So it is here, the new embroidery machine came last week.  It is a beast, thanks to all of our friends for coming and helping us move it in, it was 800lbs down a flight of stairs.  Anyway, the machine is great, it is already proving it’s worth and we have done over 100 hats on it.  Stay tuned for specials and such, this machine will help us produce the quality of products at the pace you have come to demand from Graphic Disorder!

The embroidery machine has been maxxed out for a while now, so today, we’ve purchased another machine.  This time 15-color, dual head machine.  This puts us with a total of three heads, capable of THREE times faster production for me, and THREE times faster that your order will ship, for you!  Shouldn’t be too much of a learning curve over the other one, so I’d imagine we will be up and running as soon as we take delivery within 10-14 business days.  Check our websites and be on the lookout for more embroidery sales, faster turnaround times, and overall cheaper pricing.

We’d like to thank our loyal customers who help make it possible for us to constantly stay ahead of the curve! 

Wow, so a few months ago we decided to upgrade Shellys daily computer, well we ran across a sweet deal on a quad core pc at Dell and decided to hop on board for one.  The cool thing is that it came with a 24 inch wide screen, which would go nice next to her already nice 24 inch wide screen to bring her up to 2 24 inch wide screens.

 Jealous would be the best word to describe me.  I let this go on for awhile, then I folded.  I purchased a new 40 inch Samsung 10,000:1 Contrast Ratio Wide Screen.  Now this goes nice to my own 24 that I was using the whole time.  So I gotta say if you have never used dual monitors, specifically large ones, go for it.  I am doing work faster and find myself rubbing my eyes less and less.  I think we may be finally done upgrading our network/pcs for awhile. 

Well after giving my PPC-6700 my best effort to like I just couldn’t get happy with it.  So I made the mistake of checking out a Apple Store and playing with the iPhone.  Well it took me about 10 seconds to realize I had to have one, and by the time Shelly had decided she had to have one also.  So we are the new owners of 2 16gb iPhones.  These gadgets should help us keep up with our customers while on the road traveling and out of town.  We have a laptop but getting to that isn’t always easy.  This is just another way we take keeping in touch with us up a level since we can now be handling email from litterly anywhere. 

 So dont freak out when I reply to your emails on a holiday at 4am… just means im playing with my iPhone!

We’d like to thank our customers for making this past month, what seems to have been our busiest month ever.  So far this month, we’ve turned out roughly 1700 various silkscreened t-shirts, 200+ Hats, 50+ Workshirts, 15 Jackets–and that’s just the ‘manual labor’ work.  While all of this is going on, we’ve also been at the computer designing your logos, flyers, business cards, and more.

Our Embroidery machine is a fast sewer!  How do I know?  Well, I got my finger caught under the needle at 1100 stitches/min speed.  It punctured right through my nail and out the back side, two times before I could pull it out.  Luckily it just missed my bone and nerves and just left me with a sore, holy, finger.

For business owners looking to notify customers of sales or changes to your business, or if you’re looking to gain a new customer base, be on the lookout for a new service from us!  We will soon be offering a direct mailing service which includes flyer design, flyer printing, and addressing/postage/mailing your flyers and all you have to do is supply us with the address list!  Save money by using bulk mailings!  Great for show promoters!  Stay tuned for more details.

We are growing again, fun huh? 

 We pick up our new Vastex Screen Print Press Monday.  Should be up and running same day and ready for production shortly after.  This is a new 6 color/6 station press.  Conveyor dryer, exposure unit with drying cabinet, VRS Pin Registration, ect.  This is a heavy duty machine, and is light years ahead of the small press we currently use.  This new equipment should allow us to do your orders faster, even more accurate, and best of all…..at a lower price. 

 -hint look for a sale soon……

I’ve updated our gallery with over 30 new photos of our recent Embroidery and Screenprinting.  Visit the links below to check out what I’ve been busy with lately!

Embroidery Gallery: http://www.graphicdisorder.com/gallery/display.php?t=bycat&q=29&nr=182&st=0&upto=24&p=1
Screenprint gallery: http://www.graphicdisorder.com/gallery/display.php?t=bycat&q=10&nr=134&st=0&upto=24&p=1

Also, Be sure to check out the Little Shop of Horrors booth at the Spring Fling Car & Truck Show in FL this coming weekend and pick up one of their new T-shirts that we just finished designing and printing.
 

Most of our East Coast and Midwest customers are used to there cards taking a couple days longer than what our West Coast customers see.  That is because our main print shop is in California.  However some of you may have already noticed that your getting your print even faster.  Thats because we now have 2 locations for printing.  Your cards will come from the one closer to you and our second print shop is in Ohio.  so we have basically split the US.  Nothing has changed on the quality the print quality will remain perfect as well as the thick paper that others can not match and our pricing will remain the same. 

 This should speed up print orders by a couple days for some of you Midwest/South/East guys.  Just another way we are commited to being the fastest and best printer in this Industry.

Since we’re on the vinyl subject, here’s a quick tour of the vinyl side of our shop. 

Our plotter is a Roland CAMM-1 CX-24.  It can cut 12″, 15″, and 24″ vinyl.  We use only Oracal brand vinyl which has an outdoor life of 3-5 years.  We stock most of our colors in 15″ and the most popular (silver, white, black, blue, and red) in 24″.  In order as shown in the photo below: Maroon, Orange, Cream/Tan, Yellow, Forest Green, Lime Green, Mint Green, Baby Blue, Hot Pink, Blue, Red, Black, White, Soft Pink, Purple, Copper, Gold, Charcoal.  As far as transfer tape, we use only R-Tape brand, not the cheap stuff, in order to prevent ‘edge curling’, or other problems.  The “paper tape” is used for single color decals, and the clear tape is used for multi-color decals.  We use various sizes from 2″ to 16″ wide depending on the size of the decal.  The plotter is connected to it’s own PC–PC #3 technically.  And contrary to popular belief and the stock photo below, plotted decals do not just “print out, done” like shown below.  The plotter only ’scores’ the lines of the decal, the rest of the work is up to you and army of exact-o knives to peel away the excess and pick out the inside of letters like “o, a, p, q, d, b….”  Hope you enjoyed your look at the vinyl shop!

From time to time I hope to document the process from start to finish of making something.  I only remembered half way thru this project so I’m only going to document how I assemble the actual banner.   I pick up after …
1) Designing the file in photoshop.
2) Converting the banner to cuttable file.
3) Seperating the file into 3 colors. 
4) Cutting each color of vinyl.
5) “Weeding” each decal (pulling away the ’scrap’ vinyl to show the actual design)
6) Applying transfer tape to all pieces.
7) Measured to find center Horiz/Vert and have sprayed the banner with a soap/water mixture to allow for moving the vinyl around.
8) I’ve applied the first color (black) to the banner. Centered it up and squeegied out the water mixture. After a couple minutes I pull away the transfer tape.
9) After curing for a couple minutes, I apply more soapy water to apply the next color–Blue in this case.  I center up the blue, squeegie out and peel away the tape.  I have split up the blue into more managable sizes rather than a 6 foot section.
10) Next comes the Red, done the same way as the blue.  Water/Squeegie/Peel.
11) After complete, I go over the banner once more with a squeegie and clean off any soapy residue. 
12) Banners are shipped rolled up on a cardboard tube, inside a plastic bag (for you to store it in), inside a box to prevent any damage in transit.
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Hope you enjoyed a look at the process involved!  I hope to post more how to’s soon so check back often!