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Red on Black

1389 Views 12 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  southtexasshirts
I'm trying to print red on black. The red plastisol I have is Lawson Rojo Red. It's a dark red.

I have my stencil on a 110 mesh. No matter how many counts it looks like total crap. One count and the black totally bleeds through. If I do a print-flash-print the black still bleeds through pretty bad. If I do three counts, the color starts to look opaque but the plastisol is so thick it looks like total crap.

Should I be using special plastisol's inks for black t-shirts?
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A white base is one option, but there are inks are are called opaque, which are thicker and work well on dark colors without a base. We used Union PADM brite red on black shirts, 110 mesh, print, flash, print, and they came out great. Also bear in mind that if you are printing on 50/50 shirts, you may have the black dye gassing into the ink when you run the shirts thru your dryer, so in that case, ask for a low bleed ink. Check out One Stroke Inks, they have some very good inks, and offer a return policy whereas if any ink they sell doesn't work for you, they take it back & either send you another ink, or refund your money. They are very easy to work with.
Ok thanks for the reply. I'm going to the SGIA show in Atlanta Wednesday and I'll look at the different inks available.

A white underbase isn't really an option with the press I have. I just have a 4/1 logos table top press. Getting two prints with two different exactly on top of each other would be inpossible with this press.

A white base is one option, but there are inks are are called opaque, which are thicker and work well on dark colors without a base. We used Union PADM brite red on black shirts, 110 mesh, print, flash, print, and they came out great. Also bear in mind that if you are printing on 50/50 shirts, you may have the black dye gassing into the ink when you run the shirts thru your dryer, so in that case, ask for a low bleed ink. Check out One Stroke Inks, they have some very good inks, and offer a return policy whereas if any ink they sell doesn't work for you, they take it back & either send you another ink, or refund your money. They are very easy to work with.
A white underbase isn't really an option with the press I have. I just have a 4/1 logos table top press. Getting two prints with two different exactly on top of each other would be inpossible with this press.
You could add a stroke to the red so you have a little wiggle room in the print. If you want to try an underbase.
With this logos press there is no micro-registration, so it's hard enough just to get one screen straight. When you tight the screen it moves around. Also it drifts after so many prints. The registration gate is just a rounded bolt laying on a grooved nylon block. The platen doesn't tighten down very good and moves. It would be nightmare trying to do any kind of complicated multi-color color.

You could add a stroke to the red so you have a little wiggle room in the print. If you want to try an underbase.
It's just the simple Logos press with the magnets. I'm going to have to finance a better press here in the near future.

what kinda press do you have?
I have printed Lawson Rojo Red semi-successfully on black shirts with no white underbase before. Try playing around with your stroke angle/flood method. I think I did a standard stroke, flash, then a pretty heavy flood with a second stroke at a very shallow angle to cut less ink and it turned out acceptable.
hey when i first started i had 4/1 press still did the job ill post a pic of what i had
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I can get it where it looks good from across the room, but it looks horrible up close. That is doing print-print-flash-print. If I do print-flash-print, the black shirt is still coming through pretty strong.

I have printed Lawson Rojo Red semi-successfully on black shirts with no white underbase before. Try playing around with your stroke angle/flood method. I think I did a standard stroke, flash, then a pretty heavy flood with a second stroke at a very shallow angle to cut less ink and it turned out acceptable.
One Stroke Ink - Colormax Series.

2 hits is all it takes for any color on black.
is red the only color that doesnt match well with black shirts? or are there others we should be aware of? thanks sts
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