[matsuoamon]

Hey guys. I'm very very new to the whole industry and lately I've successfully created my own blocks and burning designs on emulsions etc. I thought I was well on my way. I started a few simple 1-color printing and it works well with any dark color on light-colored shirts. When I tried to print on dark-colored t-shirts (mainly black) everything went all over the place and one by one problems started to occur.

A few of the problems I had was:-

1. The white base seems to shrink during the drying process, making it impossible to add another layer (simpler designs would be easier to line up)
2. The white base dye clumped in between the t-shirt surface and the mesh, when pulled up it'll stay on the mesh and ruined the t-shirt!

I got demotivated everytime this happens and I'm just trying to understand why this is happening. If a 1-color is that hard to line up, imagine how impossible it is for more colors. If anyone knew/had these kind of problems, please share it with me, at least I'll know I'm not alone. lol.

 

[selanac]

With White ink you need a little higher Offset. What kind of screen printing press do you have?

Do a You Tube search for Registering multi-color screen printing. Moyer Tee's I think, has a great tutorial.

Show us some pic's too. We can get a better understanding of what you're doing wrong by looking at the imprint.

I'm 99% sure it's the offset. Normally is when we first start off. If you did the one color on light t-shirts you're well on your way. It's just a matter of getting the basics down.

Black ink works really well right? Even on dark green t-shirts or navy. But as you said, once you switch to white it goes bad. White ink is thick.

Also, when doing sweat shirts, hoodies etc., you need less heat to flash and final cure. Use a Heat Temp gun to find out what your actual tempatures are. Even if you have a dial to change the temp. It might not be accurate.

 

[mimic]

What kind of ink are you using?

Try flashing for less time/less heat. It should be just barely dry. If you still have problems then flash the shirt before you print that way its already shrank.

 

[matsuoamon]

With White ink you need a little higher Offset. What kind of screen printing press do you have?

Do a You Tube search for Registering multi-color screen printing. Moyer Tee's I think, has a great tutorial.

Show us some pic's too. We can get a better understanding of what you're doing wrong by looking at the imprint.

I'm 99% sure it's the offset. Normally is when we first start off. If you did the one color on light t-shirts you're well on your way. It's just a matter of getting the basics down.

Black ink works really well right? Even on dark green t-shirts or navy. But as you said, once you switch to white it goes bad. White ink is thick.

Also, when doing sweat shirts, hoodies etc., you need less heat to flash and final cure. Use a Heat Temp gun to find out what your actual tempatures are. Even if you have a dial to change the temp. It might not be accurate.

I didn't know about offset until I registered in this forum and read all posts concerning screenprint. And up until today, I really didn't use any kind of press and just kinda eyeballed the whole thing with the wall as my guide where I lean the block. But even with simple circle (test print) it warped a bit and turned oval-ish after I dried it off.

by the way, if anyone's wondering the name for the YouTube tutorial it's Moyatees. And yes they really helped me understand more about the process.

I think I'll add pictures if it still occur after I print it on my DIY line table press I just finished building. I'm a real beginner in this game and I am trying to find the cheapest way to do this stuff. And yeah, black inks (and any other kinds of dark inks for that matter) worked perfectly. I think I'll focus on practicing flooding and offset after this. From all the tutorials I saw online, that method seems to be 'the thing' to do before actualy printing. The white I have is very thick. I wonder if it's ok to add normal binder with white to thin down the white a little bit?

 

[matsuoamon]

What kind of ink are you using?

Try flashing for less time/less heat. It should be just barely dry. If you still have problems then flash the shirt before you print that way its already shrank.

I use a japanese brand ink called Seikaprene HK -3M. it's water based, with the proper humidity and weather it won't dry off easily, but if the weather outside is sunny and the surrounding is hot, it dries off after the first print. I tried mixing it with a binder once, it became thinner, but it got harder to print since it will seep through the screen and overflow. Maybe that's just my binder - ink ratio, my bad.

I don't have a flash dryer. All this time I thought the t-shirt shrank because of the white ink, If nothing else works, I'll cure it first before the first layer.