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Ex demo packages – good buy or not?
Looking at getting into screen printing soon and would like to hear any ones views on the ex demo packages available from this site http://www.europeanscreenprint.com/ I believe they were also known as Red Devil. I like the idea of getting the one day basic training and also having someone at the end of the phone to help with initial teething problems. Would like to hear what you established peeps think of the equipment though?
A link to the ex demo equipment can be found on the left hand side of the page.
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13 Replies
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why move onto screen printing mate?
i am not knocking anything, just curious to why and what type of work it will be for? -
in this day and age with silk screen fighting against other methods, i would look at the second hand market more (except 4 colour process where best advice is needed)
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I see it being a great add on for the shop to extend our garment decoration side of the biz. This week alone I’ve had to recreate the same football slogan t-shirt about 18 times in cut vinyl all for individual customers, even with cutting 4 at the one time it’s still pretty time consuming with the picking, layout & pressing. Also find myself saying to too many customers on a regular basis that what they are looking for is a screen printer for their requirements 🙄
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football shirts are a bit awkward. you visit signuk and see the t-shirt printer machines, well worth a look
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quote Dave Rowland:football shirts are a bit awkward. you visit signuk and see the t-shirt printer machines, well worth a look
Sorry Dave, it’s normal cotton tee’s I’m doing with individual club slogans on them, Irish green shirt for celtic slogan, royal blue shirt for rangers slogan etc……they are a good wee line as I’m not going near any copyright issues and most people buy them on impulse. With summer coming up I reckon I should have them pre made to sell over the counter instead of asking customers to come back in 30 minutes which a lot don’t want to do.
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neil i understand what you are saying but on that site i can’t find any reference to a printer device for the screen positive making.
nor any mention of the clean up times etc.
often thought about it but the mess puts me off.chris
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Hi Neil,
The prices on that site seem steep for second hand gear – look on fleebay, normally there are some good carousel’s and dryers on there for very little outlay. Not much can go wrong with a carousel, just check the clamps for wear and check for play while the screens are down in the print position. For the dryer, just check all the ceramic elements are working and that the mesh belt goes round without moving sideways on the rollers or catching anything. Turn it up to full speed and leave it for 5 minutes – if there’s a problem you’ll soon find it.If your serious, and going to print in high numbers, don’t rely solely on a flash dryer, you’ll need a tunnel dryer. Other items are squeegy’s pallet knives, spray mount, power hose, wash out boothe, light box or print down frame and somewhere dark to coat and keep your screens. Over time you will need more equipment or tools but the above would be a start. You’ll also need gear and consumables to reclaim the screens.
Screens cost approx £25 each to buy then you would coat and expose to get the stencil on them. You’ll need one for each colour or design.
The t’ shirt printing prices on that site are rediculous, if it were that cheap everybody would be doing it. The ink alone comes in at approx £100, and that is when buying in at 5 litres at a time. Time wise they suggest 1 minute and 2p per print – this works out at £1.20 per hour, it wouldn’t even cover the cost of switching the dryer on not to mention consumables and wages for the person printing.
Positives can be made on any good laser printer – been using a minolta 2300 for the last 5 years and the blacks are black – ideal for screen printing. The laser compatible acetates can be a nightmare to get hold of – took a while to get the right ones as the officeworld ones, £25 per 50, are crap. Using conquerer at the moment.
Good luck – cheers John
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although i am not referring to screen positive printing, last years signuk had two / three printers for printing direct to a shirt, however i didn’t look at it.
screen positive printing, there is a couple of machines that i have seen and to print laser film will depend on what you have already, i used to use hp laserjet a3 to print them back in my day with Folex clear films.
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Hi Dave,
I saw a few of the direct to shirt printing machines but thought the print quality was pretty crap and wouldn’t let those prints out of the workshop. This could be that the printers weren’t set up right but this was 2 machines printing light onto dark shirts and it looked awful.I’ve used the Folex sheets before but for cost and strength I prefer the conqueror ones – that’s just my opinion and I’m sure others use different acetates and printers for producing good positives. Please check that your laser printers are compatible with the acetates before printing or it will end up an expensive mistake.
Cheers John
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well john u know me, I haven’t been in the silk screen market for 3-5 years so things change. Folex was good but we used some kind of spray to darken the toner on the films to make it expose easier.
anyway, those printers to me should be no different to a regular inkjet printer, i didn’t notice any poor quality but i don’t recall very well but dont remember being alarmed by it either.
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quote John Gregson:Hi Neil,
The prices on that site seem steep for second hand gear – look on fleebay, normally there are some good carousel’s and dryers on there for very little outlay. Not much can go wrong with a carousel, just check the clamps for wear and check for play while the screens are down in the print position. For the dryer, just check all the ceramic elements are working and that the mesh belt goes round without moving sideways on the rollers or catching anything. Turn it up to full speed and leave it for 5 minutes – if there’s a problem you’ll soon find it.If your serious, and going to print in high numbers, don’t rely solely on a flash dryer, you’ll need a tunnel dryer. Other items are squeegy’s pallet knives, spray mount, power hose, wash out boothe, light box or print down frame and somewhere dark to coat and keep your screens. Over time you will need more equipment or tools but the above would be a start. You’ll also need gear and consumables to reclaim the screens.
Screens cost approx £25 each to buy then you would coat and expose to get the stencil on them. You’ll need one for each colour or design.
The t’ shirt printing prices on that site are rediculous, if it were that cheap everybody would be doing it. The ink alone comes in at approx £100, and that is when buying in at 5 litres at a time. Time wise they suggest 1 minute and 2p per print – this works out at £1.20 per hour, it wouldn’t even cover the cost of switching the dryer on not to mention consumables and wages for the person printing.
Positives can be made on any good laser printer – been using a minolta 2300 for the last 5 years and the blacks are black – ideal for screen printing. The laser compatible acetates can be a nightmare to get hold of – took a while to get the right ones as the officeworld ones, £25 per 50, are crap. Using conquerer at the moment.
Good luck – cheers John
Thanks the info John! I’ll take your advice & keep a close eye on ebay to see if anything suitable comes up, in the meantime is there any sort of a screen printing bible worth getting a hold of to read? I’m currently checking out the local colleges to see if any courses are available but it’s not looking promising.
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Hi Neil,
Not sure of a printing bible but all I can say is when ordering inks get an info sheet and this will detail how much thinner to use, depending on shop conditions, and drying times etc. Apart from that its a bit trial and error. 😀 but fun at the same time scrapping ink off the floor/walls :lol1:A lot of the schools/colleges stopped courses on screen printing a fair few years ago because of the health and safety gestapo and digital equipment taking over.
If you do get the equipment, and get stuck, feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers John
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yeah It was at school manyyyyyyyyy long years ago I had a little go of screen printing, luckily we never had to worry about the mess, the teachers did that for us 😉
Thanks for the offer of help John!, got a whole lot of reorganizing to do in the back workshops to make way for the equipment so I shouldn’t be bothering you anytime soon 😕
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