🐿️Pinecone Attack

c/custom-printing-chat

3

lindaw29•5h ago

Had a customer pull a sample from her purse at the counter last Tuesday

I was working the front desk at a small print shop in Portland and this woman, maybe 55, pulls out a folded up napkin with a hand-drawn logo on it. She said her grandson drew it and she wanted it on 50 t-shirts for a family reunion. I scanned it and cleaned it up in Photoshop, and she actually cried when she saw the proof. Has anyone else had a random keepsake turn into a rush print job like that?

18

sandraf84•14d ago

Burned $150 on cheap transfer paper from Amazon - ruined an entire bulk order

Ordered a 50 pack of some no-name brand for 30 bucks thinking I was being clever. Printed about 100 shirts for a local 5k race and every single one started peeling after one wash. Had to refund the whole order out of my own pocket. Anyone else learn this lesson the expensive way?

21

tyler368•15d ago

Showerthought: That one customer who taught me about paper weight

Had a lady come into the shop last March with a stack of flyers she printed at home. She asked why they looked cheap compared to the ones I made. I showed her the difference between 20 lb bond and 100 lb cover stock, and she just stood there nodding for a solid 2 minutes. Has anyone else had a customer who genuinely didn't know paper weight mattered that much?

18

rosek73•15d ago

Customer said my shirt designs looked 'too busy'

I had a client last month who ordered 50 shirts for a 5k run. She told me my layout had too many elements and nobody could read the date from more than 5 feet away. I stripped it down to the logo, the race name, and a single arrow. She came back this week for a reorder and said the simplified version got way more compliments. Has anyone else gotten feedback that forced you to drop half your design?

24

rivera.susan•16d ago

Finally tried DTF transfers on a dark hoodie and actually got good results

I've been doing screen printing for about two years but always avoided DTF because I heard horror stories about peeling. Last week I had a rush order for 12 hoodies with a full color design and no time to burn screens. I grabbed a roll of DTF film and tested one transfer on a black hoodie. It came out almost perfect on the first try, no peeling after 3 washes. I learned that pressing time and temp really matter after I ruined one by rushing it. Has anyone else switched to DTF for small custom jobs?

29

young.emma•16d ago

Why does nobody talk about how ink costs have changed over 10 years?

Honestly, I was digging through some old order receipts from 2014 last night and saw I paid $12 for a full color print that costs me $8 now. Back then we were paying through the nose for cyan and magenta cartridges. Tbh the quality is way better today too even with the cheaper price. Anyone else notice the pricing shift being that big in their shop?

13

eric_price•18d ago

My Etsy order disaster last Saturday made me rethink rush jobs completely

I had a customer who needed 50 custom t-shirts for a family reunion by Sunday morning, and I agreed to do it even though my gut said no. The white ink on my screen printer kept clogging after every 3 shirts, and I spent 4 hours just cleaning screens instead of printing. By 9 PM I had only finished 12 shirts, and the customer showed up at my door at 8 AM Sunday angry as all get out. Popular opinion says you should always take the work when it comes, but I learned the hard way that saying no to tight deadlines saves your sanity. Has anyone else had a job spiral like that where you wish you just turned it down?

8

cameron770•18d ago

My heat press just died mid-job on a rush order for a local band

I was printing 20 shirts for a punk band called Rustbucket last Saturday and my old 15x15 press just stopped heating at 30 seconds in. The timer still ran but the temp dropped to zero, so I had to blast it with a heat gun to finish the last 8 shirts. Has anyone else had a controller board fail like that, or am I better off just buying a new press entirely?

17

seanperry•21d ago

That $40 heat press blanket I bought off Amazon is already peeling

I picked up a cheap 15x15 heat press blanket from some no-name seller three months ago. Paid about $40 after shipping thinking I was being smart saving money. Now the silicone coating is flaking off and leaving sticky residue on my test shirts. I've probably ruined 6 blanks trying to figure out if it was my temperature settings or the blanket itself. Has anyone found a mid-range replacement that actually lasts longer than a season?

7

the_joseph•21d ago

Vent: Used to eyeball alignment on t-shirt presses for years

I ran a small custom print shop out of my garage for like 4 years. Just eyeballed every shirt placement. Figured close enough was good enough. Then last month I printed 50 shirts for a local brewery and 7 of them had the logo sitting a quarter inch off center. The owner noticed right away. Told me it looked sloppy. Now I use a laser alignment jig I built for $40. Takes 20 extra seconds per shirt but the registration is dead on every time. One bad batch made me change my whole workflow. Anyone else switch from 'that's fine' to measuring everything after one screw up?

22

nancy_owens•22d ago

Just walked into a print shop in Austin and saw someone using a screen press from the 80s

Honestly I was in Austin last weekend visiting a friend and stopped by this small custom print shop called Ink & Thread. The owner was running a job on this old manual screen press that looked like it was from 1985 or something. He told me he bought it used for like 500 bucks back in 2006 and has never upgraded because it just works. Ngl I was kinda amazed watching him line up each shirt by hand with this little tape marks on the platen. He said his digital printer broke down twice last month so he just fell back on the old press. I'm thinking about getting into custom printing myself but I don't know if starting with vintage gear is smart or just asking for trouble. Has anyone else stuck with older equipment instead of going all digital? How do you keep it running without it driving you crazy?

18

eric_wright77•22d ago

Tried a cheap DTG printer from Amazon and it lasted 3 days

I bought a DTG printer off Amazon for $400 last Tuesday because I wanted to start doing custom shirts from my garage. It printed maybe 30 shirts before the printhead just gave out completely. The company's support number went straight to voicemail and nobody called back. I learned the hard way that you really gotta go with a name brand like Epson or Brother for these things. Has anyone else had luck with a budget DTG printer or should I just save up for a proper one?

