diy/ghettotech 4 color shirt press?

[veganboyjosh]

as some of you know from a prior thread, i work at a volunteer bike shop. i've got access to shit tons of bike parts.

i wanna build a shirt press, and i wanna do it on the cheap, but i'd love for it to be as bomber as possible.

i'm not gonna be doing any crazy super pro job shirts anytime soon, and as this would be my first time building or even using one, i'd love some input or pointers from you peeps.

things your press doesn't have, things it has you wish it didn't...things i'll not think of since i've only seen them in pictures, all of it.

bring it on.

i'm serious about this. if anyone's interested in working together on this, please let me know. i'd love to put out a zine that shows how to do it, or release the plans, for other diy'ers...

who's in?

we can collaborate in this thread, or via email, or whatever.

you should know, my goals for this are:

weld free. i can't weld, and neither can a lot of people who can't but want to screenprint

recycled/dumpstered as much as possible. like i said, i've got bike parts galore, and i envision this huge press with chains and brakes and things...

solid registration. it doesn't have to be microscopic registration, but i'd like to put out good looking shirts. if i'mma go thru the hassle of designing and building a press, i want it to work better than a bright light and eyeballing the reg.

lemme know if you're interested in helping.

i'll try and post my thoughts, inspirations, and progress as it happens.

thanks.

josh.

[danieldanger]

step one: learn to weld, because i cant imagine how youd make something like this without connecting metal together.
step two: post pictures, because a press made out of bike parts would be totally fucking awesome.

[adamturman]

What DD said. I'd love to see a press out of chromoly!

Just sayin': If you're gonna do it, do it right the first time from my experience. I made my first setup thinking I was never going to go larger than 12x19 for printing posters. I had to make everything again and better the second time when I started printing bigger. I would have spent more money upfront, but saved more in the longrun.

As for your press, I'm thinking you could use some bike parts for certain things, like rims, hubs, and some frames, but you'll probably need to buy some of the technical parts like the screen hinge clamps, etc...

Good luck, sorry I'm not much help.

[S.Blake]

I have plans for exactly what you need.
I will post them in the Premium Section.

[Diego Garcia]

1.The old campy rear dropouts with the screws in'em would make pretty rad micro-adjusts.

2.Find someone who can MIG weld. Thats the quickest easiest way to re-build with old
steel frames that all have varying thicknesses and qualities of tubing. Mig welds will last
a bit, pretty easy to learn too.