Discharge job on a 300+ shirt order on a manual

[dirkdiggler]

the pigments are super strong, that's why they are so expensive, you don't use that much.  Their base, I don't like, its to runny, and it stinks.  CCI base with their pigments works great in my shop.

[mimosatexas]

I don't know anything about the Magna inks, but we use Matsui discharge for 100+ jobs with fine detail all the time.  Here are a few things we do and tips/tricks we have learned through experimentation:

The lowest mesh count we use for discharge is 156, and we use almost exclusively 156 unless the design calls for some kind of halftone gradient work that isnt two inks mixing to form the gradient.  In other words if it is white ink and a black shirt and we are fading from the white to the black we would use 230.  If it is a black shirt but we are fading from blue to yellow, we would print wet on wet and use 156 mesh and the halftones will end up blurring and mixing to create really awesome gradients.

We use 1/1 emulsion coating for relatively thin stencils.

We print on contact.

We do single pulls at roughly 45 degrees with moderate to high pressure.  Additional pulls will cause buildup and loss of detail.

We use 3-5% retarder (printgen) depending on the temperature in our shop and the color of the ink.  Some colors seem to gum up quicker.

We use 2-3% fixer.

We use 6-8% activator.

We double reds and half black when mixing.  This gives us better color matching and much brighter reds.  There are a bunch of other small rules like this we have developed through experimentation, but these two are pretty hard and fast, if that makes sense.

For white we mix 10% clear base and 5% water with 85% white, then use the above amounts of fixer/activator/retarder.

We reuse activated inks for up to 6 weeks and keep them in a fridge, sealed.  When we bring them out to reuse, we add 1% activator and enough water to dissolve the activator, then drill mix the ink.  It is as good as new, we wash test regularly.  I actually think it would be good longer than 6 weeks, but we have a small fridge and toss small amounts of uncommon colors to make space often.

If you have any other questions feel free to pm me or respond in the thread and I will answer them if I can.

[Inkworks]

Good stuff there Mimosa. A great summary to help point out the right direction for people.

[mimosatexas]

Thanks!  I won't say I am some kind of master printer when it comes to discharge, and we still end up with jobs where it takes way too long to color match some weird orange or yellow on blue, or we have whatever other random unforeseen hiccup, but we spend A LOT of time experimenting and testing when we have down time and it makes sense to do so for us.  I like saving headaches during production whenever possible, and if it takes 5 hours of messing around on a weekend with different formulas to get a nice firetruck red, it will save a hell of a lot more time and money down the road during crunch time.

[Hemi]

Speaking of a red discharge ink, does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on how to achieve a BRIGHT RED result. I've tried mixing to a couple different pantone colors with ryonet's CMS software but have had poor results. I either end up with a pink print or a really dull deep red. I need to achieve a bright red but have yet to have any success. Anyone out there that has had good results have any input for me? Thanks!
-Frustrated Printer

[cremaster]

I don't know anything about the Magna inks, but we use Matsui discharge for 100+ jobs with fine detail all the time.  Here are a few things we do and tips/tricks we have learned through experimentation:

The lowest mesh count we use for discharge is 156, and we use almost exclusively 156 unless the design calls for some kind of halftone gradient work that isnt two inks mixing to form the gradient.  In other words if it is white ink and a black shirt and we are fading from the white to the black we would use 230.  If it is a black shirt but we are fading from blue to yellow, we would print wet on wet and use 156 mesh and the halftones will end up blurring and mixing to create really awesome gradients.

We use 1/1 emulsion coating for relatively thin stencils.

We print on contact.

We do single pulls at roughly 45 degrees with moderate to high pressure.  Additional pulls will cause buildup and loss of detail.

We use 3-5% retarder (printgen) depending on the temperature in our shop and the color of the ink.  Some colors seem to gum up quicker.

We use 2-3% fixer.

We use 6-8% activator.

We double reds and half black when mixing.  This gives us better color matching and much brighter reds.  There are a bunch of other small rules like this we have developed through experimentation, but these two are pretty hard and fast, if that makes sense.

For white we mix 10% clear base and 5% water with 85% white, then use the above amounts of fixer/activator/retarder.

We reuse activated inks for up to 6 weeks and keep them in a fridge, sealed.  When we bring them out to reuse, we add 1% activator and enough water to dissolve the activator, then drill mix the ink.  It is as good as new, we wash test regularly.  I actually think it would be good longer than 6 weeks, but we have a small fridge and toss small amounts of uncommon colors to make space often.

If you have any other questions feel free to pm me or respond in the thread and I will answer them if I can.

Just wanted to thank you for this post. And, I'd thank you twice if I could. 

[tonypep]

We have red formulas that are richer than plastisols as they contain no fillers

[inkstain]

Speaking of a red discharge ink, does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on how to achieve a BRIGHT RED result. I've tried mixing to a couple different pantone colors with ryonet's CMS software but have had poor results. I either end up with a pink print or a really dull deep red. I need to achieve a bright red but have yet to have any success. Anyone out there that has had good results have any input for me? Thanks!
-Frustrated Printer

I just got thr R2O pigments from ryonet. Also got the clear waterbase base and the discharge base from them. Did a discharge job with 185c red on black shirts and the red was pretty dead on. Did a wash test and it did good. I tried doing a red along time ago with union plasticharge and it was so dull.