Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :)
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Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :)
Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :)
Here is an interesting use I found for my recently acquired heat press, completely by accident too!
In my post on the thread here (page 10) I mentioned that my silkscreen-er had made me a bunch of stretchy blouses that ALL cracked. This was right before the Christmas rush and I was pretty darn upset.
When I asked for some sort of responsibility related compensation (I had bought all the blanks he had ruined), he insisted that it wasn't his responsibility or his fault, because this kind of material couldn't be succesfully printed on. I had suggested that it was either his inks or his curing.
So I had a stack of useless ladies blouses.
One day, I put one in the heat press just for fun. And lo and behold, the heat press re-cured the plastisol and it no longer cracked! 330 degrees, 45 seconds with a kraft paper over the ink! Amazing!
Last edited by Rodney; February 16th, 2007 at 09:35 AM.
Reason: fixed linked directly to post referred to
One day, I put one in the heat press just for fun. And lo and behold, the heat press re-cured the plastisol and it no longer cracked! 330 degrees, 45 seconds with a kraft paper over the ink! Amazing!
This makes me think that it's possible that the ink was not properly cured in the first place.
When you are busy and don't have time for lunch, you can bring your quesadillas to work (or buy some sliced cheese and tortillas at the market) and prepare your lunch on-site:
1. Heat Press at 200 degrees / Adjust pressure to ¨barely there¨
2. Place one tortilla flat on the teflon, protected by a sheet of kraft paper.
3. Place sliced cheese on the tortilla and lay another tortilla on top.
4. Place a second sheet of kraft paper on top of the two tortillas.
5. Close heat press for 15-20 seconds or until you can smell the tortilla sweat.
6. Open heat press, remove top kraft sheet and there´s your quesadilla.
Note: there is no difference when dealing with either corn or flour tortillas. Personally, I prefer flour.
Absolutely right. Which makes the silkscreen guy a liar and all the more reason to switch my business from him to plastisol transfers!
I don't know if that makes all silkscreeners a liar, just that particular one you dealt with
It's great that you found a solution, but I don't know if that means you should distrust all silkscreeners because one lied. You may still have a need for screen printing services in the future, you can just find a different, more reliable printer.
What kind of blouses were they? Just ribbed knit shirts?
Re: Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :)
Rodney - No, not all silkscreeners are bad apples, but they are very 'informal' down here as far as getting the job done on time.
Then there is the confidentiality thing as well. Most local sscreeners will not think twice about 'borrowing' your design and printing up their own versions. Since I have created a brand and the designs are unique and popular, this is a major concern for me.
As for the blouses, they were stretchy, combed cotton. Not ribbed, which presents even more of a problem.
Crepes of course are another matter. If you are making crepes from liquid batter, it has to be poured on the heat source, which makes the press a bit problematic. However, if you are dealing with frozen or pre-cooked crepes, just follow the instructions for tortillas and quesadillas, above.
some people even us a home iron when there's nothing else around.
Hi Lucy - don't know if I can do this via this forum, but could you nudge the boys and girls in the art department at your place of business... I have a job pending there and haven't heard anything. Maybe they are snowed under or something or ???
Re: Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :)
The printer used the wrong inks. Normal Plasticols have a certain amount of stretch-a-bility (new word ). When the inks reaches its stretch limit it will crack. There are inks specifically design to have really good elasticity and work great with stretchy material. You found a rotten egg in the buch. He should compensate you for the poor work.
Hi Lucy - don't know if I can do this via this forum, but could you nudge the boys and girls in the art department at your place of business... I have a job pending there and haven't heard anything. Maybe they are snowed under or something or ???
...Lots of snow last week but the last couple of days...nice, it's melting.
btw. its up and running. Just had a look at the production board. ...please have a look there.
.....all this talk about food is making my mouth water.
This is a discussion about Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :) that was posted in the Heat Press and Heat Transfers section of the forums.
Alternative Uses for your Heat Press - recuring bad screen printing :) 
