proposal: accept donated screen low-footprint screen printing station for shirts, bags, mugs etc.

[Heather]

I propose that if we can find a champion for it, we accept a donation of low-footprint screen equipment and use it to establish a screen printing station.

Please chime in if you are interested in screen printing, and especially if you or someone you know might be interested in championing this equipment. I think that screen printing could be a lot of fun for members, and I can only imagine the sorts of glorious designs this crowd might produce.

The equipment would be a donation to Heatsync Labs from Gretchen Reinhardt and her daughter. The use case for one piece of equipment is screen printing small textile items like T-shirts and tote bags, and the other is used for screen printing small items like mugs. Gretchen's daughter inherited the equipment, and the family feels that the best way to honor their late friend would be to ensure lots of people have the opportunity to use the equipment.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on this.

[Jot Powers]

I think screen printing is another one of those technologies/uses that has a ton of interest and use in the hackerverse.  I'm personally for it, but have a few clarifying questions:

• Do we know what the equipment is and the footprint? 
• Second obvious question is, if someone doesn't stand up for it, would you be willing to champion it?

-Jot

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[Paul Hickey]

A good screen printing setup would be so great to have in the lab.  It really fills in the gaps where vinyl cutting isn't ideal.

Paul Hickey

On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 10:26 AM Heather <mosstly...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Darrell Wertz]

I’m more concerned about the space. Would we keep it set up or would we have to store it between uses. How much auxiliary equipment would there be? Drying rack, screen frames, ink..etc 

I like the idea...

Darrell 

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Darrell Wertz

717-578-9884 Mobile

[Lindsey Dedina]

I'm interested and interested in helping to fundraise for this.

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[Heather]

The textile screen printer  takes up 3'x3' of floor space when not in use. when in use, it has some parts that fold out, leading it to take up about 6'x3' when in use.

The screen printer for non-textile objects needs very roughly 3'x3' of counter space.

I do not have the bandwidth to champion this right now, but I can help coordinate Gretchen's donation of the equipment to our lab.

If this gets some traction, I can help with the due diligence of making sure our potential champion or champions have a chance to see the equipment, manuals, and supplies, and determine from there whether they want to proceed.

The equipment would be donated to us with manuals, supplies, and an instructional CD. I posted pics on slack.

Heather

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[Heather]

Equipment is similar to the attached.

[Nate Caine]

Given that it's free, and seems a reasonable match to our needs, I'd say "go for it".

However, here's a quick list of things that come to mind:

Press-A-Print (PAP):
Seems to be more in the business of selling "home business" and franchises.
From their site: "The lion’s share of our corporate profits are in our business programs and not our supplies."
There's lots of discussion/complaints online about "purchasing a lifetime membership in the PAP Buyers Club". 

 ...and a lack of support for equipment to any but original  buyers of their equipment.

Electrical. No need for special wiring. Operating cost of power is minimal.

Ventilation. We might need more ventilation for fumes from ink and cleaning solvents. Especially for large runs.

Floorspace. Print-A-Print seems to make four systems. This proposal covers two of their products.
They recommend 50-sqft for the screen printer (t-shirts, etc.)
No mention of floor space for the transfer printer (mugs, etc.)

Maintenance/Repairs: Nothing jumps out here. Online folks says it's "ok" equipment. A bit dated hardware. Not junk, but not overly robust.

Consumables. See the attached list.
In online forums, there seems to be a fair bit of complaining about the cost of supplies from the company and "membership" fees to purchase supplies from their "buyer's club".
I'd say that operating costs and management of consumables is my second biggest concern. Nothing is overly expensive, but if not treated properly, cleaned, and maintained, things that are intended to be affordable and reused, quickly become expensive one-time consumables.

At the laser, 3D-printing, and vinyl cutter stations folks bring their own material or use donated leftovers. However, it's probably unreasonable to expect screen print users to buy several $25 cans of ink to make a few t-shirts. Yet, given a free and endless supply of free HeatSync-supplied ink, members might not be able to restrain themselves from going overboard.

Cleaning: Probably my number one concern (especially given HeatSync's poor track record in such matters). The screen printer is best suited for a moderate production run (for example, a dozen t-shirts). Otherwise the set-up and cleaning times become burdensome. If ink cans are left out uncapped, or ink allowed to dry on screens, or a can of ink spilled, things can really get out of hand.  

