[DDT Designs]

Attempting to finally print on colors. This was my first result.

Pretreated with Image Armor for light shirts.
Dried shirt at 310 at med to light pressure for 90 seconds to avoid discoloration and scorching of shirt.
Printed (with this result)
Cured print at 310 at med to light pressure at two turns of 90 seconds.

I had my spray settings wrong and ended up using a crap load of pre treat on the shirt. It was actually dripping wet.

 

[EricDeem]

Image Armor should be dried at 330f for 30 seconds with HEAVY pressure. The ink is cured for 90 seconds per layer of ink at 350f with LIGHT pressure. On shirts with a white underbase it would be a total of 180 seconds for curing the ink.

 

[DDT Designs]

For black shirts I was doing 350 for the pre treat at 30 and two 90 seconds at 330 for curing inks. (which is what I was told before in another forum here) with perfect results. But with colors at those temps I keep getting scorch marks on the shirts or color distortions where the pre treat was applied. These temps seem to be the only settings where I dont get those burns.

Should I of used IA for darks with that color of blue? The yellow shirt I did with this process turned out fine. Haven't done a wash test yet.

 

[Stitch-Up]

Can you post the original picture/image you're printing so I can see what it should be turning out like?

Have you checked the temperature of your heat press platen with an accurate temperature gauge? Some presses vary wildly from the set temperature! What brand heat press are you using?

 

[treefox2118]

I'm not sure light pretreat works with white ink properly.

 

[twistinthewick]

Yes. Light will work with white.
It looks like a pretreat issue because it affects the whole print. Try reprinting on the back of the shirt. You said there was an excess of pretreat on the front so pretreat the back with normal amount and try reprinting.

 

[DDT Designs]

Issue fixed. Now for the rest of my week.

Kept getting a major discoloration on my shirts when drying the pre treat. Finally got the amount of pre treat adjusted so no more burn marks or at least faint enough not to notice. They do wash out though which is good.

New problem.

Go to print today and only white, black and blue colors printed. Did a cleaning cycle. Now only white, black, blue and yellow print but very faint. Printed a few more time and finally all colors printed but faint.

Did a few more prints now all colors print, still faint but I get white lines or breaks in the print. So Im going to presume its clogged print head.

Did a clean. Not fixed. Figured a power clean would fix it. But now neither the printer nor my computer will allow me to do a power clean. Keeps saying connection issues.

So now I got the print head soaking in cleaning solution. (the blue stuff) hopefully by the time I get off work tonight things will be better. If not then I am at a loss as to what to do.

Any other suggestions? Im seriously thinking this is not the business for me to be in. Karma just keeps kicking me in the ***.

 

[JuanManuel]

Yes. Light will work with white.
It looks like a pretreat issue because it affects the whole print. Try reprinting on the back of the shirt. You said there was an excess of pretreat on the front so pretreat the back with normal amount and try reprinting.

Cathie, you said that light pretreat work with white ink???

 

[twistinthewick]

Yes it will.

 

[printer631]

Cathie, you said that light pretreat work with white ink???

the Image Armor light will
the dupont light will not

 

[allamerican-aeoon]

Jonathan,
Your issue is capping station 80-90%.
1. One little dust can cause this.
2. Printhead not level with cap.
3. Line on bottom is clogged.
4. Some air leak some where.
5. Humidity low. No air blowing(air heater or AC)
6. Take off capping station and reinstall isn't a bad idea.
Cheers! Last day of me trip. Miss home.

 

[DDT Designs]

Jonathan,
Your issue is capping station 80-90%.
1. One little dust can cause this.
2. Printhead not level with cap.
3. Line on bottom is clogged.
4. Some air leak some where.
5. Humidity low. No air blowing(air heater or AC)
6. Take off capping station and reinstall isn't a bad idea.
Cheers! Last day of me trip. Miss home.

After soaking the print head and doing three cleanings with four or five test prints between the cleanings. Everything seems to be once again working properly.

Still not entirely happy with the batch of blue shirts I just printed off, but for the first time working with a color other then black or white I guess they turned out ok. Don't think I will use Indego Blue again though.

 

[DDT Designs]

Ok I am completely stumped on this. Still trying my hand at colored shirts. Today was red. Does not matter how much or little pre treat I use or what pressure or temp (didn't want to go any lower then 330) I still get a major discoloration. Major as in three shades darker then the color of the shirt or a brown tinge.

With the reds the discoloration even shows up on the back of the shirt. I tried pressing a shirt without pre treating it just to see what happens and with or without pre treat I get the same results.

So I have narrowed it down to one of two things. Either my heat press is hotter then what it says or its the shirt material itself. I use 100% cotton 5000 grade Gildans. Suggestions? Because Im pretty much ready to be a black and white shirt only company.

 

[EricDeem]

All red and orange hues change color when heart pressed. Most will return to their normal color after a few hours.

 

[DDT Designs]

All red and orange hues change color when heart pressed. Most will return to their normal color after a few hours.

Interesting. Well guess you learn something new everyday. Thank you.

 

[lkt1954]

Jonathan- change brands of shirts- Gildan's print like ****!!! Try LAT, Keya, Cotton Heritage to mention a few that print well with dtg. All of these 3 are ringspun cotton way better for dtg than gildans.

 

[DDT Designs]

Jonathan- change brands of shirts- Gildan's print like ****!!! Try LAT, Keya, Cotton Heritage to mention a few that print well with dtg. All of these 3 are ringspun cotton way better for dtg than gildans.

Do you happen to have any links to suppliers? I use Wordans and Gildan due to being cost effective.

 

[lkt1954]

Imprintswholesale, tsc apparel, keya-usa, cotton heritage are a few places to google.

 

[23spiderman]

Imprints Wholesale is now AlphaBroder.com. they were bought out a little over a year ago.

i recently did some Fruit of the Loom HD shirts, and they printed well. my favorites are Keya and LAT. Eric (Dekay) says that the Anvil 780 is printing well also.

 

[JGCMelissa]

Keya's a good shirt, but sadly they are still having issues with inventory last time I checked. They are better than they used to be. That doesn't help when you have an order to fill and Keya doesn't carry one of the sizes you need.