Okay, I have my first order for 250 2 sided print t-shirts. I'm doing the first side and I'm having some trouble. I'm using grey t-shirts with maroon ink. First of all, its took us 3 hrs yesterday to print 25 t-shirts(one side). We are going through tons of ink! The prints are drying glossy looking and tons of ink pull through the ends of the print and barely any ink in the middle of the print. I've used like half a pint on 25 shirts. I'm using 110 mesh screen. What the heck is going on? The shirt keeps sticking to the print....I'm guess because soooo much ink is coming through the screen. I've lifted the screen twice, but it still seems to be sticking and tons of ink on the shirt. Any thoughts here? Is it the wrong screen mesh? Do you flood all colors before printing? Is it me? To much pressure on the squeegee? Please help me!?!?
Okay, I have my first order for 250 2 sided print t-shirts. I'm doing the first side and I'm having some trouble. I'm using grey t-shirts with maroon ink. First of all, its took us 3 hrs yesterday to print 25 t-shirts(one side). We are going through tons of ink! The prints are drying glossy looking and tons of ink pull through the ends of the print and barely any ink in the middle of the print. I've used like half a pint on 25 shirts. I'm using 110 mesh screen. What the heck is going on? The shirt keeps sticking to the print....I'm guess because soooo much ink is coming through the screen. I've lifted the screen twice, but it still seems to be sticking and tons of ink on the shirt. Any thoughts here? Is it the wrong screen mesh? Do you flood all colors before printing? Is it me? To much pressure on the squeegee? Please help me!?!?
Doing a flood stroke will end your problem of uneven ink coverage of your print... As for the shirt sticking theres a few things that will contribute to this happening.... Improper Off contact for one... adhesive not holding shirt down is another... not clearing the ink from the screen will also contribute to the shirt sticking to the screen...Your problem may be one of these or a combination... Try this and it may address all your problems at the same time.... do a flood stroke insureing that there is ink over the entire print... then do a print stroke...then do one or two strokes without ink to help clear your screen and see if that helps with all your problems.... Good Coverage, shirt not sticking and less ink on the shirt..
Oh an the glossy print may be caused by excessive curing....the ink only needs to reach 320 degrees....
when I flood the screen and look at the bottom of the screen I can see a thick layer of ink on certian letters of the design? Any thoughts on what might be causing this? This is also where the shirt is sticking the the screen. We have some some words and then 4 3inch letters and its those 4 letters that are giving us a hard time. The rest of the screen is printing normally. I though maybe Im using the wrong mesh. But I can see when I'm pushing through the ink, that the ink seems to not go to the middle letters. I'm I making sense? I have about a zillion questions right now and I'm pretty frustrated, so I'm not sure if I'm making sense or not. Sorry and thanks!
Have you tried adjusting your off-contact. It sounds like you may have the screen in full contact with the shirt by you explanation of your flood stroke and the screen sticking to the shirt.
Thanks for the help!!! I think we have finally found a flow. I think we actually had too much off contact. Have you ever heard of that? We seem to be created trouble! We are moving along a bit now, and using less ink. Thanks again for help. I'm sure I'll be back soon
I think we actually had too much off contact. Have you ever heard of that?
Yup, I've done it myself before
Mostly when I was printing paper and too lazy to adjust the screen after printing something thicker (say, glass). Sometimes it gives you a nice high density effect... more often it just ****s up your print.
Mostly when I was printing paper and too lazy to adjust the screen after printing something thicker (say, glass). Sometimes it gives you a nice high density effect... more often it just ****s up your print.
Yeah, thats the one!!!
Thanks again for all your help. I appreciate it soooo much!!! I was in panic mode and was completely freaking out. So...thanks!
Yeah, I was wondering about the screen mesh. As a beginner, how do you figure this stuff out? I was told 110 mesh was good for bigger stuff not to much detail. I realize that is a vauge statement, but how do you know? I can't afford to learn everything by making mistakes!
the lower the mesh the more ink will pass and the less detail you can hold. 110 mesh is usually reserved for specialty inks (metallics, puffs, white prints, underbase, etc.) the higher the mesh the more detail you can hold and less ink will print.
Simple spot color designs, large halftones up to 45/50 dpi will be best on 156 or higher.
If you have tons of halftones you might want 196 mesh.
This is based for manual printing.
230's will work but you might have to hit twice depending on the viscosity of the inks. 230 will work but will probably require a little more effort on the printing.
I'm having a similar problem with too much ink going onto the t-shirt and even through it, onto the platen! I've used a '43T' mesh which I was told by the vendor was fine for large solid areas. By what I've read here, I should be going for a mesh WAY finer than the one I'm using, or is it that they're named differently in the US from here in the UK?
or is it that they're named differently in the US from here in the UK?
UK is metric, US isn't. 43t is equivalent to 110; it's the most common mesh used to print t-shirts (that doesn't necessarily mean you don't still want a finer mesh to let less ink through though).
So I used 110 for the nightmare order....then I decided use a 230 for my next order so I wouldn't have the same problem. This time the order called for white ink and I could hardly get any on the damn shirt! I had to go over the print atleast 3 times and even then I wasn't over joyed with the shirt. (Please tell me this will get easier.) This last order is an on going order, they order a few different things a month. Should I re-do this design on a 110 mesh because its white ink? It look me and my business partner 2 hrs to print 1 t-shirt 1 hoodie and 1 sweat pant! Not to mention the hour of fighting because this screen printing thing has been a nightmare so far and it was my idea! I have to make this work...and go a bit smoother! UGH!
T-shirt printing Nightmare...Need Help! 