Location: Based on cleaning needs, it seems that the kitchen might be an initial good location for the print stations. As we gain experience we might easily decide on a better location down the road. (We've had this issue before where people make PCBs in the lab space, and the chemicals are left out, spilled, and never get cleaned up.)

Training: Given that YouTube exists, I'm a little surprised at the lack of training videos online from Press-A-Print. Most their videos are sales videos to sell you a home business. So it's hard to gauge the learning curve for users, and the cleaning, maintenance, and consumible issues involved.  There seem to be some training DVDs included with this donation.  If the videos are good, these could be the primary training method.

(There is also something called "VHS tape" which I understand was a ferromagnetic technologies used in the previous century, possibly related to telegraphs).

Copyrights. Images and artwork might be copyrighted. Address this issue if the need arises.  

Here's a link about supplies:

https://www.papbuyersclub.com/supplies

[Heather]

Nate,

Thanks for putting so much research into this!

It helps so much to have a better idea of what we're in for. I agree that the fact this equipment is a donation de-risks the entire proposition, and it's a good idea to accept and see how well we can manage it.  I like the idea of locating the equipment in the kitchen to support easier cleaning.

Gretchen found a potential champion for this equipment. He's not a member yet, but we're working on scheduling a time for me to show him around heatsync, talk with him about what membership entails, and about typical responsibilities of station champions. Hopefully he loves this place as much as I do and can't not join once he learns a little more.

If he's still interested in the champion role after that, would any of you be willing to talk with him about  strategies that have and have not worked so far for managing consumable supplies, training, and cleanup, so that he has options when he's choosing how to run the station?

Heather

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[Jason Nevins]

Based on the cleanup requirements, that it works best with larger quantities, and supply costs, I think it makes sense to make it a tool that requires certification to use, supplies shouldn't be publicly visible, and logging and supply costs are handled between the champion and approved users. Maybe logging supply weight before and after use in case we want to track down misuse.

This seems like a really cool addition to the lab and I'm excited to learn the process.

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[Heather Jackson]

The weight tracking idea is cool. I agree about certification requirements. 

On Jan 14, 2021, at 2:38 PM, Jason Nevins <ja...@nevins.me> wrote:



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[Heather]

Gretchen, who has offered to donate this screen printing equipment to us, has joined Heatsync!  So has her friend Rick, a long-time screen printing professional. Rick is not available to serve as champion for this equipment, but he is willing to help us set up the station, and teach at least one of us how to use the equipment.

Is there anyone who is interested in learning to screen print from a pro, and moving on to champion this equipment?

As for where to locate the equipment: Rick and Gretchen toured the lab and recommended that we locate the screen printing equipment in the kitchen. With your back to the sink, the recommended location would be in the corner across from you, and to your right. There was an expensive looking piece of lab equipment, roughly 3'x3' cube shaped, perhaps a kiln or autoclave on wheels there when we checked last. Can someone provide any information on that and what our plan for it is? It appeared to be in storage rather than in use. Rick's recommendation based on touring the lab includes using the space where that piece of equipment is currently located.

I look forward to discussing this further at HYH tomorrow.

Heather

[Mike Wolfson]

I can't be there tonight, but FWIW, I support this and hope it passes.  It seems like a fun addition to our lab.

-Mike

[Jaime Glasser]

I apologize that I have a conflict but after COVID risk gone or I get vaccines I would love to learn and get certified 

Jaime Glasser DVM MS

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On Jan 28, 2021, at 5:44 PM, Mike Wolfson <mwol...@gmail.com> wrote:

I can't be there tonight, but FWIW, I support this and hope it passes.  It seems like a fun addition to our lab.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/heatsynclabs/389fbcc4-2c7d-407e-abce-6bdbcaa295e9n%40googlegroups.com.

[Heather Jackson]

Thanks for weighing in, everyone. Thanks to all of your support, this proposal passed. 

On Jan 28, 2021, at 6:59 PM, Jaime Glasser <jmemer...@gmail.com> wrote:

I apologize that I have a conflict but after COVID risk gone or I get vaccines I would love to learn and get certified 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/heatsynclabs/D6352C35-040C-4B4C-B380-4F234A7E6AC6%40gmail.com.