HELP with thin inks...Trouble fully clearing screen
Last night I was doing one print black on yellow t-shirts. The print would look fine on the platen, then when I would pull the shirt off and hold it up, I was able to see-through the design...I'm assuming as a result of the screen not being cleared properly.
I do most of my printing light on dark, and seem to have mastered that particular stroke...however, thinner dark inks seem to give me trouble at times. Any advice would be appreciated!
Re: HELP with thin inks...Trouble fully clearing screen
Not sure about your technique but here is what we do. Make sure you have some off contact. When you are flooding the screen have some pressure to push ink into the mesh. Using a sharp squeegee with the proper angle, print. The print stroke should cut the ink off the screen and lay the ink on top of the fabric. Pressure is the key on both strokes. This should do the trick.
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Mike
If you dig ditches be the best ditch digger you can be.
Re: HELP with thin inks...Trouble fully clearing screen
I'll definitely try adding some pressure with my flood to get the ink into the screen more before the print stroke. As far as the print stroke itself, how much pressure would you recommend??
Also, it seems like black ink always gives me excessive buildup around the edges of my design. Are there techniques to keep that to a minimum??
Re: HELP with thin inks...Trouble fully clearing screen
Quote:
Originally Posted by KaceMN
I'll definitely try adding some pressure with my flood to get the ink into the screen more before the print stroke. As far as the print stroke itself, how much pressure would you recommend??
Also, it seems like black ink always gives me excessive buildup around the edges of my design. Are there techniques to keep that to a minimum??
For the print stroke, just enough pressure to "CUT" the ink off the screen and lay the ink on top of the shirt. Don't pound the ink into the shirt.
As far as the black, again it sounds like too much pressure and no off contact on the screen. Tight screens will help tremendously. If you are using wooden screens I will bet you they are loose. You can only tell by using a newton meter, it measures the tightness of the screens. If at all possible start buying retensionable screens. These screens are more expensive at first but are cheaper in the long run. If you can't afford retensionable screens than buy aluminum frame screens they hold their tension better. You can also try pushing the print stroke instead pulling, or vise versa depending on how you print.
__________________
Mike
If you dig ditches be the best ditch digger you can be.
Re: HELP with thin inks...Trouble fully clearing screen
Yeah, it's definitely not an issue of loose screens or off-contact problems. The screen I used was an aluminum 110 mesh that was brand spanking new. Off-contact I had set at about 3/8 of an inch. I use a push stroke, and it does seem that I have a little more luck when my squeegee is closer to vertical. I'll keep trying a combination of squeegee angle and lighter print pressure to see what that does. Also, I have a 2-color order today with an area of halftones...and I'm wondering, should I make 3 screens: one with the solid portions of color 1, one with the halftoned portions of color 1, and another screen for color 2 (all solid color)? Or should I be able to print clean coverage of the solid areas (as well as halftones) through 230 mesh? Thanks again for all the advice!
HELP with thin inks...Trouble fully clearing screen 
