Florescents

[BeerCityInc]

About to do a florescent yellow on a 100% cotton charcole shirt, anything crazy i should know about doing florescents? Really want to get it to pop and look great so off the top of my heat h/f/h to get the best results.

Then i am also doing it on poly shorts, so oven temp change i would think. But not sure, seems like every job that comes in is something i havnt done, but thats how you learn. Right lol

[alan802]

You'll likely need to p/f/p/f your underbase before printing the flouro on top of it.  I've heard there are opaque flourescents out there but I've personally never used them.

[Frog]

We've talked about Neon inks before. http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php?topic=823.msg7166#msg7166

Use a bleed blocking underbase on those poly shorts.

[3Deep]

I can tell you from experience I would tint my underbase with a little gray or something, Flourescents are a pain to get bright.   You would think a white underbase would be great, but the yellow tends to look pastel, you might allso want p/f/p the yellow if your going you use just a white underbase.

Darryl

[ZooCity]

There are opaque-er fluoro's out there.  Wilflex, for example makes their spot fluoro's with a stronger pigment then what you would get from mixing it with fluoro pc's and QCM makes some in a thick, low-cure "athletic" base with some white thrown in there. 

You'll need a white/light grey (I prefer white) underbase that's very opaque and extremely smooth and then about 3 hits of the fluoro on top through the most open mesh you can use with the art and the thickest stencil you can get away with.

This adds up to about 5 times around on a manual press and it's real b.  But, it's pretty much the only way to get it. 

On cotton, discharge white for the base seems ideal but I would worry that the discharge activator would disturb the fluoro pigments. 

On that poly you better damn well use a poly white or grey for the UB and put it down heavy.  Fluoro's are, by nature, mostly clear base with some very clean, bright pigment (see thread the Frogger linked to).  Clear base ink doesn't block dye migration very well so watch yerself or you could wind up with a bunch of nasty-ass greenish prints on the black shorts.  I would use a low-cure ink for certain on a project like that.

You CAD-cut guys ever come across some really nice, bright fluoro stuff?  Seems like that could be a partial solution for some jobs.

[3Deep]

This is a tee we did with a yellow florecent ink, well neon orbit yellow which is a opake ink from Union p/f/p/f/p pretty dare thick to...no underbase.

[Frog]

You CAD-cut guys ever come across some really nice, bright fluoro stuff?  Seems like that could be a partial solution for some jobs.

I know that at the very least, Specialty Materials Thermo Flex Plus comes in a very nice Neon Pink, Orange, Yellow, and Green

[Frog]

This is a tee we did with a yellow florecent ink, well neon orbit yellow which is a opake ink from Union p/f/p/f/p pretty dare thick to...no underbase.

As mentioned in the other thread, opaque fluorescent inks usually add white for opacity, and the result is more pastel than the standard inks.

[mk162]

Yeah, they suck.

You will most likely need 2 underbases and then put the yellow down.  The trick is run the squeegee fast over the top.  If it is too slow, it will pick the ink back up. 

[tonypep]

This is a tee we did with a yellow florecent ink, well neon orbit yellow which is a opake ink from Union p/f/p/f/p pretty dare thick to...no underbase.

As mentioned in the other thread, opaque fluorescent inks usually add white for opacity, and the result is more pastel than the standard inks.

Thats right Andy......some ink companies refer to these as neons vs true flourescents.

[Frog]

In the real world, "neon" and Fluorescent" and even "Day-glo" mean the same thing.

[tonypep]

Whats the real world like?......I've often wondered.

[Lizard]

Flourescent lemon with about 15% mixing white and 5% mixing yellow should get you where you want to be and give you much better coverage that flourescent inks alone.  The do not print very well straight from the bucket.

[jmd]

We have an old customer we were doing the same thing for except on Navy shirts. We changed recently using the wilflex NF plascharge and op Flour yellow, and we really enjoy doing them now. So much easier, so much nicer