Enclosure silk screening companies

[Taylor]

I have been getting some boxes silk screened by PPP. According to them, my image, which has a large solid ink area, is really difficult to screen, so the quality on this one has not been great. And now it seems they're not willing to do them for me anymore because they have to redo so many of them. I'm not mad at them, since they were honest about their capabilities and limitations. But I need to find somebody new.

Looking at stuff like this:

http://earthquakerdevices.com/devices/ghostecho.htm

These guys have achieved a large solid ink area without smearing, pooling, or bubbling. So it is possible. I put in an email to them, but I wouldn't be surprised not to hear back, not being a potential customer of EQD.

Does anyone know of other companies who offer this service with perhaps better quality?

[Earthscum]

I do my own screen printing. Was doing them at work, but have been getting set up for t-shirts and pedal stuff. I'd be interested in possibly doing the printing... 7 years experience. Shoot me a PM with the average price you have been paying as well as your average quantities, and expected turnaround. Can't promise anything yet, but I may be able to get things set up efficiently enough to start offering the service, as well as graphic design.

Basically I finally figured I've been doing this long enough I may as well get set up at home for DIY'ing all our band stuff. Shirts work out to around the same as a large company... with no minimum order, lol... kinda like being my own boss in my own little music world 

[caress]

i would also like to find an affordable place that can do decent silkscreening....
i've done it myself, but i'd rather just get it done elsewhere by someone better equipped.

[Earthscum]

I'm punching numbers in my head. I figure I can easily do 1000 or more pedals a week just on the side. Once my screen is set up, I can usually run about 200 in an hour. If the screen is burned, setup takes about 15 minutes.

BTW, I use no less than 250 monofiliment mesh, and will probably use lacquer and enamel, or whatever people prefer or what has the best adhesion and strength. Adhesion is the harder part with powdercoated metals. 

[Hides-His-Eyes]

slightly off topic but is this the sort of thing you could stencil and spraypaint? (not the lettering I know, but the large white areas... You could then decal the writing)

[caress]

I'm punching numbers in my head. I figure I can easily do 1000 or more pedals a week just on the side. Once my screen is set up, I can usually run about 200 in an hour. If the screen is burned, setup takes about 15 minutes.

BTW, I use no less than 250 monofiliment mesh, and will probably use lacquer and enamel, or whatever people prefer or what has the best adhesion and strength. Adhesion is the harder part with powdercoated metals. 

rates?  pics of your work?  etc.

[Earthscum]

HHE:

Yeah, but that's 2 processes, a lot of materials, and really not cost effective... especially when you compare getting print done at $1 per pedal.


I'll pop up a pic or 2 after work. I actually specialize in this kind of printing. I've done everything from halftome graphic print to back-lit panels and bubble switch panel covers. You can't have blotches or bubbles at all on the panels. The hardest, on my opinion, was 24"x30" panels for a backlit sign.

[Gurner]

While we're straying off slightly - has anyone screen printed onto ABS plastic?

I'm having a tricky time finding a UK supplier for small quantities of the (somewhat specialized) ink.

Also what mesh size is recommended for a font size of about 12pts?

[trixdropd]

Earthscum,
At 1$ a piece I'd be interested.

[caress]

Earthscum,
At 1$ a piece I'd be interested.

ummmm yeah.  me too!

[Earthscum]

So, the powdercoating is out, at least until after new years. The oven is pretty much loaded for Sturgis pieces, then they are running through the holiday season stock-up after that.

I'm still working out pricing, and I'll have to set up some way for payment. Paypal has always been standard for that. My buddy is in with me, so we can actually have the LLC up in Wyoming where it's cheaper. Basically, I'm sick of screen printing trophies for... well, I'll just leave it at I think the owner is only good for money. He hardly seems to know his own job, much less what people are doing to make HIS money. Greed got to him and now it seems like he's going crazy over money to play catch-up with his rich buddies. Mike works for the city, and we all know how stable city and state jobs are right now. So, we've been tossing this idea around for awhile, and I'm basically taking this as a sign to just go do it and quit procrastinating.

Oh yeah, I'm already set up for t-shirts, too... lol. Once we can start getting in larger amounts of shirts, we'll be offering small scale shirt printing, too. I figure everyone else wants a minimum order of 50... we'll just keep it under runs of 50, just for the other guys who can't drop $150-300 +setup fee on a minimum order, and will try to set up a reasonable setup fee.

And this actually started just so I could make our band's shirts. We are a totally DIY band. We've been doing our own recording for about 6 years. We do all our own art, have our own PA for small/medium gigs. We burn our own demos, print our own covers.

Here's my Myspace that has some of my art... mostly just random stuff. Earthscum MS

These first two are printed from the backside of the plastic. We had to colormatch the printer output and the ink:
 


This is one of the instrument panel overlays I did. This is .020" polycarbonate printed with vinyl.



This is printed on engraving material. Each panel is 2.625"x7.5". 1/8" thick. The back panel is the same material. These things, with the VHB we used standard, were almost impossible to get off flat walls, lol!



And the silly crap I'm doing now. The artwork is the customer's. Any jagged edges are basically in the art itself. Selling cheap memories at a premium price. Most parts come from china. Seriously, I gotta figure some way to get outa there!

 



Just gotta show off... this took me an entire day to make. It started as an 18"x18"x7/8" T6 6061 plate. Finished it measured 17" diameter, and hardly lost any thickness after smoothing and sandblasting it. It was cut to shape on a Gerber Dimension 200 CNC table router... yes, we routered T6 aluminum, and yes... it took a long time, a lot of cutting oil, and a LOT of noise... I hand grained the brass insert, and used the Gerber to route it, and the recess in the aluminum, drill holes (bits are hard to get out of hardened brass and aluminum!) and engrave. Then I gotta lathe down some 24"x1.125" aluminum rods for legs, to fit into the holes I had to mill on at a 15 degree angle. I cannot remember the finished weight, but it could easily replace a sandbag in the winter. The guy actually hauled it down to south America to camp when he was blasting for coal mines. Once. lol, now I'm guessing he keeps it at home.

In case there's some who don't know what it is, it's a cribbage board. That's it. A $1000, government paid for cribbage board. I love it... that's Reader's Digest stuff right there.



I gotta go get our flyer done... playing a show in FoCo on the 14th. This venue is almost always good.

I'll keep posted as we get set up. I gotta make sure, most importantly, that we can start running biz without the LLC right away. I really doubt we're gonna hit the magical $2000 "Claim it!" mark anytime soon, but ya never know when you're gonna become a millionaire by selling tumbleweeds as a joke school project.

[diemilchmann]

Is this still going? I'd love to get my pedals silkscreened, but i cant afford a $150 set up fee at PPP

[therecordingart]

What is the smallest run you'd consider doing? I have 10 1590B (same design) that I want to get screened to start and then more later on.

[runmikeyrun]

I might be interested in a one-off as well, single color, I'll pay the setup fee. 

If we dont hear from Earthscum we should PM him.