Doc's T-Shirt Equipment
Donation protected
In past years, I produced short runs of T-shirts for members of my board, the Tinker's Guild , and readers of my webcomic, The Whteboard . The shirts proved fairly popular, but issues with suppliers and online stores led me to set them aside for other projects.
Recently, I decided to relaunch a few of the more popular designs, since I still get regular requests for new or replacement shirts, but then found out my old supplier had closed up shop and moved away. I spoke with other vendors in the area, but was given per-shirt prices that ranged from merely absurd to outright ludicrous.
I mentioned this to some friends, and within just a few days, was given several leads to some inexpensive used equipment. The process is simple enough, and the equipment provided a fairly solid starting point, so without really meaning to, it looks like I'm going to go into the short-run T-shirt business.
Now, while I received a fairly decent amount of both equipment and material with these starting purchases, I wound up with only one usable screen, and some of the chemicals and solvents had gone bad either from age or poor storage.
Most of my funds at the moment are currently tied up in Paintball projects, so rather than waiting until later in the summer to give the shirts a try, I figured I'd ask your help to jumpstart it.
I don't need much more than a few materials. Mainly, I need about half a dozen more screens, some fresh emulsion for the patterns, the usual cleaners and degreasers, and probably one or two more colors of ink.
The one expensive piece I'll need, however, is called a flash dryer. The inks need to be heat-cured, and a flash dryer is an easy way to do this for short runs. However, they cost several hundred even before shipping, which amounts the the bulk of what I'm asking.
And, of course, I'll need a handful of shirts to practice on.
So, help if you can, or head on over to the Tinker's Guild to watch the progress.
Recently, I decided to relaunch a few of the more popular designs, since I still get regular requests for new or replacement shirts, but then found out my old supplier had closed up shop and moved away. I spoke with other vendors in the area, but was given per-shirt prices that ranged from merely absurd to outright ludicrous.
I mentioned this to some friends, and within just a few days, was given several leads to some inexpensive used equipment. The process is simple enough, and the equipment provided a fairly solid starting point, so without really meaning to, it looks like I'm going to go into the short-run T-shirt business.
Now, while I received a fairly decent amount of both equipment and material with these starting purchases, I wound up with only one usable screen, and some of the chemicals and solvents had gone bad either from age or poor storage.
Most of my funds at the moment are currently tied up in Paintball projects, so rather than waiting until later in the summer to give the shirts a try, I figured I'd ask your help to jumpstart it.
I don't need much more than a few materials. Mainly, I need about half a dozen more screens, some fresh emulsion for the patterns, the usual cleaners and degreasers, and probably one or two more colors of ink.
The one expensive piece I'll need, however, is called a flash dryer. The inks need to be heat-cured, and a flash dryer is an easy way to do this for short runs. However, they cost several hundred even before shipping, which amounts the the bulk of what I'm asking.
And, of course, I'll need a handful of shirts to practice on.
So, help if you can, or head on over to the Tinker's Guild to watch the progress.
Organizer
Doc Nickel
Organizer
Kenai, AK
