[hires1]

I am having some problems with our pretreatment, or at least I am looking for some tips. We are using a speadtreater tx from equipment zone and image armour dark. I am using a hanes nano tee. After I treat using about a speed of 30 on the machine and heatpress it for 45 seconds at 340 degrees the pretreatment area gets very starchy. Will this wash out? The shirts we did in class were not starchy at all. Also do you have any curing tips?

 

[23spiderman]

if by starchy, you mean stiff, then yes it will wash out and be soft. you may be using too much pretreat. back off in specified increments until your white underbase suffers, then creep back up until you find the least amount of pretreat for the white underbase you are happy with. (shouldn't be any pin-holes.)

i cure at 330 for 30 seconds, then in 10 second increments until dry. if i'm utilizing my conveyor oven, then after running the shirts through that, 2 hits of 10 seconds each does the job.

 

[hires1]

Ok thanks. Also I my print looks great until I do the final cure and it start to get a blochy look. Would that be inconsistent pretreat?

 

[23spiderman]

preteat issues are visible prior to curing as well. a picture would help, but maybe you aren't getting the fibers flat, in which case fibrillation can cause an uneven look after the cure. you want light pressure when curing ink. my press is just tight enough to allow the heat plate to touch the shirt. when drying pretreat, you want heavy pressure, but you need to flatten the fibers while they are still wet. either with a Wooster brush, or what i use is a sign vinyl squeegee. you flatten in one direction after spraying, then you press. if your paper sticks to the shirt, then this can cause the fibers to pull up, so lengthen your dry time until the paper doesn't stick.

 

[hires1]

Ok thanks for all your help. I will try to get a picture soon.

 

[hires1]

Here is the photo.

 

[23spiderman]

overall, it's a nice print. it looks like maybe your feed adjust is off just a bit, and those specs are probably either fibrillation, or too much pressure on the cure.