white on black, PFP holding detail and not murking it up

[Stinkhorn Press]

We're tasked with a rush job that a national vendor couldn't fit into a schedule.
They sent us the art and a sample from their run, and it's decent quality - the front print we can handle.

The back print is 30 TINY vector sponsor logos.
Printing on 3930 Black Heather (Froot).

Running lo-bleed union diamond white through shurloc 160 mesh (standard) on a manual press.

The only way we can manage to keep the art looking sharp PFP is to run the squeegee at a very low angle.
But that has 2 issues - it takes a whole lot of pressure to clear the screen well on the first pass and very bad fibrillation (is that the term?) - threads like hairs sticking up EVERYWHERE.

We've got time today and Monday to try to improve it - where would you start?

I can take pictures if that helps.

[mk162]

you can try using a bit of reducer in the first screen to let the ink flow a little better.

Are you hard flooding? 

[tonypep]

Discharge

[Stinkhorn Press]

We have reducer, which we have never used - for most of of clients, good enough is more than good enough.
How much is "a bit of" reducer?

We do a hard shear flood, and we (well, 2 of the 3 of us) push.

Discharge

That would be a perfect answer actually, we can do a pretty decently printable white matsui discharge now - except it's 400 shirts on a manual next to a dryer that is too short/small/electric to cure the ink (we send all discharge jobs through twice - I'd much rather learn how to do this better with plastisol than go that route).

[Orion]

I would go up to 5% by weight on the reducer and don't flood so hard.

[Stinkhorn Press]

I've never been convinced that 'flooding hard v not' ever made any difference (of course we don't function at a "high quality level" so we may be missing the difference there) - So I'll ask - what differences should I be looking for with different flood styles?

[Frog]

When it's pretty small stuff, perhaps you don't need as much ink as you think, and could get away with no p/f/p with a 140 or 125.
I use a heavy stroke, followed by a lighter stroke.


I can't make a suggestion on modifying the ink as I haven't used Union whites in many years, but the rule has always been to modify if it helps clear the screen.

As for heavy flooding(or filling), it can fill the stencil a little fuller, perhaps to the point of too much, hence the "murkiness"

[3Deep]

I would change white inks, union diamond white was not a good ink for us back in the day, in IMO and this is just my opinion I would use a creamy white ink that lays flat and use a higher mesh say 196/200 go with a 70 or 80 duro squeegee...your still going to have to PFP but the print will be crisp and clean.

darryl

[Orion]

Speed, angle and pressure. Three things we use to control ink deposits before ink modifications and or reconsidering mesh counts and or squeegee profiles/durometers.

[Stinkhorn Press]

85% of what we print is on blends, 50/50s, legacy orders for 30 yr old small local business.
I've rarely seen recommendations for Union Diamond White, but for our mostly athletic prints, it's worked fine.

We do have a creamier white, but it's 100% cotton (?).

[alan802]

I'd get a 150/48 and that would get rid of the issues for the most part. 

[mimosatexas]

Lots of great suggestions mentioned.  For stuff like this I would print it using a 2/2 coated 150S like alan mentioned.  I soft flood everything and double stroke quickly when printing whites.  With the thick stencil, S mesh, and soft flood, you will have super sharp detail and great opacity without having to flash anything.  If you have larger areas of white I would p/f/p and on the second stroke do it fast and light.  It will clear without even trying after the flash.

I am a huge fan of the soft flood.  It mitigates a lot of dotgain, especially over a base, and I find I get very consistent results with it vs trying to manage the flood angle and pressure AND the stroke angle and pressure for every print.  You basically take out 2 variables.

[mk162]

black heather shouldn't be a heavy bleeder.

[Sbrem]

When we have sponsor backs with all those awful images to print in white, we use 2 - 230 or 2 - 280's. The tiniest letters come out great, and the solid areas are the same.

Steve