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adamcrofts · October 29th, 2009

Hi,

I tried printing my screen for the first time today, I printed with black waterbased ink on to white t shirts.

The first print I did came out perfectly, however all the ones proceeding didnt!

mostly it seemed the ink bled to much.

PLEASE HELP SOMEONE!

JeridHill · October 29th, 2009

What screen mesh are you using?

adamcrofts · October 29th, 2009

its 110 white mesh

JeridHill · October 29th, 2009

My guess is, with the waterbased ink, you have too low of a mesh count and are pushing too much ink through. I'd try a higher mesh, probably a minimum of 156.

Rusty44 · October 29th, 2009

I use waterbased inks as well .. for 90% of my designs I use 158 - 200 mesh ... I did use a 110 mesh today, but a lot of ink goes thru that size opening try different angles of your squeegee and make one long smooth pull. Practice is the best teacher.

Sandra

adamcrofts · October 29th, 2009

thanks guys, do you flood the screen before printing because I was doing this, although some people say not to?

JeridHill · October 29th, 2009

Flood coating does help keep the screen from drying out. Normally with Plastisol ink, you can flood coat and really "flood" the screen. With a 110 mesh and waterbased inks, if you flood coat, I'd probably lift the screen, coat with good pressure where the only ink you see on the screen is in the image area, then print.

This should keep the ink to a minimal amount when pushing through. You might want to push the ink through with a clean squeegee to keep the ink down again.

That might get you by with this job. Also, what Sandra said will help as well. Don't put too much of an angle on your squeegee, or you will push more ink through than you want. I'd also add, make sure your off contact isn't too high. In other words, keep the screen and the platen parallel with each other and the gap should be no greater than 2 quarters stacked high.

Rusty44 · October 29th, 2009

I generally flood it to help keep the ink from drying in the screen. Waterbased is different from plastisol where as WB can dry out .. plastisol doesn't dry in the screens.

JeridHill · October 29th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty44


	Waterbased is different from plastisol where as WB can dry out.

Agreed! I didn't mean to imply that when someone is using waterbased that it didn't matter much whether you floodcoat or not. Flood coating will eliminate a lot of problems when using waterbased inks. Thanks for the clarification!

Rusty44 · October 29th, 2009

There is a lot of conversations about off contact ... some people use it, I don't .. my screen sets on the shirt... I think it is a "what works for you" kind of thing. I do use off contact when printing on a canvas or something like that though.

Best advise is practice and get a good feel for it before doing any type of run. Don't be afraid to experiment that's how you learn too. Good luck and keep us posted.

JeridHill · October 29th, 2009

Off contact is a must for plastisol printing. I'm not sure so much about waterbased. If you don't use it, I assume it can work without it. I would probably use it to give more control of the print. But that may be just me....

Rusty44 · October 29th, 2009

Your right about plastisol offset. I have a studio attached to my home and I live on a small lake and not set up for plastisol and the solvents you all have to use. I mostly print my own designs, so I don't have to worry about other's demands ..

Thanks for your input love reading this forum ...

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First print cam out fine, all the others didnt!