How To Print Individual Names – Part 2

Printing Names For Teams

Today is Part 2 of Tuesday’s post…

Screens

• Cram ‘em On The Screen

One of the cost saving techniques in name printing is burning as many names as you can on one screen.  You don’t want 16 screens for 16 names.  We take advantage of both ends of the screen.  We arrange 4 to 6 names on the top of the screen, then turn the screen around (upside down) and arrange another 4 to 6 names on the other end of the screen.  We normally take a Tabloid sized piece of vellum that has 8 to 12 names printed on it and cut it in half.  Note the top half is for the top end of the screen and the bottom half is for the bottom end of the screen.

• Burn The Screens

Expose your screens like you normally would in your shop.

Press And Shirt Setup

• Shirts

Stack your shirts in the same order as your master name list.  You want to be able to start at the top of your shirt stack when printing and be able to follow the names down the screen starting from the top to the bottom.  This will make printing go a lot faster.

• Screen On Press

Mark a line on the top of your shirt platen on your press where you would like the name to end up on the shirt.  Mount your screen to your press so that the first name is at the top.  Lower the screen to the platen.  Loosen the platen and slide it forward or backward so that the first name aligns with the line you marked on your platen.  Tighten the platen so it won’t move on the press.

• Choose A Squeegee

Chose a squeegee that is just wider than the name is in height.  You will be printing the names from side to side instead of the normal bottom to top.

• Tape Off The Screen

Here is another time saving method.  Don’t tape off the whole screen for just one name.  Tape around the name you will be printing.  We usually only use 4 pieces of tape for the first name, one on every side of the name, left, right, top, and bottom.  Tape your screens where you can grab one tab on the tape and pull ALL the tape off at once.  Put your tab in a place where you know it wont get ink on it.  Keeps your hands clean.

Print The Name

• Ink

We aren’t going to print these like we would a normal job.  Normally you print pulling towards you.  This makes it possible to have a well of ink at the bottom of the screen that we can pull from.  We aren’t taping off the whole screen for this project, and the screen if full of names, so we don’t want a well of ink on the screen.  Instead, we will put a small well of ink on cardboard off to the side of our work area, dip the squeegee into the ink and carry the squeegee to the screen.

• Side to Side

Print the name from side to side, not pulling towards you.  You might have to hold the screen steady with your hand while printing.  Keep your squeegee on the taped off area, being careful not to touch any part of the screen that is not taped off.

• Clean Up

Once the name is printed, tape off that name from the bottom of the screen and pull off the tape on the top side of the screen.  Don’t bother cleaning the screen yet.

• Repeat

Repeat these steps for each name, moving the platen down each time to line up the next name.  Tape off each name until you get to the upside down names, then it is time to clean off the screen and turn it around.  That is it!

It may sound confusing, but once you get started, you should see what I am talking about.  The trick is to not spend a ton of time cleaning off the screen after every name.  How do you print names?  We want to know.  Help us help other printers by sharing your methods.