[Jrske]

Hi all I'm back again with some more questions about DTG printing.
Super frustrated cause I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong so here's my questions:

I'm using the Epson surecolor f2100. After printing and curing there is white spots visible all over the print. Also cracks are really visible when you pull on both sites of the shirt. The weird part is that on some parts there are no cracks visible at all. Here is some photos of it:

Here is the setting I used to print this shirt:

-First of all we pre-treat the shirt with a 1:1 ratio. We pretreat the shirts with the Schulze pretreatmaker IV.
At a 100% speed. After cure the shirt under a heatpress using 4PR and 170c for 60 seconds. It goes in the printer right after.

-The Garment creator settings are:

- As soon as the printer is finished I heatpress the shirt at 170c / 0PR for 90 seconds.

That's my whole process. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong please let me know. Been trying different things but nothing seems to work. What would your settings be?

If there's any guys from The Netherlands with the same printer on this forum please message me, maybe you can tell us more about your process.

Thanks!!

 

[TABOB]

Super frustrated cause I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

A lot of learning and testing is needed, and you will have to repeat for each shirt model/color.
You will be tempted to cut corners (I tried) but you will get washability issues.
All newbies go through it. Have a look here.

DTG pretreat newbie

Hi guys! So I’ve just gotten started with DTG (been using vinyl for about 9 years now) and am having some slight difficulty. I’m trying to dial in the pretreat (which is what I’m assuming the problem that I have is) I’m using the Epson pretreat diluted at a 1:1 ratio. I have the Mister T2 and...

www.t-shirtforums.com

Don't expect 100% success rate by the way.
If you can get it close to 95% you'll be doing well.

 

[FJG]

Hi all I'm back again with some more questions about DTG printing.
Super frustrated cause I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong so here's my questions:

I'm using the Epson surecolor f2100. After printing and curing there is white spots visible all over the print. Also cracks are really visible when you pull on both sites of the shirt. The weird part is that on some parts there are no cracks visible at all. Here is some photos of it:
View attachment 273762 View attachment 273763

Here is the setting I used to print this shirt:

-First of all we pre-treat the shirt with a 1:1 ratio. We pretreat the shirts with the Schulze pretreatmaker IV.
At a 100% speed. After cure the shirt under a heatpress using 4PR and 170c for 60 seconds. It goes in the printer right after.

-The Garment creator settings are:
View attachment 273764
View attachment 273765

- As soon as the printer is finished I heatpress the shirt at 170c / 0PR for 90 seconds.

That's my whole process. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong please let me know. Been trying different things but nothing seems to work. What would your settings be?

If there's any guys from The Netherlands with the same printer on this forum please message me, maybe you can tell us more about your process.

Thanks!!

Have you tried using less pre-treat and pretreating it twice? Certain designs were giving me a similar issue, and pre-treating the shirts twice solved it for me.

For black shirts, with the Speedtreater TX and using Firebird Gen 3 Epson Optimized pretreat, I pretreat at 3-3.5, cure the pretreat and then pretreat again at 3.

Also, just me being nosy here but, is there any reason why you have your white ink density at 20 while doing a double pass? If I have to do a double pass, I usually bring the white ink density down to -5% and I have been getting great results. That will also allow you to bring down the time of the pause between passes.

In the attached image, the shirt on the top was done with the process and settings I just mentioned. The shirt on the bottom was pretreated once (setting on the SpeedTreater was 5 or maybe a bit over 5) and printed using a bit more white than the -5% setting.

Not only is the image less bright on the bottom one, but you can also see a LOT of white specs on the print.

 

[TABOB]

Have you tried using less pre-treat and pretreating it twice?

This method does work, but it is slow and can be problematic when curing with a conveyor dryer or when hovering the heat press for a bit too long.
The 30% pretreat 70% water mix works better, giving similar results to fully pretreated RTP shirts, and it's much more forgiving.

 

[Shooky]

The white dots are from you putting down too much white under base. Reduce that and you should be good. Way too much pre-treatment on the shirts.

 

[Ghoster32111]

The white dots are fibers sticking up through the print, it isn't really a matter of the ink amount (to an extent) so it is a matter of pretreating to mat down the fibers that is why FJG's method of double pretreating has no "white dots" it is also why the image FJD did is also brighter because it is sitting up higher on the shirt and not penetrating as deep so less ink needs to be used or there would be bleeding issues. Not to mention at the same ratios The firebird Gen 3 pretreat has a much more vibrant print than the Epson OEM pretreat.
Like Tabob said a double pretreating method does yield good results but is time consuming. I have used Firebird pretreat for a bunch of years now and never been disappointed, I used the Epson pretreat for a month and hated every min of it. The pretreating matters the most when it comes to these "White dots" and using enough pressure on a heatpress to lay everything flat. Another method that can be used is spraying the shirt and then using a a paint brush to brush all the fibers down which is usually quicker than a double pretreating method. Or you can use a pre-pretreated like RTP or CheaterTee I have used both in the past when I was in a jam I personally prefer CheaterTees because they use name brand shirts that people know like Gildan, Cotton Heritage or Bella Canvas and even some 100% polyester shirts like A4 which actually print and wash very well. Where the RTP shirts while nice are a rando brand and the sizing varies by batch and they usually have limited colors but they are a nice quality shirt.

 

[gatorGRAFIX]

Have you tried using less pre-treat and pretreating it twice? Certain designs were giving me a similar issue, and pre-treating the shirts twice solved it for me.

For black shirts, with the Speedtreater TX and using Firebird Gen 3 Epson Optimized pretreat, I pretreat at 3-3.5, cure the pretreat and then pretreat again at 3.

Also, just me being nosy here but, is there any reason why you have your white ink density at 20 while doing a double pass? If I have to do a double pass, I usually bring the white ink density down to -5% and I have been getting great results. That will also allow you to bring down the time of the pause between passes.

In the attached image, the shirt on the top was done with the process and settings I just mentioned. The shirt on the bottom was pretreated once (setting on the SpeedTreater was 5 or maybe a bit over 5) and printed using a bit more white than the -5% setting.

Not only is the image less bright on the bottom one, but you can also see a LOT of white specs on the print.

I think that FJG has hit the nail right on the head. I do the exact same things in my shop and I get the same results almost all of the time.

I have been doing things this way for years now and it is not slow and problematic at all. It gives me the quality results that I am always thriving for and I never "settle". I want my stuff to look fabulous whether I am doing 5 or 200 t-shirts.

 

[FJG]

I think that FJG has hit the nail right on the head. I do the exact same things in my shop and I get the same results almost all of the time.

I have been doing things this way for years now and it is not slow and problematic at all. It gives me the quality results that I am always thriving for and I never "settle"

I can see the process slowing you down with one heat press, but we two heat presses it's barely noticeable as you can pre-treat and print at the same time.

I want my stuff to look fabulous whether I am doing 5 or 200 t-shirts.

Agreed 1000%.