Grumpyvulture

Hi everyone,

I have two issues at the moment and wondered if anyone could shed some light on them:

As background i'm using waterbased ink.

Firstly, i've noticed that after about, say, 15 or so prints the ink transfer seems to degrade - would this be because the ink is drying in the screen? I vaguely recall reading somewhere that you should occasionally spray the screen with a light spray of water when using waterbased ink, does this sound right? When it happens I tend to have to push harder with the squeegee to get ink through, which of course then tranfers too much ink to the shirt! I should add that i'm flooding the screen after each pass, but as I flash cure on the platen it can sometimes be a while before I use that flood. If I do spray with water, how does that affect the next print?

And secondly (and this may be related to the first) i've also noticed after a run of 15 or so, that I get some ink creeping on the underside of the stencil which obviously then transfers to the shirt and gives the image a 'ghosted' edge. Is this related to me pushing too much ink through because of the problem above?

Its a bit frustrating as apart from that, i'm doing great!

Any help much appreciated,


Cheers

Mark

 

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mikiec

Hiya Mark,

How's it going?

I can't really answer your question about problems after 15 or so prints as I've never encountered it.

I was interested about your ink curing problem... I've never had that problem and mine are good to go in less than 12 hours!

I'm REALLY PISSED OFF with Gundelfinger/Wicked Print Supplies at the moment!! I started to run out of white ink a few weeks back so I ordered a litre of the same opaque water-based one they sent me with the kit, from their new ecommerce site. After about a week, I got an email off them telling me that they knew I'd ordered something and had received the payment, but their website had crashed and they'd lost all the order details. They offered an extra litre of ink for free. By this time I had a pile of orders that needed doing and no white ink. On top of that, I had one customer who was desperate to get his t-shirt as it was a birthday present. I told him the problems and offered a full refund, but the guy insisted on having the t-shirt. As I didn't want to let him down, I managed to scrape some ink from the bottom of the tub and print it for him in time for his mate's birthday. I'll admit, it wasn't the greatest print and with hindsight, I probably should have just sent him his money back and told him to get a present elsewhere but I thought I was doing him a favour. Anyway, yesterday (nearly a week after he received it), he posted a neutral feedback on ebay along with a really negative comment about the print quality being rubbish and taking ages to arrive. This has really pissed me off as he never told me he had a problem with it and the whole thing stems back to Gundelfinger screwing my order up! Now if anyone looks at my feedback page, at the very top of the list is a really offputting comment.

Just to add insult to injury, when the ink arrived, it was totally different from the ink they originally supplied. When I tried printing with it, I couldn't get a single decent print and I've wasted several t-shirts trying. I've come to the conclusion that they've sent me non-opaque white ink which is why it barely shows up on black t-shirts.

Now, I've got people asking where their shirts are, left, right and centre and Gundelfinger have (true to form) not responded to my emails!

Anyhow, I just wondered where you'd got your ink from and have you got details of any REPUTABLE suppliers. I'm maybe not too keen on the Neptune inks if it takes 4 days to cure cos I prefer to print them in the evening and bag and post them the next day.

Hope things are going well for you. What type of work are you doing?

Cheers

Mike

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pf07

yeh was just browsing there and i can relate to both of the comments.

I am new to screen printing but basically having problems when it comes to the printing of the t-shirt- when i flood the screen and press the ink onto the shirt there is ghosting there which then makes the design look like a big smudge.

Also i receive poor service from gunderfinger and im too early in to tell if the goods are quality or not. did u find another supplier.

 

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Grumpyvulture

Quote: Originally Posted by pf07 Also i receive poor service from gunderfinger and im too early in to tell if the goods are quality or not. did u find another supplier.

Wow, this was a while ago!

Yeah, I did sort out other (much more reliable) suppliers - not sure about the naming rules on this forum so PM me if you need details.

Cheers

Mark

 

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