I have a question about extending water-based inks.
I'm using a white base water based ink, which is really thick, and I never get to have it thinner the same way every time I use it.
So my question is if there is any general or suggested rule to use the extender, I mean how much extender vs how much ink. I'm using a standard mesh (110), but some times, specially on large prints it is very difficult to have an even print. Thanks very much in advance.
The above threads might help, but since they're mostly focused on plastisol, might not (waterbased is mentioned though, so they might be helpful - do give them a read).
When thinning opaque ink in the past I have used a small amount of ammonium sulphate. It gets it flowing without noticeably sacrificing opacity.
I haven't tried thinning opaque inks with transparent extender, but it should work fairly well. Not much point adding more opaque extender, since it won't really thin them. Very small amounts of water can be useful to hydrate inks, though I only use that on opaques when they're drying out (rather than when they just need to be thinned a bit).
I tend to go by feel rather than precise measurements. I know that's anathema to some, but you just know when it's right and when it's not (or so it seems anyway).
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.
extending water based inks 
