Hi everyone,
I have a 'Print Gocco' set-up at home, so I print my own designs on t-shirts. I normally use their ink, but have gotten some 'Permaset' this time to try. Has anyone printed at home with Permaset?, and how did you heat set it? The 'Print Gocco' just sets with ironing, I was wondering it it is the same for 'Permaset'? Has anyone used a tumble dryer to set the ink? (May be a dumb question?) Just thought if it worked it would make it a lot quicker when you have a lot of t-shirts to set. Help? Anyone?
The 'Print Gocco' just sets with ironing, I was wondering it it is the same for 'Permaset'?
Yup, it's a waterbased ink much like any other.
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Originally Posted by Your Mantras
Has anyone used a tumble dryer to set the ink?
It's not hot enough. A dryer gets to about 70-80 degrees celsius, you need to get to at least 120 (and that low you'd need to iron for about nine minutes).
Here are some comments from Phillip Newell of Newell Graphics on Colormaker's blog re: curing Permaset Aqua...
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Curing is one thing I had a little issue with when I first got started with Permaset. I use a small electric dryer that is 8' in length and has a 4' chamber. What I realized is you have to slow the belt down enough so that the shirt remains in the chamber for 45-60 seconds. I also turn the heat up a little higher when printing on darks so that the shirts are hitting 375-390 as they exit the tunnel. Since I've adjusted this, I don't have any problems with the images washing out. Of course light garments have a much thinner ink deposit, and so require a little less time and temp.
The other key is air circulation. Once the moisture escapes from the ink, it needs somewhere to go. Otherwise is just sits in the dryer and impedes the drying of the other shirts. Fortunately, my dryer (Lawson Encore) came with a forced air option. I also added another inline duct fan (about $40) to the exhaust stack as it exits the building to help draw the moist air out of the dryer.