first time screen printer need help - tshirt is sticking to the ink when I lift up the screen. and the ink isnt coming out evenly

What is your off contact at? It looks like you might need to raise it.

Off contact should be 1/8-1/4. Black is usally the easiest color to print. Mix the ink maybe even warm ink do this by putting ink container in a bucket of warm water then mix and set back several times. I usally just mix black though and warm my white. I also never use 110 mesh for black I always use 156 but it looks to me your ink needs mixed and if ink is cold warmed. Are these new screens if they are used and lost a lot of tension then can also cause the problem.

As Chris said, it looks like you need to set your off-contact so that when you pull or push the squeegee that the screen comes off as you move the squeegee. For t-shirts, your off contact should be about 1/8th of an inch. Most printers just tape an actually quarter (25 cents) to the top of your frame. Give this a try and it should solve your problem.

as stated above...check off contact....also get a higher mesh count screen...110 is to coarse for black ink....try a 230

Inked

From the looks of the top edge, your big problem is tension--not to say all the above isn't great advice--it is.

You may also need to increase your squeegee angle, sharpen your squeegee, and/or thin the ink slightly, if Sbens mixing/warming advice doesn't help.

Rodney said:

:: edited thread TITLE to be more descriptive and moved to a more appropriate section of the forum (and merged duplicate topics ) ::
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already moved. and title will stay the same. i have multi questions im going to be asking. so there is no general description.

Thanks everyone for the help. I will be doing some more tests this evening after I get off work. I already set the offset to 1/4 inch and going to stir my ink approiately.

I work at a sign shop and we screen print street signs, so I am going to have the main screen printer give me some pointers tomorrow, so hopefully with ur advice and his knowledge ill be able to get some shirts done.

Thanks again

I already set the offset to 1/4 inch

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I think 1/4 inch is to much off contact for black ink....try to use 2 pennies worth of off contact. set your off contact, then tape 2 pennies to the end of the screen closest to you. at the opposite end of the screen clamp, this will ensure an even off contact from one end of the screen to the other...I think even with a 110 mesh screen you shouldnt be having an issue with the shirt sticking to the screen..there is something else other than off contact going on here.

are you flooding the screen before you print?
what squeegee angle are you printing at?
are you pushing or pulling the squeegee?
does the screen snap at the end of your print stroke?

there are alot of variables that go into screen printing....you need to keep track of everything during the whole process.

Inked

well it worked out for me. I added the pennies yesterday and it worked great. the only problem now is i think im over flooding the screen or putting to much pressure. bc i can see ink on the underside the screen so when i go to do a shirt it is uneven. I had to lay down paper and push down on the screen with my finger and get the excess ink onto the paper. I will post pics next time I print