Screen Printers Open - A Forum for Screen Printing and Embroidery

Yes, married 22 years and we still talk. On top of that we have never had a fight.

Anyway, both of us are getting older (we are the same age, just one month apart) and were discussing what we need to do with the business in the next few years as I am not a spring chicken anymore and I will not be printing for too may more years (at least at the level I do now). So we both think it is time to look at bringing embroidery in house within the next year or two.

So now starts the planning, the investigating and the pre-learning.  I think we will probably look into getting a single head machine with at least 15 needles. If the workload grows then we can just add another single head.

So the first thing is does anyone know of some good tutorials out there that may be of some benefit to look at?

Congrats on the great marriage. No Fights? Are You Serious? I would have to be like this  lol!

No kidding, we have never had a fight. We do not always agree with each other but she knows when to just let me do what I am going to do anyway and I know when to just let her do what she is going to do anyway so there is no need to fight.

Shoot

I was married for 26 tears when we d'ed in 2001. But we still talk too.

On the emb thing I'll make the big a$$ bonfire and you bring the bottle.
By the time we go to sleep you will know everything there is to know about emb.
Only question is if you can remember it.

Hell yea you can come

Believe it or not after I get the house cleaned up I'm thinking about doing a retreat and hands on class once a year on screen printing and all aspects, embroidery, sublimation and digital transfers.

Yes I do all that.

preston,

what type of tutorials are you looking for?  operating a machine or digitizing software?  each is its own animal.

most machines operate the same.  its just a different control panel. 

the biggest learning curve in my opinion is knowing fabrics and knowing which stabilizers, best way to hoop, and best way to digitize. 

here's a good site to browse: http://www.nnep.net/

Hell, I am thinking of doing classes and or renting my shop out for so much a day. My body is not going to be able to print for too many more years and is why I am looking at embroidery as a possible sit down job all day.

You would have takers on that. For someone coming up in the biz, the knowledge you have is...

"Priceless"

The embroidery is no piece of cake.

It will take awhile to learn how the tape needs to be done and the best way to sew on all the different substrates and it is ruff on the hands, back and shoulders and for Old Farts like US a good chair or Stool is the most important thing if you want to be able to walk the next day.

I know on some things you bore easy...but for a sit down job...you could do websites for the industry and make a killing.

Its just not that many still above ground that have your grasp of what happens in the background.

Look at the edit part of my post....

preston,

I have owned several different machines over the years and all have the pluses and minuses just like screen print equipment.  Out of the ones you mentioned, the EASIEST to learn and get rolling on is the Amaya.  I have owned one for 5 years now and teaching new people how to use it is simple and fast.  The "auto" setting on the machine will take care of 95% of your work with no issues.  I've had good support from Melco and have had no issues with the machine other than user error.

The SWF is more a traditional embroidery machine where hands on knowledge of thread tension is required or it was the last time I looked.  A good machine but will have a steeper learning curve than the Amaya.

you know... just thinking about this... someone could make a killing in the screen print auto market if they made a machine that set pressures automatically.  hmmm....

True to all of that and is why I am investigating all of this now.

What we are basically looking in to and thinking about is what I call retirement mode. We still need some kind of income but also need to reduce the workload a bit and getting a single head embroidery machine to do small runs and subbing out any huge jobs seems to be where we are leaning to at this point.

I was also talking to Johnny and we came across what may be something that could fit my bill of a retirement income with little work. What I am going to do is put a pencil to paper and see what I could get to just lease my whole shop out, building, equipment, my knowledge and all.  I have a little over 1000 square feet of shop that even has a restroom in it. So I could probably lease my shop out, ready to print, for a decent amount and if I had a job I needed to get printing I could always do that at night or on the weekend.  May be something that I can make work and get me out of the print shop yet still let the place make money.