Im having a very hard time printing black ink on white shirts. I do two passes and when i hold the shirt up to the light i see pin holes in the ink. Does this normoly happen with this combination? Or do i need more ink? When i put more ink on the shirts, it just floods the image and i lose some of the fine detail.
It depends on the type of ink you're using - if it's the thicker stuff it'll dry kind of hard and you won't be able to see any holes through it. The stuff I use shows the texture of the shirt through it - the ink seems to dye the cotton more than sit on top of it. I don't know much about inks (I'm just starting out myself), but maybe do a search for plastisol or vinyl if you want those really heavy prints.
Also, if your image is being flooded after two passes, maybe you haven't got enough fixer mixed in - your ink might be too thin.
You need to provide more information for us to really help you out.
Type of ink... Plastisol, water based etc.
Screen mesh size..... 80, 110 , 125, etc.
T-Shirt material......100% cotton, 50/50 blend, etc.
Are you flash drying between passes?
The more info we have, the easier it is to come up with a solution.
I have this problem too when i print on only white shirts. I use waterbased ink and if I stretch the white shirt you can see shirt fibers through it.
I don't have a way to solve it for myself, just wanted to say you're not alone.
Plastisol creates more of a film on the shirt so if you use that the white shirt probably wouldn't show through, but I'm not completely sure of that because I don't use plastisol.
You need to provide more information for us to really help you out.
Type of ink... Plastisol, water based etc.
Screen mesh size..... 80, 110 , 125, etc.
T-Shirt material......100% cotton, 50/50 blend, etc.
Are you flash drying between passes?
The more info we have, the easier it is to come up with a solution.
Bill M
Sorry i was frusterated when i typed the last post. I use plastisol ink on 100% gildan ts. Im using a 156 mesh and flashing between passes. Also when i print on a test strip it turns out fine with only one pass(im using the test strips that were provided by ryonet when i bought my screens). When i print on the shirt sometimes even two passes dont cover entierly. Thanks for the info.
Sorry i was frusterated when i typed the last post. I use plastisol ink on 100% gildan ts. Im using a 156 mesh and flashing between passes. Also when i print on a test strip it turns out fine with only one pass(im using the test strips that were provided by ryonet when i bought my screens). When i print on the shirt sometimes even two passes dont cover entierly. Thanks for the info.
I don't know if this might help, but the IC black ink that ships with Ryonet's kits is very thick. I couldn't get a satisfactory black print on white shirts. Then i tried some curable reducer, and it has solved the problem for me.
I mix 70/30 ink/reducer and cure for 1:10sec with a flash cure unit, and my prints are crisp and much nicer feeling than without the reducer. Ryonet's web site has the IC curable reducer. You may want to give it a shot.
Somehow I think you folks just might be missing the point. I believe the image should be opaque when the shirt is on the person....when it is held up to the light there is NO problem if you can see abit through the ink. This is 100% better than a thick piece of plastisol (plastic) on the back of a shirt. We can that the "sweat zone" and do everything to avoid. Be happy with 2 passes.
We use Wilflex plastisol ink on Gildan t's. You do not have to flash between passes and you have to understand that a thick layer of plastisol is the sign of a poor screen printer or rather a less than professional printer. We will not sell a thick print.
As for water based inks....they are the easiest inks to cure. You must realize that water based inks will cure themselves if you put them in the sun. So we find that we treat them exactly like plastisol and use all the same curing methods without any problems at all.
Black ink on white shirts 
