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Tips for Screen Printing at Home

Tips for Screen Printing at Home

At least half of screen printers start in their homes, perhaps in a basement, garage, or other out building. You need about a 20' X 20' area to work comfortably. You can do it in less space, but starting with this size will give you enough room to work efficiently.
Friday, September 23, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1379)/Comments (0)/
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Drowning Staff Needs a Lifeline

Drowning Staff Needs a Lifeline

New Article from atkinsontshirt.com. 
I was recently speaking with an owner of a shop that was lamenting about the lack of talent, drive and knowledge in her shop.  She was very frustrated that she couldn’t find good workers to help get her business growing and wanted to know the best way to attract better employees.
During the conversation, I asked her to describe her current workforce, their in-house training program and what they do to help employees move up the ladder.  My thought was maybe her current staff members could rise up and fill the needed positions easily, as they already have a lot of internal workplace knowledge.
Her response shocked me.
“Oh, we don’t have time to train.  I’m not going to do that.  I expect people I hire to know what they are doing.”  She then went on to tell me that they barely get 1,000 impressions from any of their automatic presses a day. She was 100% adamant that it is the worker’s responsibility to learn how to operate the equipment for production success.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1361)/Comments (0)/
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Why Don’t More Decorators Go Green?

Why Don’t More Decorators Go Green?

New Article from atkinsontshirt.com.  
Why don’t more apparel decorators “Go Green”?  …and by “Go Green”, I don’t mean the color of the shirt, thread, or ink.  This isn’t a St. Paddy’s day stunt either.

We live in some interesting times.  Besides the constant product disruption in business, our capitalistic efforts in the last century have put a growing burden on our planet.  In the past few years many corporations have focused their efforts in becoming more environmentally friendly.  Having a strong triple bottom line pays off with shareholders these days.  (social, environmental & financial)
Just plop into any corporate webpage and check out their blog posts, annual reports or sustainability mission statements.  You can see that they are making some valiant efforts in reducing their environmental risk, while building a healthier bottom line.  Not to mention using a sustainable mindset when developing new products for their customers.  Click the links and check these out:
Monday, September 12, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (2404)/Comments (0)/
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The Best Practices of Screen Printing

The Best Practices of Screen Printing

Take equipment, press care, screen quality and technique 
into consideration for this discipline.

Countless small-shop owners, garage-based operations, hometown printers and startup decorators make a living via the manual screen-printing process, as it remains the heart of most garment printing. Even larger, automated facilities use manual screen-printing presses for smaller orders (one to six dozen) or sampling for later production on automatic presses. 
Let’s review some best practices for screen printing on a manual press
Wednesday, September 7, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1649)/Comments (0)/
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Don’t Make Me USE ALL CAPS

Don’t Make Me USE ALL CAPS

New Article from atkinsontshirt.com. 
Frustrated with work challenges that involve people?  Me too.  Don’t you want to just send that jerk-wad a full fledged e-mail rant using all caps to really show them who’s boss?  I know you know where the caps lock key is on the keyboard.  Time for a left pinky smackdown…
KA-BLAM!  UNLEASH THE FREAKING FURY OF THE ALL CAPS RANT!
However, most of our daily work challenges come down to the fact that it’s our own fault.
Huh?
Yes, you.  Me too.  Ok, stop snickering.  I’m serious.  It’s all about how your company insists on accountability, empowerment and expectations.
Think about it. 
Tuesday, September 6, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (2509)/Comments (0)/
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Direction vs Speed

Direction vs Speed

New Article from atkinsontshirt.com.
Let’s pretend you had to choose between “Direction” and “Speed” as the one attribute for your business to obtain success.  Sure, it’s a ridiculous argument, as there are obviously more to making a company successfulthan one buzzword attribute…but that’s the fun of debate isn’t it?  Pick a crazy premise and argue.
Which do you think will win that battle?
Direction pertains to having your company moving in the right direction for success.  It’s all about alignment. You have your company built to serve a particular customer base.  The equipment and consumables you use perfectly performs the work.  Your staff has clear expectations about how to serve the customers and make those orders sing.  Like a seasoned captain, you make course corrections to keep the ship traveling towards success.
Speed is all about beating the clock.  If the order was due to ship Thursday, can it ship Wednesday instead?  Can you beat the competition to the finish line and win the race?  In a market with ever decreasing turn times, can you go from a five-to-seven business day turn to two-or-three?  To get that speed, what sacrifices must you make to obtain that goal?  Will you have to invest more money to get that speed?  Faster usually equals technology, different equipment, more automation, less people.  There’s an app for that.  Or at least there could be.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1355)/Comments (0)/
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Why should I pretreat my garments for direct-to-garment printing?

Why should I pretreat my garments for direct-to-garment printing?

The ink used for digital garment printing is very thin in comparison to the plastisol inks used by screen printers. When a dark garment is printed, a pass of white will be printed first to create an under-base for the color pass. If no pretreatment is applied to the garment, the printed white ink would have the same effect as milk being poured onto it.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1248)/Comments (0)/
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Nazdar SourceOne Introduces ImageStar ProTex Chemistry and Emulsion

Nazdar SourceOne Introduces ImageStar ProTex Chemistry and Emulsion

Nazdar SourceOne is pleased to announce the all new ImageStar ProTex chemistry and emulsions. The ImageStar ProTex line of screen printing chemistry and emulsion is specifically designed for the challenges of today’s garment printing. The ProTex line includes nine different products, each designed to improve the quality of the print and the efficiency of the screen printing process. 

Tuesday, August 23, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1938)/Comments (0)/
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Procrastinate Much?

Procrastinate Much?

New Article from atkinsontshirt.com. I’ve been meaning to write an article about procrastination for some time now.  Don’t laugh. 
Seriously.
Somehow, I just keep putting it off.  (Ba Da Bump)  Other topics come up that mean more, or maybe I think they are more relevant to the industry.  Things happen.
Now here we are months later and I’m just now getting some words down.  As I’m in the same boat as the rest of the procrastinators out there, maybe that makes me some sort of half-assed expert or tribal salesman at least.  I don’t know.  They don’t give out awards for being late usually.  But in this particular case there wasn’t even a deadline.  Just something I wanted to do.


Monday, August 22, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1249)/Comments (0)/
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How to Keep Up with Order Volume in a Small Shop

How to Keep Up with Order Volume in a Small Shop

For any small business with an increase in order volume, there comes a point when you need to decide when it’s time to outsource, and you need to be prepared for that situation. Sometimes you just cannot do all the work yourself. Now, I wouldn’t recommend outsourcing your work too quickly; you did invest in equipment for a reason. So where do you draw the line and how do you optimize your business for best internal production? 
Wednesday, August 17, 2016/Author: Anonym/Number of views (1404)/Comments (0)/
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