| SkullandBonesSkateboards.com Forum Index » SCREEN PRINTING » How do you get that soft hand feel??????? |
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| Twisted |
 Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:36 pm |
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Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 50
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| Someone PLEASE explain to me how you get a soft finished print on shirts? I am printing pretty simple low detail designs using 120 mesh screens with Union Lightning White Lo Bleed Plasitol and I am using a 75 durometer squeegee (I am also on a tight budget so I am flashing and curing with a heatgun but I have a laser temp gun to so i know when the Ink reaches final temp). I stirred my ink for 5 minutes with a drill and also added curable reducer. Every print I do feels like sand paper, what gives? Is there anything I can do or use to correct this? I have been ironing the designs smoother using wax paper over the shirts after I am done but that Is a pain in the ass. Someone please help me out here. |
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| Fool's Gold |
| Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:37 am |
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Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 284
Location: Ontario Canada
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INK: Lo Bleed inks all contain some puffing agent. That puffing agent helps fight dye migration, but it also causes a really rough texture and the print, well it puffs up a bit. You are probably not gonna get a soft hand feel from a lo bleed ink. My shop does a lot of contract work, and it's ways a battle with my sales people to get them to order mostly cotton garments, expecially fleece. Because it's very hard to get a nice print with the Union lo bleed inks. Wilflex seems to make a better polyester ink then Union does (though I use 90% union ink) I would personally recommend PADM 1027 Bright Cotton White by Union, I use about 10 gallons a year and have no problems.
MESH: 120 is far, far too low to get a soft hand. I try and print all white on black through a 200 mesh screen, I use the 110s for athletic printing where the customer wants a giant slab of plastic on the shirt. You will need to get some curable reducer (Plus 9000 I believe, from Union) and some Soft Hand base, and even some Extender Base. The Softhand base will give the ink a softer feel and allow it to 'soak' into the shirt a bit more, then when you give the while a second coat after the flash, you should have a nice bright white. The Curable Reducer changes the viscosity of the ink and lets it 'fall' through a higher mesh count, thus requiring less pressure on the squeegee. Extender base is an opaque base that allows you to simple extend the amount of ink you use, it's basically Soft Hand base, but it reduces opacity less.
Soft hand printing with plastisol is a combination of about 10 different variables. There's also how you prepare your artwork, halftone underbases VS solid. Gutters around top colours on multi colour designs. It's a constant battle to lay down the least amount of ink, but still get good coverage. It's especially hard on dark garments. |
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| Twisted |
| Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 11:33 am |
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Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 50
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Fools Gold you rock!!!
I am printing on nothing but 100% cotton t-shirts right now so I guess I went with the wrong Ink. I am trying to find some higher mesh count frames for myself but the size I need Is impossible to find. I usually order my screens from Dick Blick which are the 12x18" I.D., 14x20" O.D. This Is the size I need, it works perfect with my homemade 1 color press. Anyone know where I can pick up some 200 mesh screens at this size? |
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| Fool's Gold |
| Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:48 am |
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Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 284
Location: Ontario Canada
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switch from Dick Blick to a better distributor. Get some bigger screens too. Generally you want 4-6" of free mesh between your image and the edge of the frame, and then 6-8" of free mesh at the top and bottom of the image. This allows enough mesh on each side of the image for offcontact printing. Put the image too close to the frame and the mesh cannot deflect against the platen correctly (cause it's being held up by the frame . . if that makes sense) On the frames you have, for optimal performance, you should only be putting a 6"tall x 4" wide image, for optimal performance.
I made the same lo-bleed ink mistake years ago, I figured that there was 1 ink that would work with everything, not true; now my shop has about 7 different white inks.
100% cotton white
100% poly white
Nylon White
Hilight White
50/50 poly cotton White
Mixo Mixing White
Nylon white for bonding catalyst
Cotton whites are from Union Ink
Poly/Nylon inks are from Wilflex
your best bet it to get the Bright Cotton White (you will notice that it's smooth compared to the Lightning white) and stick with 100% cotton garments until you get the 'feel', then start messing around with other fabrics. I spent about 3 hours the other day calibrating our equipment to stop a bleeding problem on a 100% polyester jacket, turns out it needed to hit exactly 313 degrees, more and it would bleed . . . polyester is the devils fabric. |
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| devotid |
| Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 7:53 am |
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Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 26
Location: saginaw, MI
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check to make sure your screens are a little off contact. (off the garment 1/8th inch or so)
that helped me too when i was just begining.
good luck and enjoy the journey. |
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| badgoldfish |
| Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:37 am |
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Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 406
Location: kalamazoo-michigan
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| the bright cotton white works well for the cottons as fools gold said, and i've been told the union diamond white for poly/cotton works very well also, but have'nt had a chance to try it yet |
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| evilo |
| Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:39 pm |
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Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 44
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| the best thing to get that soft flat feel regardless of you mesh / screen crap is to put your printed shirts in a heat press after = makes the roughest crap prints like gold |
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| Fool's Gold |
| Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:09 pm |
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Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 284
Location: Ontario Canada
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yes, but no.
A heatpress will flatten and either make the ink glossy (using a teflon blanket) or matte (using brown kraft paper) but if there is 1/8" of ink on the shirt, it'll still be there after you heat press it. The only way to produce soft hand prints is with proper knowledge of screens, inks, squeegees, offcontact, halftone underbases and so forth.
Regarding lo bleed inks. I used to use Union Diamond White, but found it to be too rough, and far to thick. My shop has basically switched over to Wilflex PolyMax 100% polyester white. We use that for poly sports jerseys, and when printing something that's 50/50 I just slaap down a blob of 100% polyester white, and then a blob of Bright Cotton White. The bright cotton is designed to go through a 230, and it works wonders as a 'reducer' for the 100% polyester white. Most poly inks are way thicker then cotton inks, but the Wilflex PolyMax can easily go through a 200-230 (though a thicker ink film will give better bleed resistance) in fact Wilflex make excellent polyester and nylon inks. |
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