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How to be a Better Printer: Spend a Little $ Wisely

Question: Our printing doesn’t seem to be getting better, what are the best ways to go about improving our printing abilities?   Answer: My two cents? Stop being penny wise and pound foolish. Saving twenty dollars and buying a gallon of inexpensive but inferior emulsion is a terrible idea. Inferior emulsions don’t have the resolution…

Alphabrodek (and rhodes, and imprinted wholesale, and ash city…)

Alphabroder just announced today what has been rumored for months, that they have merged with Bodek and Rhodes. Nobody cares about a little billion dollar merger I guess if Bud can buy Miller for $106,000,000,000 (that’s right billions.) This merger makes Alphabroder/Bodek the undisputed biggest shirt distributor as Alphabroder, Bodek and SanMar were previously the…

Jakprints – the Future of Printing Now

I was stoked that the road back from Farm Aid passes right by Jakprints and I got to see my buds the owners Jacob and Dameon and my other buds working there LT and Jeff and to talk shop and as always to have a good time. My take on Jakprints is that two skatepunks…

Lasers: A Printer’s Best Friend

Many of us have for many years utilized lasers to aid in accurate print positioning on press.  I’ve seen many home-spun setups (including the cheap Radio Shack laser levels which were once mounted onto our presses) as well as some commercial systems.  Most worked just “OK” and with serious limitations.  Enter Lase-It, a truly legit laser positioning system.  With a solid…

Don’t be Stupid

Pricing is an area where we as screen printers are typically ignorant, afraid, or just plain stupid. In no way would I say that I have all of the answers on screen print pricing but I can say that I have, and continue to, put a lot of thought into the subject, and make adjustments accordingly…

The Little Guy

We recently installed press #5 at Motion Textile.  I’ve affectionately nicknamed this 8-color MHM X-Type Plus “The Little Guy” (maybe I was thinking of that Portlandia sketch?). A few thoughts on going small with this new install: Sleeves The majority of sleeve prints that we run are very simple (2-4 spot color) prints with a flash or two.  We…

Just Like New… Or Even Better

We recently sent our Rapid Tag label press to the manufacturer, ASPE, for an extensive repair/maintenance/retrofit.  They promised that the machine would look and perform like new, but even better as they would be upgrading this first generation machine.  When the press arrived I was not dissapointed…  

Don’t Be a Cheap Bastard

Stop being penny wise and pound foolish. Saving twenty dollars and buying a gallon of inexpensive but inferior emulsion is a terrible idea. Inferior emulsions don’t have the resolution of most of the more expensive emulsions because they don’t have the solids content. Without the resolution you will you lose detail in your printing.  …

Big Projects

“Digitizing” the presses has been on my projects list for years now.  It’s quite the undertaking but once completed will allow us to digitally display the full and accurate range of on-press screen and platen movement in relation to each other and in relation to screen profile and artboard (these components we have already digitized).  This is a big deal for us…

Atlantic City ISS is About to Start

The Ink Kitchen will have our “Know-It-All” booth at #505. We have many industry luminaries stopping by, some cool shirts to check out, wanted and unwanted advice, recommendations for every aspect of the garment trade and decorating garments, and a few free cool gifts. For what we don’t know, we have a Magic 8 Ball.…

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