22

faithb74•22d ago

Took me 6 hours to figure out why my screen printer's registration was off by 3 millimeters

Turns out the pallet arm had a tiny burr under the clamp that I only found after taking the whole thing apart and running my finger across every surface, has anyone else had a print problem that ended up being something that small?

21

garcia.charles•23d ago

The print that peeled off like a bad sunburn

I was working on a batch of custom hoodies for a local car club in Austin last month. About 20 shirts in, I pulled one off the heat press and saw the design lift right off the fabric in one big sheet. Turns out I had the temperature set too low, around 280 instead of 320, because I was rushing through a 50 piece order. I had to stop everything, scrape the leftover adhesive off the platen, and re-press every single shirt from scratch. My buddy who runs a shop down the street told me he tests a scrap piece of fabric every 10 prints to check adhesion, which I now do religiously. It cost me an extra 3 hours and a whole roll of transfer paper to fix it. Has anyone else had a batch go bad because you skipped a simple check?

12

reese550•23d ago

Comparison between transfer papers wrecked a rush order

I had to print 50 custom shirts for a local 5k run last Saturday and used some cheap no-name transfer paper instead of the branded stuff I usually buy. The cheaper paper bubbled up and peeled after just one wash, and the colors looked washed out before the race even started. The guy who organized the run called me furious because 12 shirts came back with cracks across the design. I ended up spending $80 on rush replacements using the good brand's paper and it came out perfect. Has anyone else had luck finding a mid-range transfer paper that actually holds up?

27

ross.jason•24d ago

I compared screen printing vs DTF for a 50 shirt order and the difference was night and day

Ran a test run of 10 shirts with DTF transfers last month and the wash test looked way better than the screen printed ones I did before. The DTF colors stayed bright after 5 washes while the screen printed ones started cracking already. Anyone else make the switch to DTF for smaller batches?

25

jade47•25d ago

Had a facepalm moment with screen mesh tension yesterday

I've been doing custom shirt prints for like 3 years out of my garage in Portland, and I always wondered why my fine detail stuff came out blurry. Turns out I was pulling my screen mesh way too tight on the frame, like I was using 20 newtons of force on a 110 mesh when you're supposed to go way gentler. A guy at the local shop, Mike from Graphic Parts over on 12th street, literally just looked at my screen and said 'you're choking it, man' and showed me the difference in 2 minutes. Has anyone else spent years doing one tiny step totally backward without realizing it?

7

daniel_martinez84•25d ago

Went to a print shop in Portland that refused to touch my vector file

Drove 45 minutes to a shop that claimed they could do custom transfers on their website. Get there and the guy says oh we only work with PDFs because our software can't handle vector files. I mean what year is it? I had to sit in their lobby and convert it to a 300 dpi PNG on my phone. They still messed up the registration by 2mm. Has anyone else run into shops that won't touch .ai or .eps files anymore?

23

holly_young35•27d ago

TIL my shop hit 10,000 custom prints without me even noticing

Ngl, I was going through last month's invoices and saw we crossed 10,000 orders since we started three years ago. Never expected that number from a little garage setup in Austin - has anyone else had a milestone sneak up on them like that?

2

riverf34•27d ago

Wasted $150 on a custom sticker order that wouldn't even stick

I ordered a batch of vinyl stickers from a random print shop online, thought i was saving a buck. They came in last week and they barely grab onto anything. Tried putting one on my laptop, it peeled off by lunch. Contacted the shop and they said 'surface prep issue' but i cleaned it with alcohol and everything. Anybody else run into this where the adhesive is just bad?

6

the_joel•29d ago

My screen press blew a bushing mid-run on a 200 shirt order

I was running a 4 color job on Friday for a local BBQ joint, about 50 shirts in when the press started wobbling real bad. Found out the lower bushing on the print head had split and was grinding metal on metal. Has anyone tried those aftermarket brass bushings or should I just bite the bullet on a factory replacement?

5

kellymurphy•1mo ago

Had a $200 print job get wrecked by cheap tape

Printing full color labels for a client. 500 sheets. Used the bargain brand transfer tape from the hardware store. Liner wouldn't release cleanly. Pulled up half the ink on 50 sheets before I caught it. Had to redo the whole run on my own dime. Never again. Anyone else learned this lesson the hard way?

13

nancy_owens•1mo ago

Showerthought: a guy at a print shop in Austin told me my design file was 'unprintable' and walked away.

I was trying to get 500 custom stickers made for a local event, and the guy just pointed at my screen, said 'the bleeds are wrong, it's unprintable,' and left me standing there. I had to figure out the bleed settings myself by watching a 10 minute video on my phone. Has anyone else had a printer just give up on explaining the fix?

6

ryan653•1mo ago

I finally checked out that new print shop on 5th Street

They had a sample of a custom t-shirt printed with a 12-color process, which I've never seen done locally before. Has anyone here actually ordered a job that complex from a small shop?

2

blake_martinez•1mo ago

Update: My print shop's server died on the busiest Tuesday of the year

Last week, our main file server crashed right as we were loading a 500-piece custom t-shirt order for a local brewery. The whole shop just froze for two hours while we tried to restore from a backup that was three days old. We had to call every client from that gap and ask them to resend their artwork, which felt completely unprofessional. Has anyone else had a total tech meltdown during a rush, and what's your backup plan now?