I promise I ran a search but didn't find anything on it here. I got in some Union Lo-bleed diamond white and ran it on some royal blue jerzees 50/50's today. First, I stirred the dog out of the ink to make sure it was smooth and mixed well. I printed both a front crest print and a full back print, both only white. I used 110 mesh screens and 70 dur squeegees. Did a print, flash print and then sent them through the dryer. I think they came out pretty smooth after going through the dryer, but my print was still fairly thick and a little rough to the touch even with just 2 prints. But I was wondering if there were any keys to printing good smooth whites on dark shirts? How do you get that perfect smooth white print?
Is it better to use a higher mesh count? 160 maybe?
Is it better to use the higher mesh count, and print, flash, print, flash, print, dry... and just put down thinner layers?
I've heard it works well to mist the shirt with water while it's on the platen, just before pulling the print for super smooth prints. I heard it doesn't hinder the curing process, but wasn't sure if this was the case? Is this true or myth?
Should I use any Union additives (soft hand, reducer)? My guess is no since Union's spec book doesn't recommend it.
When running test prints on old 50/50s that have been washed, they always come up super fuzzy, so I know that's a bad idea. I'll stick to pellons.
All this to ask if you can help me with the keys to printing good smooth white ink on dark shirts?
Well, it looks like I may have answered one part of my own question. I looked in the Union tech book and it says to use their lo-bleed diamond white (which is what I use) with a 125 - 230 mesh count. It also says not to use any of their additives unless absolutely necessary or you'll jack things up. So there's two answers.
So,does anyone know about the water misting tip or any other tips for printing white on black or darks?
misting the shirts will help to mat the fibers down before laying the ink. If you do this make sure you have a good curing dryer to ensure all the moisture is remove during the curing process.
110 mesh is fine for white ink. You can even go lower to an 80 mesh if necessary yet not needed. A properly meshed 110 will work wonders for manually printing white ink on darks. If your printing lots of detail you may need to go to a higher mesh in order to hold the detail.
So what causes the ink to be so rough? Like I mentioned, I stirred it a lot to make sure it was mixed good, and it looked pretty smooth after going through the dryer. My wife washed one today though and it looks like like the ink's a bit rougher now. Not much but just enough to say that it's not quite as close to perfect as I'd like it to be. I've noticed that it seems to be rougher on the larger areas of ink. The smaller text on that print seems much smoother.
Its tough to say without seeing the roughness your mentioning. It could be a couple of things. Can you get a good pic of the "roughness" and post?
Using a higher mesh should help to smooth out the print yet will offset the amount of ink being printed thus issues with print opacity will come into play. You might need more print*flash*prints to get the correct coverage.
I believe you can also heat press the print for a second to help smooth it all out yet this just adds one more step to the process and takes form your profits.
Hard to say without a good visual. Might be your too picky which can be both good and bad.
Try the wilflex bright tiger. Also, make sure that your screen is not too high off the platen when you print because this could leave larger deposits. Another trick is if the detail is not too fine is to heatpress the print after it is cured for a few seconds, put a piece of kraft paper over the print and peel off when hot.
We use the Tiger white for our highlights and Buffalo white for all purpose white ink. The tiger white is a little too creamy and tough to get xlnt opacity on darks.
Of course this could be specific to our set up.
Mark I can't be much help as I only printed my first complete all white shirts today. I had some roughness like you stated at first and I kept fooling around and finally go a pretty good print.
Hers what I was doing.
I flooded the image first pulling it to lay over the image. Then I pulled the ink the squeegie towards me to lay the ink--then I flashed it--then came back and printed it agian. I wasn't having to much sucess so I flooded the screen agian then very lightly laid the first layer pushing it not pulling--it was not much ink on the shirt-then I flashed it and then instead of pulling ink in I pushed the ink in from me to back of screen. Yahoo I got a beautiflul looking print.
Make sure your off contact is low and try pushing lighter than what you probably was in the first shirts. I sure worked for me.
Mesh count for white ink? 
which can be both good and bad.
