something i was offered....

[chongsta]

Hi all,

About 4 or 5 months ago i was offered a 6 station, 6 colour "Workhorse" screen printer carousel. It came with various platens for adult and childrens garments, a UV unit for the transparencies and a flash heater.

The guy wanted £4500.00 for it. apparently it was the dogs nuts of screen printing equipment.

the carousel> http://www.workhorseproducts.com/store. ... how_detail (http://www.workhorseproducts.com/store.php?crn=213&rn=304&action=show_detail)
The flash unit> http://www.workhorseproducts.com/store. ... how_detail (http://www.workhorseproducts.com/store.php?crn=214&rn=309&action=show_detail) (although it might have been a different one but this looks close!)
The UV exposure unit> http://www.workhorseproducts.com/store. ... how_detail (http://www.workhorseproducts.com/store.php?crn=212&rn=298&action=show_detail) (again, might be different but i remember him saying 1K halogen)

Have i missed a trick here at £4500.00? I contacted Workhorse in America and they said that it was a fair price considering that i wouldnt be paying shipping and taxes, this equipment is only available in the U.S.

The guy was very nice and assured me that he was actually loaded and wouldnt care if he had to hold the stuff in storage until he got his price, so i guess he wasnt in a hurry to let it go. He originally wanted £5400.00 but when i explained that i was a total n00b to SSP he said that he would consider dropping the price only because 4 other people had messed him about and we did kinda hit it off with our thoughts. As it turned out I couldnt buy the equipment because it wouldve involved moving premesis and enduring a large learning curve of 6 colour SSP when i had zero knowledge of it in the first place...although i am a quick learner, especially when i spend nearly 5k on some equipment!

So, to you SSp's, was i onto something here or was i being lead up the garden path?

chars
Dave.

[John G]

You've just missed out on a 4 colour, 4 station carousel, 2.5m tunnel dryer, 60 t'shirt screens and various inks on ebay. It started at £750 and went for just over £800 - bloody bargain.

Cheers John

[chongsta]

(forgot about this thread!...)

Blimey^^ that WAS a deal, put mine well into perspective, i guess thats why the guy is loaded if he's selling at that price and they go for that price on feebay!

I really would like to get into SSP one day but at the mo' i just dont have the room or suitable water facilities to do the screens etc.

You know your onions though John :geek: how do you get some SSP shirts with blended colours (gradients)? is it a case of having to make a mix of inks for a batch run or can you make the screens to have gradients on them? I'm under the (probably wrong) impression that SSp was just spot colours - upto 6 per shirt, but ive seen some wicked tee's with blended colours.

can you see SSP being surpassed by DTG eventually?

cheers
Dave
.

[John G]

Without using halftones (Full Colour) you can still do a blend on a t' shirt - a bit old hat though.

Drop a small dollup of red, then yellow, then blue at the botom of your screen about 100mm apart. Flood the screen then print through onto paper, keep doing this until the 3 colours blend perfectly together, with no sharp lines of colour, so that it goes red orange yellow green, blue. Important to keep the squeegie straight on the print and flood strokes as if its slightly angled to much of one colour will come across the screen and you'll knack the blend.

Approx 10 - 15 prints onto paper should give you a good blend - but when you run short of ink, or knack the blend, you'll have to wash up and start the whole process again.

Its fun doing this when you get the hang of it - we used to print 1000's of t'shirts like this - but that was 20 - 25 years ago :lol:

[chongsta]

Yeh.... the effect was that classic american kinda "Grand canyon hills" reflection on chrome with the colours you just said.

How did you know lol?

I hear that you need good ventilation as well coz the inks stink to high hell? is this true?


but when you run short of ink, or knack the blend, you'll have to wash up and start the whole process again.

so I guess this is why a lot of SSP shirts are expensive to buy when the colours are blended yeah?...because you have to get the same colours again, making each run quite exclusive i wouldda thought?

Do you think Cafe Press and Zazzle use SSP or DTG...or both?

cheers John
Dave.

[John G]

Not sure - i haven't seen there shirts - don't think they would do it this way as its very time consuming. I think for mass production it would be full colour, using haltones, on an automatic carousel.

Cheers John

[ART DISCO]

old school colour blending is very hot right now...just look at how popular tie dyed and ombre (dip dyed) tees have been this past year. People seem to be loving the hippie/americana vibe you get from good old fashioned hands on techniques, well I know I am!

Lucy

[mbprintsolutions]

Hi Dave,
IMHO a 6 Station 6 colour workhorse speedbase carousel is a blinding bit of kit. Sure there is a lot of cheap kit on ebay and all will produce quality work, but if you are trying to teach yourself, you really don't want to be fighting against the limitations of your equipment at the same time.
I started with a Hopkins 4 colour 4 station which is also a fantastic carousel, but I sold it when I decided to go Sublimation and Vinyl. I have since returned to screen printing and bought a second hand 6 colour 6 Station off ebay for 250 quid. If I had started with this press I would certainly have given up by now as it doesn't come close to the Hopkins in terms of register or ease of use and I regret getting rid of it daily.
With the Hopkins I was turning out saleable work from day one, but although new to garment printing I had years of screen print experience on ceramics and plastics.
In summary, was the Workhorse a good deal? I would say very fair! Was it the machine you should start with? Most definitely if it was within your budget.
Screen printing is largely about preparation and technique, if you are limited on space and want to feel the water, start with a single colour single platen setup to learn the technique. If its for you then buy the best speedbase carousel you can afford, once you get into multi colour register work it will pay dividends.
regards,
Matt

[John G]

Like all major purchases on ebay - you need to check it out and make sure it fits your needs. The majority of the 4 station carousels on ebay are fine and would turn out good work in the right hands. Aslong as it registers accurately it all down to how you set it up.