[wayno76]

Hi all, new to this t-shirt printing, just bought myself some permaset white ink for doing a few prints on black cotton t-shirts but having problems with the print and cleaning out ink after printing! Could someone advise me on printing and cleaning up process with this waterbased ink and wot the best mesh size to use? thanks,

 

[echorick]

what are you printing on ?

 

[wayno76]

im using a homemade hand base with a fixed base for the the t-shirt to slide on which keeps the shirt tight when on, but when printing the t-shirt sticks to the screen when lifting screen up? also the screen is made and i dont think mesh is as tight as i would like! but just ordered today a new 43t screen so see how that goes! also i can do just one print and clean off straight away, but cant get ink out of screen?????

 

[OTFINC]

pictures would help. It sounds like you need to use some spray adhesive to keep the shirt from lifting. and to clean water based ink just look online at one of the screen print websites it will tell you what chemicals clean what ink.

 

[corradomatt]

Permaset inks can be very thick (especially the white) and hard to print with. Sometimes a water based ink additive can help.

The shirt sticking to the back of the screen can be caused by a couple of issues. First, if you are flashing the garment in between squeegee pulls make sure to let the garment cool before the second pass. A hot shirt will want to stick to the emulsion on the screen. Second, make sure you have a little off-contact. 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch between the screen and the garment should be good. Third, if you are using a very coarse mesh, you may be letting too much ink through. You don't want to use a ton of ink, just a thin layer on the surface of the garment should work well.

Pictures of what you are doing will definitely help in diagnosing your issues.

 

[splathead]

Spray adhesive for the platen will also help the shirt stay still during printing.