screen printing > Newbie

Flash cure for dryer question(s)

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Gilligan:
Ok... So I printed my first shirts last night.  Through vinyl vs emulsion :D

Printed some test shirts:
Printing went pretty well... slower than I would like (loading and lining up the shirts).  I think I laid down some pretty think ink on the first couple. :)  I through it under my flash cure and realized I didn't have my "good" temp gun... ran to my shop and got it.  Came back cured the shirt.  Stretch test looked good.  Wife printed a shirt... still a little think but good.  Cured it... again we are going REALLY slowly and my flash is like 5 inches away.

So... I lower the flash to about 3" away.  Print and cure a few real shirts fairly well.  Print a 3rd (maybe 4th) real shirt and oops... scorched.  I of course have spares.  So I just decide to all stop (it's midnight anyway).

My questions are... how high should I put the flash from the shirt?  Also what "temp" should my flash be.  I have a dial on mine.  Should I just crank it and time it and trust?  When the flash was at 3" I had a hard time trusting my temp gun being that it's at such a low angle and couldn't really get it where I wanted.  At 5" I could get it in there pretty good but it was taking minutes to cure.  I had the flash set on like 7-8 (of 10).

BTW, washed and dried the test shirts and they all came out fine. :)  Oh, and I somehow did get some ink on my shirt I was wearing... surprisingly (to me) that ink didn't come off the shirt when washed.

Gilligan:
OH, also... my print is basically text on top and bottom of the shirt with room in the middle for a pic to be transfered on later (yeah, I know... no real reason to stress over the curing process if I'm gonna heat press it later... but I want to make sure I get the process done right.  So my concern with that is that my heat is obviously weaker on the edges of the unit vs the center (where I scorched of course).

Frog:
First off, do not get into the habit of doing full cures on your press shirt board(s). Unless aluminum, they run the risk of warping as the repeated time for full cure is much more than for normal flashing. Set up a dedicated stand or table to cure with your flash.
 Second, if the shirts are curing significantly more in the center, your flash may well not be large enough for your design size and you may need to either cure in sections, or if the print shape permits, move it back and forth.
As you are learning, though your flash is essentially the same as a heating element on a "real dryer, you have significant problems using it the same. Being open on all four side, it is also very susceptible to air currents.
People who use a flash unit for full cure for long, learn to see a tell-tale wisp of vapor just at full cure and just before scorch (on white)

My advice to all serious newbies who actually get compensated for product, has always been  to put every cent in a jar or fund for a real dryer.
Even for printers on skimpy budgets, conveyor dryers pop up surprisingly affordable often because folks upgrading have no room to store the oldies.

Denis Kolar:
There are some flashes with the sides that are on the sides of it. The metal goes down really close to the pallet. I'm thinking about attaching aluminum sheeting to my flash to mimic that.
Gilligan, look for a conveyor on Digismith, eBay or Craigslist. I got mine from a semi-local dealer. It was used, about 18 years old, that had new panels and new wiring done 3-4 years ago. My buddy is electrician so he checked it out when I was taking it to my basement. I have Atlas 824 that I paid $1500 with delivery included.

Good luck.

Fresh Baked Printing:
I'm surprised how durable dryers are considering the conditions they live in. An older dryer can often work great and be a good buy.
I wonder if older dryers are less energy efficient though?

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