Do you guys buy different shades and tones or colors, OR do you by the primary colors by gallons and mix them to make your own? I've heard about mixing systems from different companies, but they seem to cost a lot. I don't need exact pantone color matching, just "close enough" is fine. If you mix the colors yourself, how do you mix the thick plastisol so it doesn't have any streaks? I was planning to use a egg beater type hand mixer. Where do you store the ink after you mix,? The aluminum cans sold at homedepot seems too expensive for about 50 colors.
OK first off, regular plasticol inks do not coe in Primaries. You can get reds, yellow, blues etc. These colors are not true primaries and when mixed will render inconsistent results. The red is actually not a true red, it is a mix of all sorts of pigments. You can get away somewhat yet if you plan on ever pms matching your in for a treat.
Gray = white with a lil balck
yellow and blue wil get a shade of green. What shad its hard to say depending on the ink brand.
Again you can make it work but is not the best option if your mixing all sorts of colors.
It is best to carry certain stock colors.
Black, White, Yellow, Royal, Navy, kelly green, forrest green, maroon et.
Investing in a PMS matching system is a good thing for any screen priting company. We use the Rutland M2 series plasticol system and the Wilflex PC series Pigment based system.
Bit of both. Sometimes (for example) I'll mix purple from blue and red, sometimes I'll just use a straight violet. Depends on the colour you're after and what you have to hand. It's best to have as much as you can afford (well, within reason anyway - no point buying what you won't use), but primaries go a long way if that's all you've got. Make sure you have warm and cool primaries. If there's any colour you find your inks don't mix well, or that you personally have trouble mixing, try and get that in a stock colour.
Mixing primary colors 
