[mustangFWL]

As 5 o'clock rolls around, I guess I have officially finished my first week of screen printing!

I have already learned a lot from my first week, like to take it slow, how to pull correctly to clear the screen, how to align shirts (still need work on this one), how to set up my press with the screens to get a straight print.

But even thought I learned a lot from just the first week, I don't think I will ever be perfect.

I have also learned that I do not like white ink. Not because it was hard to pull or anything, or that it takes 2 coats to put on a dark shirt, I knew all of that and was fine with it, but for some reason, white ink was the messiest of all the inks I used. It got everywhere and on everything. That was the worst part of it all.

But I am proud to say that after 215 shirts my first week(and another 200 this weekend), only 3 were bad so far. *Bad as in completely messed up, not as in just a bit crooked, if I was counting that it would be a much higher number of mess ups.

One question I do have for you all, is how do you pick the vendors you buy your product from? I have been trying to compare things, but from some vendors I just don't know what their product is or how it rates among other products in the same category. How do you all do it? Use the same thing you have always used, or spend a little money and venture out to new products?

 

[mustangFWL]

Oh, and I got 6 good screens out of 9 coating attempts too.

 

[foot print]

Congrats...on your first week..that's alot of shirts to print for only been at it for a week..first of all WHITE ink is a pain but with practice it will get better..i will give you a few pointers..that will save you some time and headache. 1. buy a 24" aluminum t-square, 2. use pallet tape on your pallets, 3. find the center of your pallets and draw a center line (top to bottom), 5. on multiple color jobs always use a registration marks on your films, 6. burn all your screens at the same placement i.e top of the screen to top registration mark 5" or 6"..I hope that helps..

 

[mustangFWL]

Congrats...on your first week..that's alot of shirts to print for only been at it for a week..first of all WHITE ink is a pain but with practice it will get better..i will give you a few pointers..that will save you some time and headache. 1. buy a 24" aluminum t-square, 2. use pallet tape on your pallets, 3. find the center of your pallets and draw a center line (top to bottom), 5. on multiple color jobs always use a registration marks on your films, 6. burn all your screens at the same placement i.e top of the screen to top registration mark 5" or 6"..I hope that helps..

Thanks for the tips, yes its a good amount, but when you are doing contract printing for a sporting goods shop you get a lot of jobs.

I am going to go get a T-square this weekend, along with some floor mats to stand on. I had made my center lines with a tape measure, but it I couldn't make a straight line to save my life. I put pallet tape on my pallets and its looked like it saved me a ton of clean up. Luckily it has all been one color so far, but I am going to play around with 2 color this weekend.