We need to print a bright orange on a blue Gildan 2000 tee. It has been recommended that we do a white underbase. As with many printers, white is our nemesis.
To get a decent white print, what finally seems to work for us is.... flood screen, print stroke, clear stroke, flash, flood screen, print stroke, clear stroke.
For an underbase, how thick/opaque should it be? Would flood, stroke, clear stroke... be enough?
if its just one color you can print/flash/print with an opaque orange ink. just make sure your stencil is nice and thick. you can get away with doing this on most one color jobs.
How thick is "nice & thick"? We usually coat 1 & 1 with a rounded edge coater. I have heard recoating on the print side at least once with the same coater and I have heard recoating on the squeegee side at least once and I think every combination up to 4-6 layers. What works the best for you?
On general orders we use a 230 mesh for under and print one stroke and make sure we clear on that one stroke. Flash and then print the color stroke (color stroke is on a 230 mesh also). The trick is not to push the ink into the garment. Use enough pressure to clear the screen and lay the ink on top of the fabric. The picture I included is a print we did last night, it is a left chest with a white under and a red top coat. It has a good feel and good look. The white under is not that bright at all but it is enough to lighten up the black shirt and let the red ink sit on top and pop off the shirt. We also thin our ink down 10% (by weight) with a curable reducer.
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Mike
If you dig ditches be the best ditch digger you can be.
Part of your question depends on how large the image area is.If it type and not a sheet of plastisol you can get away with a thin base and a high opacity orange.However, try to stay away from that oh so comfortable bulletproof print,you know,the one that feels like a sheet of drywall?
No that is the glare from the flash. It has a good solid red print on it. I would really like the print to be smoother than it is but I would have to go to 305 mesh.
__________________
Mike
If you dig ditches be the best ditch digger you can be.
Be careful about going too high on your mess count it will pull the fibers up on the shirt and cause you to get a nappy looking print instead of the smooth one.
The opacity should come from a combination of the underbase AND the opaque color being printed on top of it, not just the underbase. Getting the underbase to have a smooth finish is better that having it be opaque.
Try a calillary film for the underbase screen.
how dark/opaque should a white underbase be? 
