fine for full colour but for everyday t’shirt printing a dark room with a 3k heater is fine.
Cheers John
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So what is Ruby Stencil Film used for?
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its goes back to the early days of film making…
imagine your normal vinyl which has the removable adhesive paper, like normal…. well ruby is a red based thin film that is mounted onto a clear film, used for making screens and cutting shapes on cutting plotter.bit expensive these days.
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Used it in the good old days, the artist at the first print shop I worked at cut it by hand to make possy’s – now thats talent.
Stenplex was another – took a bit of getting used to, if it wasn’t applied right you would have a nightmare with scum.John
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quote Dave Rowland:its goes back to the early days of film making…
imagine your normal vinyl which has the removable adhesive paper, like normal…. well ruby is a red based thin film that is mounted onto a clear film, used for making screens and cutting shapes on cutting plotter.bit expensive these days.
but if I’ve got a cutter at the moment would it not save money on set up costs to start with?
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No good for t’shirt printing. Direct emulsion is the only way to go with plastisol inks.
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Hmmm.. I don’t know anything about screen printing so I am not in a position to advise. However, Have you looked into the possibility of using a digital print machine such as a Colorcamm, Edge, Versacamm or Cadet? Would one of these machines be able to achieve what you want to produce with less space and hassle?
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quote Phill:Hmmm.. I don’t know anything about screen printing so I am not in a position to advise. However, Have you looked into the possibility of using a digital print machine such as a Colorcamm, Edge, Versacamm or Cadet? Would one of these machines be able to achieve what you want to produce with less space and hassle?
Yeah Phill I’ve been thinkin about a Versacamm for a while but just looking at other options at the moment really, the screenprinting stuff is for someone else really that is wanting to do work with me.
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I don’t know if I am missing something here but isn’t ruby film only for making the possy’s – not for making the stencils.
If it is for making stencils how do you transfer the cut image onto the screen?
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Hi Glen,
Ruby was used to produce possy’s, cut be hand before plotters came out. In the past you would expose ruby with either capillary film or five star to make a stencil. These stencils are rubbish for high volumn t’shirt printing with plastisols. Direct emulsion is just about indestructable with plastisol ink.
Plotter cut possy’s don’t have the quality or are not as cost effective as laser produced ones.Cheers John
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quote :An electricity supply and money to pay the bill as the meter will wizz round as soon as you switch the dryers onI left my flash dryer on one night from 5pm to 9 am and when I got back My key meter was £15 lighter
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quote John Gregson:Used it in the good old days, the artist at the first print shop I worked at cut it by hand to make possy’s – now thats talent.
Stenplex was another – took a bit of getting used to, if it wasn’t applied right you would have a nightmare with scum.John
I used to work for the company that made Stenplex. There was an Amber version too that was just iron-on, but you had to clean the screens with solvent not water. Amber was coated with Shellac, Green with polyvinyl alcohol. I had to test the weight of the coating and the peel strength of the backing paper for QC.
I think the proliferation of cheap hobby cutting machines potentially makes Stenplex a viable product again; I’ve emailed them to see if they’ll consider it.
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