[drivernumberone]

I was curious if there is any good way to print on hoodies. I find that most of the prints I make get messed up because the ink gets pulled off the hoodie...

also was curious about printing over zippers. I have read about how to do it but I didn't really understand it too well. Any pics or videos?

thanks

 

[brent]

why is the ink getting pulled off the hoodie? What do you mean?

There are platen attachments that create a little trough for the zipper to fall into. I'm going to get one of the ones that Vastex makes if I get any real interest in zipper hoodies this winter. Tired of turning down those occasional jobs...

 

[drivernumberone]

i guess what happens is when lift up the screen after the passes i make, the hoodie seems to want to stick to the screen and it gives the print a very rough look. I really sucks when that happens. i checked the off contact but it still seems to happen occasionally. I hate the feeling of uncertainty in the printing area... very uncomfortable. I'll check out that zipper platen though, sounds like a good investment.

thanks for the response

 

[brent]

Are you using an adhesive of some sort to hold the hoodie down when you print? I assume you are, but just want to make sure.

 

[drivernumberone]

yeah I am but I guess I should just put extra when I print with Hoodies. What adjustments do you usually make when your print them? I guess that's the best advice I could ask for...

 

[pukingdeserthobo]

i use this SprayWay Spray Web Adhesive and works great for me

 

[khor]

I will post this even though this is an old question just in case it might help someone in the future... I had the exact same problem and was getting soooo frustrated not to mention angry about cutting into my profits with every $14 sweatshirt I ruined. What I eventually was advised to do is eliminate the off contact so that the screen was basically resting on the sweatshirt. It seemed counter-intuitive, but as soon as I did that my problems were solved. No more goopy, rough letters.

 

[InkedApparel]

I will post this even though this is an old question just in case it might help someone in the future... I had the exact same problem and was getting soooo frustrated not to mention angry about cutting into my profits with every $14 sweatshirt I ruined. What I eventually was advised to do is eliminate the off contact so that the screen was basically resting on the sweatshirt. It seemed counter-intuitive, but as soon as I did that my problems were solved. No more goopy, rough letters.

can you elaborate a little more on this........you would lay the screen directly on top of the hoodie ?

what would happen when you lifted the screen...it wouldnt mess up the print or make the print rough?

Im puzzled by this.

Inked

 

[Dan K]

I'm kind of puzzled by the screen in contact with the hoodie as well. We always set our off contact higher to account for the much thicker fabric.

Also, tack is a big issue. You need to use LOTS of tack when printing hoodies for good results, LOTS, and especially when printing an underbase or more than one color to preserve your registration. When we print hoodies we retack the pallets after each hoodie is pulled off. You can use less as you get through the production run and as the tack builds up, but tack is very important...

If you're printing with plastisol, you may want to consider a curable reducer, or thinner or something like that so the ink passes through the screen a little easier...

 

[khor]

Let me elaborate a little - I had hoodies to print that were pretty thick. I had my off contact at about normal or maybe even slightly higher than normal and every time I would try to print (I was printing white ink on black hoodies) it almost looked like the ink was too sticky and would pull the fibers of the sweatshirt up as the screen would come up off the shirt, instead of staying nice and flat. So I would flash them, add another layer of ink, and it would just get exacerbate the problem. So, I had tried adjusting the off contact, making sure my platens were nice and sticky, using a lint roller, using a sweater shaver, warming my ink so that it was less sticky, I tried everything I and all of my resources could think of and nothing worked. Finally after making some phone calls someone suggested that I eliminate the off contact. That worked like a charm. And like I said, it was counter-intuitive, but it worked. The ink didn't get too thick or rough like would normally happen with the screen too close to the shirt. I think the one other thing that might have helped would have been to use some reducer in with my ink but I didn't have any on hand.

 

[DesignLab]

Maybe you should not print on Hoodies!