I printed 24 white t"s on Sunday and made a few mistakes starting out but then seemed to get a good print. I finished all the shirts I had and had to order more t's to make up for the ones I ruined. I went to press agian on Tuesday and had the shirts I had ruined so I made a few prints with them and can not get a smooth print. I washed out the ink and tried agian. I stirred the ink agian and still print is coming out of dryer rough. Looks good going into dryer but then gets ruff.
I'm using 109 screen and rutland snap white ink and I know some suggestions at an earlier post was to try some different inks. I know this ink will print pretty well as I have some decent prints.
I also need some help on emulsion-- I use Chromeatech Pl and am using the small side of the coater--is that ok??
When do you use the small side of coater and the large or do you just use one side only. I'm one coating on each side.
Thanks Dad
Do you have a good off contact? How many print passes?
White ink is going to be thicker than other colors, so even if you mix it up for an 30 minutes, it will be thick. Using 109? I've never heard such, but I guess a 110 is close enough. You should be able to get ink thru it pretty well. If not, I always use an extender which makes your ink smoother and thinner which allows for an easy print, and a soft feel. Get the extender from the brand of ink you used. Usually its recommended to add 20% or less of your total batch.
And I always use the thin side of the emulsion coater.
I would stick with the thin side of the coater. We only use the thick side for very low mesh and when we want a thicker coat (rarely in normal scenarios)
Are you flooding your screen before printing.
Good flood
Smooth, constant print
Flash
Good Flood
Smooth, constant print
Slight angle of squeegee yet make sure your using the tip/edge. Is the blade real loose, easily bendable? If so you may need to use a new blade thats a little stiffer.
Are you using the funky squeegees for pushing? I believe stretch devices sells them.
Is the mesh popping off the shirt/print about 1-1.5 inches behind the squeegee? - Try raising your off contact a little more.
On the second pass try not flooding. You'll need some ink in front of the blade when printing.
It almost looks like the ink is puffing up. A lot of whites out there have a blowing agent (puff additive) added to help with opacity. Possible this is the puckering your seeing. Also the texture looks like the mesh pattern. Raising your off contact slightly should help.
I switched from Rutland whites to Wilflex. The Rutland was really thick and tough to work with. We use Wilflex Buffalo white for under base and multi purpose white prints and Wilflex Tiger white for our highlight white prints and white on lt shirts.
You might see about getting a free quart sample of the buffalo white and try it
it almost looks like your not flashing long enough. you might try to flash for a bit longer, just make sure you dont cure it with your flash unit. after your flash you should be able to run your finger over it, it should have a velvet like feel, and you should not have any ink on your finger tips after doing this. just be careful, like i said if you over do it, you run the risk of almost curing it. if this happens your second coat/pass will not stick to your first. it will wash of when you run it through your washing machine. the second coat needs a rough surface to be able to stick. if your first coat is cured completley its to smooth and your second coat will not stick.
Fluid I had not heard of the 1-1.5 in behind the squeegie but will watch for this. I'm using a squeegie that came with the press I bought.. It is an old hopkins press but I've had pretty good luck with it on other prints-not white. It is the wood handle with a yellow blade. I will for sure try to source out the wilflex inks to try. I'm not impressed with the rutland but then it could and probably is my technicqe(ms). I think on my push stroke I am leaning the squeegie to low. Going to practice on that also.
Amp267--I will work on the flash time and get more control of it. My first print even after a flood is not real thick but then thickens up on my second stroke.
Neato The ink for the most part is clearing the screen but seems to leave just a few spots now and then. Also I have not been letting the flash cure cool--hmmm this may be the problem.
I am going to print this of and when I get back to the press check each and every one of these tips.
Thanks very much for the input. I truely appreciate it.
Sounds like your using a traditional squeegee. These are designed for pulling not pushing. Now you can push them yet there are squeegees specifically made for this type of printing.
You might invest in a couple new squeegees. Sounds like its your print methods causing the inconsistencies in the prints.
It Almost looks as if the ink is soaking in a bit, you could try and extra flash, 3 coats of white if its a coarse fabric that could help, you could also try pressing it afterwards in your heat press if you have one, i've had this problem before and found it seems to be more of a problem with the fabric than it is with the ink, if worse comes to worse you could use white computer cut letters and press them on, but that would be a last resort.
Wow I finally finished these shirts last night(Thursday) and 5 days ahead of due date. They look pretty good for my first white ones.
Only ruined 18 shirts so profit is sucking but I learned so much from this job. I will be practicing on my technic alot more.
Heres what I think was happening.
1. I was tilting my squeegie to much and not letting the tip lay the ink.
2. My off contact was a bit to low. Raised it and seem to work a little better.
3.Screen was not pulling off shirt like fluid said and seemed to be leaving a little bit of ink in screen and not clearing as neato stated.
4. Squeegie is pretty limp and bends pretty easy. What should I order for good all purpose printing??
5. All in all I think my technic was sucking and I changed a few things and watched closer as to what was happening and I started getting better prints.
6.Problem was I had to push the ink still to get the print I wanted--not what Fluid was wanting me to do. But I got them done.
7. I'm a glutten for punchishment so went out and sold some shirts with white ink agian. I will learn this!!!!
8. Also if you have a print that don't quite look right if you have a heat press it really does help the print look better. I didn't use it for the ones I sold but played around with the ruined ones and they somewhat cleaned up. This info may help someone else.
So I want to say thank you all very much for the help and input you gave to make this job turn out sucessfull.Thanks Very Much.
1st wash on sample turned out great so I think they are ready.
when using a flood stroke, does that mean running the squeegee over the screen without pressing down onto the shirt?
I've successfully printed white on black and I've just been using 3 strokes (the last stroke with an empty blade).
thanks,
_Rich
Yes, the flood stroke is used to push ink into the design area in preparation for printing on the shirt. Most of the time it is done quite far off the shirt to insure that ink doesn't get on the shirt before you are ready to do your print.
In my experience (and this may not be universal) the durometer of the squeegee blade is noted by its color. Yellow is soft, Green is firm, Blue is stiff. I use green almost exclusively, and definitely would for white. As for ink I use Wilflex. If none of that helps, you may want to try a 123 mesh.
Having a nightmare here Any Help Please 
