Just make sure you're loading the shirts on the platen correctly.
Keeping your prints straight
Ok ..... super newbie here.... having troubles keeping prints straight.
I have an order front and back.....already did the front.....some of them look really good. Others look a bit off and askew. I learned quickly not to stretch the fabric around and to make sure the fabric lays naturally.
I am printing the back tomorrow...... is there any advice you can give me.... any method I can use to ensure that I am printing nice and straight consistently.
I have an order front and back.....already did the front.....some of them look really good. Others look a bit off and askew. I learned quickly not to stretch the fabric around and to make sure the fabric lays naturally.
I am printing the back tomorrow...... is there any advice you can give me.... any method I can use to ensure that I am printing nice and straight consistently.
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I load them through the bottom.... pull it all the way through tight until it wont go any further..... I grab the two sides evenly and pull back until the collar reaches the mark that I have measured.
I took some of my old shirts and put them on my platen just to take a look..... some shirts that I have been wearing for years are not straight on the front or the back.... in fact..... some of them are WAY off. Unless I really look hard I would not know. Should most prints come out perfect.... or is there some give... or room for just a tiny bit of error??
I took some of my old shirts and put them on my platen just to take a look..... some shirts that I have been wearing for years are not straight on the front or the back.... in fact..... some of them are WAY off. Unless I really look hard I would not know. Should most prints come out perfect.... or is there some give... or room for just a tiny bit of error??
I will pull the shirt all the way on but not tight.. just till it hits the platen. Then grab the top of the shirt on the shoulder seams and pull it back out. Then sometimes I'll compare the distance from the platen to the bottom of the arm holes, and better yet from the side seams at the back of the platen if the shirt has them. It's all about practice. The more you do it the better you will get. One thing I did for a while during down time was to load a shirt as fast as I could. Once I got it where I thought it was strait going as fast as I could I taped a piece of paper to the shirt and pulled it off to see how strait it looked. Just keep practicing and you'll get it.
About your second post you are correct. It's a manual process and there will always be slight discrepancies. I remember a shirt I had for about a year that I bought out of a store. One day I noticed that the image was about a half inch off center and about a half inch rotated to the left. That is way off in my opinion but I didn't notice it really at all.. us screen printers will always judge our work the hardest and usually it will take a screen printer to notice things that most people won't.
Another thing to remember is that your printing on a shirt. You could print it perfectly strait and once someone puts it on the way the shirt hangs on the person could make it look like it was printed a little crooked. Or if it's slightly crooked it could end up looking perfect. People are always leaning this way, sitting that way, so the prints are always looking different anyways.
I always would measure each shirt on the platen and it would take forever, but once I realized a few things. And practiced more I just load them as strait as I can and they end up fine. You just have to decide if one comes off crooked, how crooked does it have to be before you scrap the shirt and do another one... also known as quality control
About your second post you are correct. It's a manual process and there will always be slight discrepancies. I remember a shirt I had for about a year that I bought out of a store. One day I noticed that the image was about a half inch off center and about a half inch rotated to the left. That is way off in my opinion but I didn't notice it really at all.. us screen printers will always judge our work the hardest and usually it will take a screen printer to notice things that most people won't.
Another thing to remember is that your printing on a shirt. You could print it perfectly strait and once someone puts it on the way the shirt hangs on the person could make it look like it was printed a little crooked. Or if it's slightly crooked it could end up looking perfect. People are always leaning this way, sitting that way, so the prints are always looking different anyways.
I always would measure each shirt on the platen and it would take forever, but once I realized a few things. And practiced more I just load them as strait as I can and they end up fine. You just have to decide if one comes off crooked, how crooked does it have to be before you scrap the shirt and do another one... also known as quality control
Try to use the biggest platen you can get away with. It makes it easier to line the shirts up.
And pay attention to the center crease. Many printers will tell you not to use it as a guide because it can be off...which is true, but I've found that almost every time the crease is pretty straight down the middle. If there's one that appears off, hold the shirt at arm's length and see if it's straight down or not.
As you pull your shirt back into position, keep your eyes on the bottom part of the shirt rather than the neck. This will help you to pull it straight rather than at an angle.
And as mentioned above, don't get too over analytic about every shirt, especially on a large order. I too had a shirt for several years before I started printing that was rather severely off center and skewed. It stood out like a sore thumb to my eyes, but I had to admit that I had never noticed it before in several years of wearing it.
As you pull your shirt back into position, keep your eyes on the bottom part of the shirt rather than the neck. This will help you to pull it straight rather than at an angle.
And as mentioned above, don't get too over analytic about every shirt, especially on a large order. I too had a shirt for several years before I started printing that was rather severely off center and skewed. It stood out like a sore thumb to my eyes, but I had to admit that I had never noticed it before in several years of wearing it.
One quick and easy tip is to get a marker and draw a vertical line down the center of your platen. Use that as a guide then loading, flattening and straightening a shirt.
Thanks for the input guys..... i am about to get started.... wish me luck 
Something Ive done since I started printing, was that after loading the shirt Ill grab both seams at the armpit area and you can usually tell if you're straight or if its crooked or if one side hangs lower than the other.
The center crease is also a good way to tell, but i've run into some real wacky ones that were nowhere near the center.
The center crease is also a good way to tell, but i've run into some real wacky ones that were nowhere near the center.
Yeah looks good, don't get too analytical with it though!
Thank you. ....... I'm trying not to
I've done this but I've found it doesn't really solve the issue of shirts that get a little askew from top to bottom. Sometimes the bottom of the shirt will be corkscrewed by just a tiny bit and because you don't have sleeves to use as reference points at the bottom of the shirt, it can lead to a skewed print. I try to use the seam but that can be hard to eyeball, and the direction of the fabric can be tilted to start with. You just have to load it right by holding the bottom at the edges.One quick and easy tip is to get a marker and draw a vertical line down the center of your platen. Use that as a guide then loading, flattening and straightening a shirt.
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