[buckcreek]

I have been asked to price a job and although I have printed 3 color jobs in the past I'm not sure about this one. I am attaching a photo of part of the logo. The shirt will be a darker gray with red and black letters. The logo also has some white lines below the letters and a small drawing with red, white, and black. I think I will need to put a white underbase for the red to stand out against the dark gray. Please let me know if you agree. Also, when I print the red and black on top of the white, I will have a problem if the white shows between so how would be the best way to do this? You wouldn't put red under the entire layer of black to keep this from happening would you? Wouldn't that make the ink too thick?
Any help would be appreciated since I'm pretty new at this and hope to do it right the first time.

 

[jwcollect]

Personally I won't underbase unless specifically asked. If you do underbase shrink the white by a couple of pixels and make sure your registration is spot on and you'll be ok.

 

[InkedApparel]

you might be able to double hit the red ..this will elliminate the need for a white underbase....

Inked

 

[buckcreek]

Thank's I really didn't want to do the white underbase. I'm give that a try with the red. Would you ever print the white topped by the red and then the black or would that make it too thick with ink? I've always wondered about that.

 

[Celtic]

No need for an underbase with this design.
Also, I'd suggest you go with 230 screens so you don't get a heavy hand.

 

[n.signia]

No, you wouldn't underbase the black portion of the design, just the red if you choose to go that route, with this design, I would just print/flash/print the red.

If you had needed to underbase the red, you would have choked the white half a point, and stroked the red half a point, with proper registration you would not have a problem with the white peeking out. The black would be printed without underbase.

 

[LFI Grafix]

Our solution to thick ink layered on a shirt is to heat press the shirt after printing. This melts the layers together and into the fabric for a longer lasting design. We had an opportunity to observe a particular t-shirt design (for a group of boys) in which some had been heat pressed and some had not. The heat pressed shirts kept their "good looks" for months, while the others started to crack over a period of about 3 months.
Heat pressing is an extra step, and we charge 25 cents extra per shirt in the quote. But, we also explain the reason for it. No customer has ever complained.

 

[buckcreek]

When you heat press the shirts after printing, what temp. do you use? Is there any problem with the ink coming off the shirt onto the press?

 

[n.signia]

Our solution to thick ink layered on a shirt is to heat press the shirt after printing. This melts the layers together and into the fabric for a longer lasting design. We had an opportunity to observe a particular t-shirt design (for a group of boys) in which some had been heat pressed and some had not. The heat pressed shirts kept their "good looks" for months, while the others started to crack over a period of about 3 months.
Heat pressing is an extra step, and we charge 25 cents extra per shirt in the quote. But, we also explain the reason for it. No customer has ever complained.

If the ink was properly printed and cured in the first place, there would be no need for the extra step. For thick prints, make sure the underlying inks are not fully cured when flashing, and slow your belt down on the conveyor, as thick ink needs more time to fully cure all the way through, the surface may read a cured temp, but the bottom of the ink deposit might not be to temp, this is the cause of the cracking after a few months.

The customer should not have to pay extra to have the ink on the shirts properly cured. This post is not intended to blast you, but to help. Charging the customer for a cured print will cost you customers in the long run.

 

[BIGRICH74]

I have to agree with Signia, proper curing will keep the ink from cracking for longer periods.

 

[PatFinn]

use a opaque white and red and you can do this with 3 passes.. veryy very easy..

 

[JAF]

I tried heat pressing and it does change the look. My customer didn't like it. They thought it looked like vinyl. It was flat because of the heat pressing and it had a shine.