[askroyaltee]

Hi! Trying to start on this job and figure out if I should just print the order myself of sent it off to get transfers made.

Can you take a look to see what mesh count screens you suggest? I have all lower count screens but don't mind making the investment in a higher mesh count one if I should be able to get the desired results.

Thanks for your time and also if you could suggest any burning, wash out or emulsion coating tips I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[relentless]

Depending on the size you need to print out, you will need 200 mininum, I would recommend using a 230, that should catch even the smallest print and still allow nice opacity

Sent from my SM-N900T using T-Shirt Forums

 

[Printavo]

Yeah if it's a small print you could look at 305 screen and thin the ink a bit.

 

[sben763]

There is nothing that detailed here. Even as a left chest the small letters a bigger then a 25lpi halftone which can be exposed on a 110. 110-156 should be fine if you have your exposure times down and your not under exposing. The second image same thing.

Using too high of mesh will force you to print flash print.

 

[Printavo]

There is nothing that detailed here. Even as a left chest the small letters a bigger then a 25lpi halftone which can be exposed on a 110. 110-156 should be fine if you have your exposure times down and your not under exposing. The second image same thing.

Using too high of mesh will force you to print flash print.

Yeah you might be right, just not sure if he's doing a big print on the front or a small shoulder print, etc.

 

[miktoxic]

so what is the rule of thumb when printing details such as halftone dots?

i'm doing my first B+W design (a photo which has been turned into a bitmap image with a output resolution of 600 dpi and lpi of 55....didn't need it to be that detailed. black ink on white tees.) and am thinking about doing it on a 200 mesh screen. will that suffice?

 

[sben763]

Rule of thumb is divide the mesh by 4.5 to get LPI or multiply the LPI by 4.5 to determine mesh. You can go over if you have everything dialed in perfectly. But just starting with halftones stick close to the rule of thumb to be safe

 

[askroyaltee]

OK, thanks. Sorry I didn't mention the size print. Its not a chest print its going to be fairly large on the front and back of the t shirts. If you mentioned that I can do it with my 110 and 156 what ideas can I try as far as exposure times? I'm currently using 2 500 halogen lights at 8:00. Wonder If I should increase of decrease to hold the fine detail.

 

[miktoxic]

OK, thanks. Sorry I didn't mention the size print. Its not a chest print its going to be fairly large on the front and back of the t shirts. If you mentioned that I can do it with my 110 and 156 what ideas can I try as far as exposure times? I'm currently using 2 500 halogen lights at 8:00. Wonder If I should increase of decrease to hold the fine detail.

i guess it depends on your emulsion BUT i've used 3 different kinds of emulsion and i use one 500 watt halogen 16 inches from the screen i'm exposing at 13 minutes 30 seconds and i get great detail.

 

[sben763]

OK, thanks. Sorry I didn't mention the size print. Its not a chest print its going to be fairly large on the front and back of the t shirts. If you mentioned that I can do it with my 110 and 156 what ideas can I try as far as exposure times? I'm currently using 2 500 halogen lights at 8:00. Wonder If I should increase of decrease to hold the fine detail.

If you have your times dialed in doesn't matter. I expose my spot colors the exact same time as my halftones and fine detail. I have seen others decrease the time for halftones and fine detail, but you then risk a blow out, I know from experience as I have tried the suggestion. If your getting nice crisp lines at your 8:00 then stick with it. If your back side in not slimy at all after a exposure then your exposing long enough. with fine detail or halftones I will take my power wash give a good spray at 4-6" both sides, let sit for 30-60 sec and the wash out either with power washer or strong hose pressure. Key to an easy wash out is letting the water soak in the unexposed emulsion, this is called developing time. There are a few emulsion manufactures that recommend 2 min in a tub of water. Ive found that a good hard spray right at first works best for me, if after 30 sec you screen looks dry rewet it and don't let it dry during this stage or it will make for a difficult washout

 

[franktheprinter]

Rule of thumb is divide the mesh by 4.5 to get LPI or multiply the LPI by 4.5 to determine mesh. You can go over if you have everything dialed in perfectly. But just starting with halftones stick close to the rule of thumb to be safe

I really think this also depends on your inks and its
flow rate,opacity level, among other things... sure you can start there but I think
with a really good transfer ink you can drop that down to 3 or 2.5 as years ago we were at the traditional
4.5 - 5 using mainly One Stroke products but now on an image with an LPI of 55 we find ourselves using a 155 mesh. We still use some one Stroke inks but our main inksupplier has changed

