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mauroag · April 27th, 2007

Hi Solmu,
Thanks very much for your help.
I did some tests (so far I've always used water based inks) and I got it working in this way:

- I use a white base ink (really thick out of the container) which you can mix with any pigments to add color and this works great on white & dark colored fabrics.
- To extend this ink (it cannot be used out of the container) I use an extender (no brand name, just one of those bottles that read "extender") I an aprox. proportion of 3 spoon size parts of extender vs 3 spoon size ink. I realized anyway that proportions do not help, I add extender in a separate container to the ink until I see a very liquid even surface, just like milk for example. I've also noticed that when you use the correct "fluidness" you can print water based with no problem, many shirts and after that the cleaning of the screen is very easy, just with normal water and a sponge. On the other hand, if you don´t use the extender correctly, the ink dries really fast, and cleaning is a nightmare.
Well, thats all for know, thanks for your help and hope my experience be useful.

April 27th, 2007	- #4 (permalink)
mauroag Forum Member T-Shirt Apprentice Thread Starter Member Since: Jan 2007 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: extending water based inks Hi Solmu, Thanks very much for your help. I did some tests (so far I've always used water based inks) and I got it working in this way: - I use a white base ink (really thick out of the container) which you can mix with any pigments to add color and this works great on white & dark colored fabrics. - To extend this ink (it cannot be used out of the container) I use an extender (no brand name, just one of those bottles that read "extender") I an aprox. proportion of 3 spoon size parts of extender vs 3 spoon size ink. I realized anyway that proportions do not help, I add extender in a separate container to the ink until I see a very liquid even surface, just like milk for example. I've also noticed that when you use the correct "fluidness" you can print water based with no problem, many shirts and after that the cleaning of the screen is very easy, just with normal water and a sponge. On the other hand, if you don´t use the extender correctly, the ink dries really fast, and cleaning is a nightmare. Well, thats all for know, thanks for your help and hope my experience be useful.
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