[identityburn]

Omar I've been practicing printing and have had similar problems as you have...here's what I've found:

1. Yes white ink is thicker than black ink. I bought some ink reducer to thin it down a little bit. The ink was causing the shirt to momentarily stick to the screen, but now that I've thinned it out I don't have that problem as much.

2. The ink flaking off can either be undercuring or overcuring. Do you have a temperature gun? I purchased one for 90 bucks online and it has helped me out a lot. My ink cures at 300 degrees, but keep in mind it only reads the top layer of ink so if you have a thick deposit you may want to wait a few more seconds for the bottom layer to cure. Also you said you're using a heat gun. You just need to make sure the entire layer of ink is cured. Sometimes the outer edges of my prints will flake after washing because the outer part of my curing unit doesn't get as hot.

3. 110 should be fine for white ink since it is so thick. If you're only getting partial parts of the image to appear you want to make sure you're applying even pressure with the squeegee when you pass over the screen.

4. Dark inks on light shirts will usually always be softer because you don't have to lay as much ink down for it to show up.

So you may want to look into getting some ink reducer....Triangle should be able to supply it. I use Union ink and they have a chemical that does the same thing. Works great so far, I just got it two days ago and it helped my white prints out.

 

[identityburn]

ok, now let me remember some random information from all of my years in art school...i'm guessing that this rule (if i even remembered it correctly) can apply to inks the same way it applies to paints.

light colored inks have a low viscosity due in part to the lack of pigments. the higher the pigment count, the higher the viscosity, and the more fluid your ink will be. knowing that, you have to adjust accordingly:

as far as you getting patchy deposits, like was mentioned above, evenly distribute your pressure. maybe your squeegee is the wrong size for the design. when working with thick inks, i like to alternate my ink deposits in my passes. the first pass i will lightly run the squeegee over the image so there is A LOT of ink, the next one i apply a lot of pressure to scrape off the excess and to sink it into the fibers. i do that once more and it usually works really well.

to me, it seems like a bad idea to flash the ink and then do another pass. it doesn't have fibers to absorb into or latch onto, so it just kinda sits on the surface. just like how you're not supposed to pour wet concrete onto concrete that's already cured.

Interesting, I'll have to try that technique. With white ink I also get a lot of shirt fibers sticking up through the ink. Is that also just because it is too thick?

 

[identityburn]

maybe you have a super aggressive hand- rawr! i dunno...

but my white ink is really rough too. whenever a customer asks for white ink, i try and get them to use the Union Extra Soft Lite Grey in place of it. for one, it's much softer, two- i personally think white ink is too harsh and played out on most colors. this makes it a little interesting. so far the results have been faaaabulous.

It's weird, some of the prints do it and some aren't so bad. Not sure if you have to get the ink flowing through the screen for awhile to get it smoother. I've tried adding thinner, but am afraid to use too much because I don't want to lose opacity. It really only seems to happen on darker shirts....black,brown.

I'm using Union Ink Bright Cotton White.

 

[identityburn]

damn Chuck, another cool tip, thanks!