 

[sben763]

Frank the concern here is not the inks. It having a minimum of 2 threads to hold the dot. So yes a 55 LPI can be done on a 156, as I have even done 65 but I don't care what anyone says your loosing some of the dots. If you think I'm wrong I put this challenge to you. I'll send you a file halftoned at 55 LPI and at 1200-14440 dpi resolution. You expose a new screen and ship to me. I'll pay for all materials and you supply labor. If your missing less then 10% of the dots then I'll pay for 1 hr shop labor at $35. If your missing more then 10% then you donate the shop labor and pay for 50% of the materials and shipping. Like I said before you can break the rules and still maintain the dots but going as low as 2.5 divided by the mesh you can hold the higher tones but 10%-1% will blow off and you end up with a spot color.

I have done tons of research and testing with microscopes, comparing film to exposed mesh and about the lowest you can go and hold 100% of all the dots is about a 3.5 divide. This also took lots of test and trails that come with experience. Expecting a new printer to halftones to do much better then the 4.5 until they get some experience really isn't realistic.

 

[franktheprinter]

Hi. not questioning your expertise in this field.
I am just
relaying my personal experience with having done
halftone transfers for quite afew years myself. Since the transfer inks we use also have an adhesive additive in them I would have to say yes ink type does matter as inks with adhesive additives will hold the dots better than inks that don't have additives and need powdering.

Rather than take your challenge on...I can send you samples we've done with the mesh count and lpi of the art we used. I think you'll be surprised at the ability we have to hold the dots with the screens we use.

Overall, im definitely in agreement that in the beginning you need to be more cautious initially and as I said myself we started with a 4 - 4.5 , but with experience (especially with screen exposure) you'll be able to get and hold dots at a 3 -3.5 rate

 

[sben763]

relaying my personal experience with having done
halftone transfers for quite afew years myself. Since the transfer inks we use also have an adhesive additive in them I would have to say yes ink type does matter as inks with adhesive additives will hold the dots better than inks that don't have additives and need powdering.

Rather than take your challenge on...I can send you samples we've done with the mesh count and lpi of the art we used. I think you'll be surprised at the ability we have to hold the dots with the screens we use.

Overall, im definitely in agreement that in the beginning you need to be more cautious initially and as I said myself we started with a 4 - 4.5 , but with experience (especially with screen exposure) you'll be able to get and hold dots at a 3 -3.5 rate

Transfers are a different animal and ill guess that the ink with adhesive ink is much thicker. your artwork is fine tuned to hold the dot. Your not printing the low tones and this is what I do when printing transfers and also use thicker stencils 50-100 micron.

yes I can hold 5% @ 3.5 but it is impossible to hold anything lower and @ 3 you can only hold 10% or somewhere close but I use 10 and above @65LPI on 166.

Frank I wasn't try to start a argument but more put out exact info. Do you halftone cut offs for transfers as most transfer companies do. That's why I print my own cause I can print down to 2% if I have a picky client that needs their shirts done as transfers, otherwise I direct screen print

 

[franktheprinter]

Transfers are a different animal and ill guess that the ink with adhesive ink is much thicker. your artwork is fine tuned to hold the dot. Your not printing the low tones and this is what I do when printing transfers and also use thicker stencils 50-100 micron.

yes I can hold 5% @ 3.5 but it is impossible to hold anything lower and @ 3 you can only hold 10% or somewhere close but I use 10 and above @65LPI on 166.

Frank I wasn't try to start a argument but more put out exact info. Do you halftone cut offs for transfers as most transfer companies do. That's why I print my own cause I can print down to 2% if I have a picky client that needs their shirts done as transfers, otherwise I direct screen print

Hi Sean. yes we do have cutoffs, so that's where we
are comparing apples an oranges because we are as most transfer companies in that our cutoff is advertised at 30 % because we are also trying to avoid that picky customer and we can always give them consistency at that type of percentage as its very very safe....once we get to "know" a customer we can and have done stuff as low as 12-15 percent but not consistenly as we ran into problems with dot gain

We can never get to as low as you are
able to do directly as you would well know....we feel comfortable now at having our regular customers use 20 percent gradient in their submitted vectored art