[Slee410]

Yea its really getting annoying, so I have a two color job, the colors red and white. I pay down my red then when I switch to my white screen and lay down the white, the red on the substrate touches the white screen and the two colors end up mixing together on my white screen. Why does this keep happening? Do I have to flash everytime inbetween colors? Its such an inconvenience and I have to keep cleaning the screen and wait till it dries..

 

[sben763]

If the colors touch yes you have to flash. Even butt registration jobs can become a issue with dot gain. Unless a simulated process or I can leave a small space between colors I'll flash ea color. Adds time but IMO gives a better look and more consistent prints

 

[Slee410]

Lets say I finish laying down the red and I go onto to lay down the white which the print location doesn't touch the red. Do i still have to flash since the red is still going to touch part of the white screen?

Also when doing simulated process, the colors are always going to touch since it is wet on wet application, so pretty much you won't be able to save any inks to dump back into the paint tub? Thats alot of ink wastage.

 

[sben763]

With simulated process if your getting ink back into screen you need either tighter screens, more off contact or better squeegee techniques.

No on if the colors aren't touching you will need to do a test print eun up to let the ink build up on the screen. It will take some practice to get wet on wet printing down. The ink formulated more torwards wet on wet have detacking agent in them. you can get same results with the right amount of curable reducer and warm inks work much better for wet on wet

 

[Slee410]

Man screen printing is harder then I thought so much variables... problem is everytime I mess up I have to clean the screen and wait hours to try again. Currently I have a 100 t-shirt 3 color job, and a 25 t-shirt one color job, alittle nerve racking I wish I gave myself more time to learn.

 

[jeron]

What are you using to clean your screens? It shouldn't take hours... maybe a minute at the most assuming you wipe all the excess screen wash off your screen...

Do you have a flash cure? It may be easier to flash each color then learn wet on wet when you have some downtime..

Thanks,
Jeron

 

[Celtic]

I agree. I don't understand why you're having to wait hours to print again.
As mentioned, it should just take a couple of minutes....wipe screen, use a little ink wash, if necessary, maybe test print on a scrap shirt or two (to be sure you don't have any residue) and you're good to get back to printing.

 

[Slee410]

Ic i think i am overwashing, i would spray ink wash and spray the whole screen down since the mixed ink spread all throughout the screen. Im getting the hang of it though, I am flashing between colors now which does the trick so far.

 

[jeron]

Try wiping the screen out with just a rag first without any ink wash... then once you get it pretty clean apply an extremely small amount of ink wash... it doesn't take much... one problem I had once was using way to much press wash and it was making me mad... but someone told me to barely use any and it made a huge difference....

Thanks,
Jeron