Hey guys, I had a couple questions about Flash curing my shirts. Im using all water-based Nazdar inks and I'm silk screening the shirts in small quantities. Is it possible to spot dry the shirts with a hair dryer, for multiple color jobs, and then throwing them in a household dryer at the end? I know this is not ideal but I was wondering if the dryer can get hot enough to make the water evaporate in the inks. Thanks for your help
Check the manufacturer's drying instructions for recommended temperature. Generally for waterbased it's in the 250-320 degree range. Neither a hair dryer or clothes dryer can get that hot.
You can use a heat gun. They generally cost between $20-30 and can be picked up at Home Depot, Lowes, etc.
I heard that with water based inks, the heat gun one could buy from, say, Home Depot, does in fact provide the sufficient amount of heat to dry the ink and remove the water, but might actually singe the fabric, due to how hot the gun gets. Is this something that could be avoided by just moving the heat gun around over the image? or is this a problem that could occur no matter how you cure the ink (if you use the heat gun)?
I heard that with water based inks, the heat gun one could buy from, say, Home Depot, does in fact provide the sufficient amount of heat to dry the ink and remove the water, but might actually singe the fabric, due to how hot the gun gets. Is this something that could be avoided by just moving the heat gun around over the image? or is this a problem that could occur no matter how you cure the ink (if you use the heat gun)?
Thanks,
JT
You can singe fabric on all methods of ink drying.
Search on youtube for an excellent series of videos from Ryonet on the use of water based inks including drying demo's with heat gun, flash and conventional conveyor dryers.
thanks splathead. I watched the Ryonet video on curing water based inks and had a question. I notice he is curing a one-color design and pulling the shirt off the board before he does so. If you were doing a multi-color print how well would you have to cure the shirt in between colors? I'm assuming it would be shorter because you would just want the ink to dry so it doesn't smudge or rub off on the other screens. Would a hair dryer be hot enough to dry the ink between colors. Could you use the hair dryer between colors and then a heat gun or a flash dryer at the end? thanks!
You can flash between colors, just make sure it is dry to the touch before you put the next color down. You don't need to "cure" it between every color though.
Flash Curer vs. Other Drying methods 
