Excited to get my first Auto...any tips?

varsityink · February 15th, 2011, 10:45 PM

So our first auto will be in, in about 2 weeks, thanks to Jason Rodriguez at Southern Screen Inkstitute. I've known Jason now for 3 years (started with a trip to a show shop in ATL and free VIP passes to SGIA), and this guy does a great job at doing what it takes to make customers happy. When I called him because I was ****ed about how much ink my Epson 1400 drank up after 1 run with the standard cartridges, he had a continuous ink system sent to me asap. I've loved it ever since.

Anywho, just a quick plug for a good guy. So I'm getting a used Javelin. Any tips on this particular press as far as little tricks of the trade or general knowledge of how it works would be helpful, as I have never run an auto. We did $300K worth of shirts last year on a 6/6 chameleon and it's finally time to step it up!

ALSO, I have been talking with a guy that has some screens for sale so I can have some ready in 2 weeks, but UPS wants $172 to ship them from CA. 12 screens, no thank you! He was asking $22 each. If anyone has any Newman rollers I can "have" or they want to "sell" let me know

varsityink · February 16th, 2011, 11:21 AM

bump

kidxdynamitex · February 16th, 2011, 11:29 AM

don't schedule jobs right away for your auto. It's a completely different world, and takes a little bit of time to get used to.

Everything from setting up your films on your screens to actually getting used to print pressure and stuff like that, def. takes a good chunk of time.

dcapparelinc · February 16th, 2011, 01:31 PM

i agree 100% with kid dynamite above! auto printing is completely different than manual! we didn't think there would be much of a difference either. we tried to do a couple of jobs that we had done on our manual on our new auto and found ourselves scratching our heads! definently spend a little time learning angles, squeegee pressure and even print/flood speeds. key to success on an auto is very minimal off contact and tight screens. this will allow you to use minimal pressure which will allow you to leave your ink on top of your garment and not bury it into the fabric like a lot of printers do!

you will also probably want to do your seps a little differnent as on most jobs for you auto you are going to do a bottom and top white to speed up prininting. this will allow you to pull your shirts after one cycle instead of cycling the press twice.

do this and you should be printing great quality in no time on your new auto!

spotcolorsupply · February 16th, 2011, 03:37 PM

Congrats!! I have always liked Tuf machines.

Remember the Flash Back requires a 4 wire conductor (2 hot, 1 Neutral, 1 Ground), and a 3/4" air line is recommended to the machine (a couple of tid-bits, may help

). If you need someone to install the machine I would be happy to help you out. I was originally trained by Tuf and have the appropriate registration tool for your machine.

varsityink · February 16th, 2011, 11:11 PM

Hey brannon what do you mean by registration tool?

spotcolorsupply · February 17th, 2011, 07:42 AM

There is a tool specifically made to register (align) the index bearings. All of the index bearings on a press have to be the same distance apart (within 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch) for the press to function properly. If they are out, a common symptom is having left to right registration issues on certain pallets. So... for example, you set up on pallet 1..... Pallet 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 may register great, but 3, 5, 7, and 8 end up not registering left to right. I would definitely recommend getting a press registered after it has been broken down and moved!

This is what the tool looks like:

spotcolorsupply · February 17th, 2011, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inkman996

In this case I would not worry about it, our bearings are registered perfectly and I do not see how on tear down anything will effect it. In fact this machine has been torn down and moved three times and it never lost bearing registration. Of course if for some reason Jason decides to hit every pot hole to GA or drive drunk all the way I am sure he has the correct tools and skills to register the bearings.

May be the case, just a suggestion

.

armonks · February 17th, 2011, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotcolorsupply

May be the case, just a suggestion

.

This is one that will screw your day up. And it is going to happen.
Printing on a really sticky platten without a shirt being there. It will rip the emusion right off the mesh.

varsityink · February 17th, 2011, 12:27 PM

Thanks, guys for the info