I think I've got everything down now on the Kiosk 2, and hopefully the only hurtle I'm going to have to face is pretreatment. I was hoping I could get some tips from you all on how to successfully pretreat 50/50 blend shirts. I have a Waggoner sprayer, but I was wondering if you could use just a plain old spray bottle like one used at a hair salon? I've also heard some use a foam brush to push the treatment into the shirt, but I've heard others say not to do this. Can you all help me with some tips?
Honestly I dont know really know if i would go the 50/50 route. They say not to print on high polyester shirts. As for pretreating, try using the paint sprayer around 10-12 inches away from the shirt and mist left to right and then again up and down. After you do this you should see the shirt looking like dew on grass in the morning. Then I use a whizz foam paint roller and roll only up. I do not go up and down because I like to mat the fibers down one direction. Then put on your heat press for about 20-30 seconds at 340 degrees.
Just because you have a clean nozzle check does not mean your machine will print white correctly. Use a test shirt to print a white strip to make sure the white is firing correct. Other than that you should be good to go.
spray with the sprayer, roll with foam roller, heat press for 15 secs with a hard press, let cool and the print....let me know if you need more in depth than that...and i second not printing on the 50/50s...i did it once just to test how my print would turn out...and it looked like crap....plus, because the ink doesn't "adhere" to the polyester, it will probably wash out quickly....
Yes, I have given up on Gildan. I think the weave of the cotton on an anvil is better than the Gildan weave. I recently tried their new 4.5oz Ringspun and it looks really good, feels good, and so far washes well.
I use a china bristle paint brush. I found that the foam rollers tend to leave little particles of foam, and don't matt down the fibers well. The brush works much better for me, brushing the fibers straight down.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
I've been using Sunnydayz's method of spraying distilled water first, and then pretreatment. It works like a charm. Also, my Waggoner sprayer leaks, so I started using just a regular spray bottle, and it does the job well. I actually save pretreatment by using the spray bottle.
Yeah ive been thinking of dropping my wagner lately. I think its a bit overkill.
That's exactly what I thought. If you're brushing the pretreatment in, then there's no need to blast it with the power sprayer. You can mist it with a spray bottle to the desired measure and then brush. It's really working well here.
I have to say that the Wagner gets the pretreatment much deeper in to the fibers then a regular spray bottle, which helps the ink bind. I would do some wash tests to see if the ink is adhering well with just the regular sprayer. If it is, then thats good I just feel the pressure of the Wagner gets all of those fibers in between the weave way better. But like I said if the wash results are good, then there shouldnt be a problem. Everyone figures out what works best for them
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
A lot of the problems we see people having with the Wagner Control Sprayer are maintenance issues.
I recommend that once a week you empty out the pretreatment you have in the gun. Fill the container with hot water and spray the gun for about 3 minutes. This helps flush out the entire spray mechanism to keep it running well. Then just empty the water out and refill back with pretreatment.
The one item users tend to ignore are the filters in the back of the sprayer power unit. Over time they do get dirty. If the air flow into the sprayer gets impeded the gun will not spray properly. The filters are inexpensive and very easy to change out. Just unscrew the two screws in the back, take off the cover, and the filters are right there (picture attached below).
Pretreatment Tips 
No matter what direction you brush always make sure its only one direction so all the fibers go the same way.
