Screen Printing Forum

I've been running a small shop with with a manual press for the past 8 months or so. We started from scratch and everything has gone pretty well. But we do have one problem that has become a bigger and bigger issue as we've grown. Aligning t-shirts on the press consistently. We do the best we can using markings on the pallet, measuring tape, and just generally eyeballing. But it's so inexact, and it's the main thing limiting our speed.

I feel like there has to be a better way that I don't know about. Like there's some simple tool out there that I just haven't stumbled upon.

We experimented with ironing a crease down the center of the shirts but it's difficult to even do that with any speed and accuracy.

Thanks for the help,

Joe

A good thread from a while back should help

Loading Shirts

You have to remember that all the shirts are going to be cut a little different.
Each size is going to load on the pallet a little different.
I find that on my pallets (16" wide) Large and Medium are the best fit and load really quickly.
2X, 3X, 4X and up all take some time to load (another reason to charge more for sizes over XL)

That tutorial is good... but you still have to load like 10,000+ shirts before you will feel comfortable with your loading.
I have printed over 70,000 shirts myself and I must say I am never 100% happy with my loading.
(I like being in the office)

Like anything in life... PRACTICE makes PERFECT

Another thing that can help is to try and always put registration marks the same distance from the image- that can help you to set your art up on the screens in the same position.

I have a piece of white melamine with a grid I've drawn that I align my positives to so I can always set my screens up on the press the same way and for most jobs I can always load the shirts the exact same way.....

I couldn't tell you how many shirts I've loaded/printed over the years and sometimes there are still jobs I look at and think 'WTF?' But as long as the customer is happy......