Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
I live in Tempe Arizona right where the T-Jet is manufactured (I have one) and I have been working with my good buddy Jesse at T-jet on perfecting the quality of the output print.....including the new white pretreatment formula we have been beta testing for them.... stay tuned.
THE "SECRET" TO PERFECT PRINTS : PROPER PRETREATMENT
Try this on your next white base/color print on a black shirt :
1) First the pre-treatment should be applied so as to leave a fine white mist on the shirt... the biggest mistake people make is not enough pre-treatment.
2) Take the shirt over to your heat press and here is a KEY: spritz some water from a squirt bottle onto the shirt and then use a teflon sheet and press for about 15 seconds.
(The water will turn to steam, but what that does is cause the pretreatment to evenly diffuse into the fabric for a perfect pre-treatment)
3) Now print... I use a single white pass underbase and get beautiful results everytime.
The printer unless dirty or mechanically defective will always lay down the same ammount of ink... so the issue is the ability of the ink to lay as evenly and flat as possible on the shirt... which is acomplished by using the water to help the pretreatment infuse evenly and completley into the shirt.
Thanks for this post! This is good info. I am looking at the t-jet 3, but with all the negative words about the t-jet line, I am somewhat skeptical. Is there really somuch trouble with the t-jet machines? Or is more a case of improper maintenance?
This is great information.
Since you have this, and have been working on testing the amount of pretreatment, would you happen to know how long we should cure the print afterwards? We've been getting conflicting information from various sources.
Would you say that a 30-40 second cure time at 340 degrees is ok? On the few shirts we've test printed and washed, they seem to be holding up well, however, if we cure any longer at that temp, it seems to dull the print quite a bit. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Ann & Harlan
Cooper's Rugged Design Co.
Last edited by Solmu; November 27th, 2007 at 06:45 AM.
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This is great information.
Since you have this, and have been working on testing the amount of pretreatment, would you happen to know how long we should cure the print afterwards? We've been getting conflicting information from various sources.
Would you say that a 30-40 second cure time at 340 degrees is ok? On the few shirts we've test printed and washed, they seem to be holding up well, however, if we cure any longer at that temp, it seems to dull the print quite a bit. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Ann & Harlan
Cooper's Rugged Design Co.
With my T Jet 2...I do 90 seconds at 330 deg for all shirts that do not use white ink. With white ink, I do 180 seconds at 330 deg. Have not had any fading issues at these setting since I started.
Hope that helps....
John
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
Last edited by Solmu; November 27th, 2007 at 06:45 AM.
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Might want to ease up on the pressure on the heat press. I use to get very dull reds after curing. So with those designs which I think might be affected by the curing I go even lighter on the heat press and also dont use a teflon sheet or parchment paper because ink seems to stick to them.
With my T Jet 2...I do 90 seconds at 330 deg for all shirts that do not use white ink. With white ink, I do 180 seconds at 330 deg. Have not had any fading issues at these setting since I started.
This is what I'm doing as well with no issues on both my T-Jet2 and T-Jet3
washfast and prints that don't look half bad myself or customers after a few washes
The pretreatment for the new white ink sounds to be the same as the old white. I was curious as to if this might change and then everyone has to learn a new method. Glad to hear it is the same.
I'm happy about the cure times, however it seems that eventhough the new white lays down more opaque with less passes, it uses up twice as fast. I just printed 72 F/Fs and used up a whole 16 oz. bottle. Anyone else having this problem?
Since the new white ink's viscosity is lower then the previous one I assume that more ink is going through the heads then before. I've also noticed more white ink usage but that could be party due to me taking more white ink orders.
For those Fast T-Jet owner/operators 
