What would you do to improve my layout?

You're going to be moving clean bulk stock past your ink table. It's best to have a "dirty side" and clean side"

folding, sorting, finishing, staging, storing etc on one side

ink mixing, screen coating, cleaning prep et on the other

try not to have your clean shirts on the dirty side and dirty elements on the clean side...it'll save A LOT of ruined shirts.

Yup, with icon on that. Also keeping your coated screens close to your exposure unit and in a drier hotter area away from the wetter cooler area and coating in the dry area away from dust, machine moving or doorways that can move dust. That's ideal, but work with what you have where you can and likely it will all work with a bit of tolerance.

Do they sell a building stretcher in your area ;-) LOL

Personally with that little amount of space, ditch the manual asap, you are going to be fighting for room for anything in there. Where would you put say a 2,500pc run?

And if you opt for the 2nd layout it will be an either or setup.

You won't be able to print on both so you don't increase productivity having both... so no point in the manual at that point for sure.

If you have the labor to run both presses then you need to make sure to set it up where both can be printing (efficiently) for it to make sense.

Agreeing with all the above. You will put something in place and then alter likely, buildings and flows evolve naturally out of ease and necessity you will change to suit as you go. I won't take long to outgrow the building and relocate I thnk.

Get your wash-out out of the corner, It's nice to have room on both sides, or at least proper workspace that isn't 90degrees to it. I'd go with a 32" high screen cabinet that has a melamine top beside it for reclaiming chemical application if you're not using a dip-tank, and room to put screens down on a drip-tray on the other side. Screen coating doesn't need a dedicated spot, it can be done on the same table you use for reclaiming.

I do a full layout, to scale to within an inch in Corel Draw, because that's what I'm proficient in. W're just moving to triple the space with much better exposure at the turn off to our local sport fields. I'd post my layout, but it also includes pad printing, sign making and a good sized machining area for jigs and fabrication so I don't think it would help much.

PS: It's nice to have a light-table for block-out/ and taping the screens.

Sounds cool Inkowrks, post away! We have a sign shop separate to our textile because of fluff and dust and static and moisture etc, how do you get around that?

4:1 suck unless you're doing 12 shirts or less like you say, leave them to the yudo- home crowd. A one color/one station can be handy though. Eventually you'd regret that decision I think. At some point you'll come up with a number of shirts and number of colours printed point split between the auto and the manual. This number varies shop to shop depending on about 1000 variables so you'll need to come up with your own.

my bet is you'll outgrow that shop pretty quickly if you're at all successful, so I'd opt for crammed in there for now and start shopping for the bigger space at a bargain price.

I've upsized twice already in under 5 years, and I'm hoping Tuesday is my third time (public council meeting for a zoning change Monday evening, keep your fingers crossed for me). the shop I'm in is just a little bigger than what you've posted, and the ridiculous lack of room to move has been a running joke with the employees for over a year. we have to move product to get at equipment, move equipment to get at other equipment and when we're busy having to walk 7/8 of the way around the shop to go 10' as the crow flies isn't unusual at all. Doing a 4'x8' sign is a major exercise in shop re-arrangement.

You're far better off these days being crammed for a year or two compared to paying bigger rent and rattling around while you grow your customer base.

Present (too crammed, even empty) Shop:

Those prices are per month right?

I'm tempted to say just go for the biggest space, and 3 phase is a huge asset for big automatics, flashes, ovens etc. but you can do it all single phase if you need too. You'd probably want 400amps of single phase . Your business #'s will have to be the real deciding factor in how big and how fast to grow. Last year we grew 90% and the year before that were up 125%. Most of that is because we're a new business, and the economy up here in Canada did not take the same hit. We also have a diversified product/service line-up because we're in a small town market.

Shop location can be your biggest advertising so you need to assign a value to that.

how long have you been in business?

Stick it out and run crammed for a while. It will not only make you appreciate the new shop even more when you get it, but it help build the bottom line and customer base without big overhead. I think just grow when you absolutely need to in today's economy. You will probably find a perfect spot if you have time to wait for it too.

Our new shop is one I've had my eyes on since before I moved into our present location. We saw a business go in there and fail and it come back on the market. The rent price even came down a bit.

I give it a 9/10 for location 8/10 for price. Don't settle!

33k Isn't even a down payment on most homes here. You're lucky in that regard.

My new shop is about $.50 sq/ft. And that was a bargain, anything near downtown or a highway is $1-3sq/ft.

We are building a new 10,000 square ft for right at 350.000

I build a 30x30 shop in my backyard. Intentions were to rent half to my mother-in-law for storage and use the other have for miscellaneous projects of mine.

Then I got into screen printing... I never let my mother-in-law move her stuff in and I'm running out of room. Started putting in some more overhead "loft" storage area in tonight, will finish it up tomorrow to make some more space.

We just have so much going on... sandblasting, t-shirt printing, storage of our crap... blah blah blah.

Agreed with ol' Printwizard, but I do stick with chunk the manual or figure out a way to put the presses closer together so they can both print.

Congrats Inkworks on the move!

My belt is reversible also and it's nice... I moved my press to the opposite side of the room and never had to move my dryer. :)

We now do 30 - 40000 a year, we have it down to a science and can really pump them out when we need to. They have been a good part of our success to date, but now we're also selling the wineries apparel, signage other drinkware, custom cardboard boxes and anything else the ask for. The town I'm in is only ~12000 people, and the whole valley is about 350,000 spread out over ~150 miles, so we have to be fairly diverse. We do have a real summer tourism market though. so a successful shop has to tap into that even if it's indirectly.

Well it ain't locked up until the money is in the till. We're sticking our necks out a fair bit with the jump in rent and payments on an auto..... Ask me again in 6 months :D