newbie results...looking for helpful advive

[nismoasfuh]

hey guys, I have been having quite a few occurrences of discouragement in my work. So i would like to see if i can get some advice to hopefully resolve the issues I am having. I'm going to try to keep it short and simple to keep things right to the point, ill also provide pictures to backup what i am dealing with.

1st first off i get this issue, where after a couple passes ink starts creeping its way out of the stencil. which requires me to do a wipe down of the screen if i want to get the crisp detail back. And even when i do the wipe-down i sometimes don't do it good enough I'm guessing and when I go to do the next shirt the print comes out perfect but it'll have a faded hue of ink all around it from wiping down the screen. So a very frustrating issue. I have played with off contact between 1/8" to 1/16" and even more so to no avail. screens/head are perfectly parallel to the pallets. Maybe im just passing to hard?






2nd Next, i come across this issue every now and then where it seems like little dots of ink get stuck in the stencil and never make it onto the shirt. I think i do my washout properly, I push out the water after washout and degrease the screens before i apply emulsion. I don't possibly know what might cause this. And obviously if i put the printed shirt to lights its very obvious that ink hasn't been applied everywhere (those little dots let light shine through the shirt)



3rd Now this next problem was really frustrating, and its not the first time it has happened. Now this time it happened after i had already started running the job and it was going flawlessly then all of a sudden for some reason the ink doesn't want to go through the screen. As if i put the screen down on the sticky pallet, or sprayed the screen with adhesive. This happened with white ink on a black shirt. I would squeegee and it would look perfect as if the ink went through until i try to lift up the screen. The shirt and ink would stick to the screen! I cleaned the screen, messed with off contact and again to no avail, it would keep sticking no matter what i would do, end result of the shirts was really bad quality and not smooth at all, the fabric of the shirt was visible through the ink. Thankfully i put it under our heat transfer machine for a little to smooth it out and make it passable. So yet another very frustrating issue i really want to avoid for next time.







Lastly I have other various small questions that i have never come across the answer to.

- why do some people use plastic spatulas (ink scooper) over metal ones? is it really just preference or is it to avoid cutting or scratching the screen or something?

- I have tried printing on polo's but it came out horrible, i did print flash print flash print and the color of the pique still showed through the ink and the quality sucked. is there a special way to print on polos? or is the same thing?

- i also had a job that was basketball uniforms, is that even possible to screen print? i mean it has the very big holes so how would it even be possible for screen printing?

so thats about wraps up my decently lengthy post. Hopefully with everyone insight i can become a better printer, i have already learned a HUGE amount browsing this forum.

[Screened Gear]

Let me give a few pointers.

It sounds like and looks like your not pushing hard enough on your print stroke and possible pushing to hard on your flood stroke. Lower your off contact so its just off the shirt. Too much off contact and not good control of your pressure can push ink under the stencil. I run jobs with very little off contact on my manual.

Your white ink problem looks like your not flashing long enough or your printing the second layer when the first layer is too hot. Both of these will make the ink in your screen start to cure. You want the first layer to be cool to the touch. Also your first layer you want all the ink out of the screen. So after you print the first layer of ink look at the screen and make sure there is no ink left. If there is do a dry print stroke to push that ink on to the shirt. If you don't you will get rough prints.

The black dots in your screen could be a badly cleaned screen or your just not clearing the screen. Do a dry print stroke (print stroke with out flooding) do it really hard to see if you can clear the dots. If that doesn't work get some screen opener and clean the screen and then see if there is still dots.

Best of luck, I remember when I started and how frustrating it was. Just keep asking questions and don't be afraid so look dumb. The real dumb guys are the ones that do things wrong and don't even know to ask the questions.

[Frog]

Wow, so much in one post. I'd almost suggest separate posts for each issue. You're gonna get short changed as most of us don't have that kind of attention span.

On the last issues, yes, I'd say that these ink scrapers are a personal choice.
For scooping, I prefer the cake spatulas with the dogleg, though for serious stirring, the straight ones.

On polos. I almost always have tried to avoid pique or waffle knit for screen printing because of the obvious textured surface.
These also tend to be closer to higher end, and I think that embroidery does them more justice. That said, Just last week, I ran some K420's, which are piques, and the client requested them some time back. My prints are always better than I used to think they would be, but definitely don't have as sharp and crisp of an edge as a jersey or interlock knit woiuld provide.
The "see-through" is either not enough ink, or too much pressure.

Basketball jerseys and other mesh shirts are usually screen printed with a piece of parchment or similar paper on the board. This can be removed after the dryer. Personally, I quit screening them, and use cad-cut and die cut vinyl now.

Bottom line, as a newbie, you really need to master plain old T's before taking the next step(s).
1. Coating and exposing a screen
2. Printing dark ink on light T's
3. Printing light ink on dark T's (cotton)
4.Mastering the two techniques on fleece. Light inks on 50/50 can be a challenge in itself. due to dye migration at higher cure temps.
5. Specialty shirts

[dirkdiggler]

it appears from the pics that your screens are NOT dry before you are exposing them.  that's what makes that crazy pattern all over the emulsion.  Just a guess though.

[inkman996]

Problem #3 really looks like the ink is semi curing in the screen. I assume you are on a manual print/flash/print. Two things can go wrong first is your platen is getting far to hot if you are just using one platen or a couple, once they get really hot they can actually cure the ink in the mesh and end result looks like your pic. The other thing that can go wrong is if you are flashing not quite enough so now you have hot almost cured ink on the shirt, when you go to print the next pass the hot ink from the shirt gets into the mesh and hardens. For either of those problems you should have a can of screen opener, ink degradent usually won't clean out hardened ink.


Your first issue looks like typical low tension mesh and to high of off contact.

[Mr Tees!!]

#1...to me that looks like a low tension screen. If so, you can compensate for that to some degree with more off-contact. That may band-aid you thru the job, but (before all these high-tension Nazis around here jump all over me), best results can be achieved with higher-tensions screens, lower off-contact, lower print pressure. You will have to find a balance between these three things.

#2-3...Both of those together make me feel it could also be a squeegee issue, either too soft or not sharp enough. Thick ink compounds this, so try warming/stirring it before printing.

[nismoasfuh]

Wow, so much in one post. I'd almost suggest separate posts for each issue. You're gonna get short changed as most of us don't have that kind of attention span.

Ha, i was thinking the exact same thing, would've been easier to search for later on too but I didn't want to spam the boards with 5 different threads. - Guys i REALLY appreciate the input. Exactly the type of responses i expected from this forum. Once again thank you guys. All in all i know that experience is  the number one key but knowing you guys and this forum is around is a great relief. Thanks again for the insight and knowledge.

[Frog]

btw, funky loose screens will also exacerbate the pique problem as one tends to lose some opacity by driving the ink in rather than laying it on top.

[3Deep]

nismoasfuh, atleast your at the right place to get some great advice...these guys are awesome good luck, and like Frog said I'm one of those with that short attention span

darryl

[Ryan]

I agree with pretty much everyone has said. I used to run into the first issue printing manually. Ultimately if I saw it start happening, I would clean the screen well and then I would attach something like a piece of cardboard ( small around 2-3") at the top of the screen so that when the screen came down, that piece would rest on the platten and keep the front of the screen from pushing all the way down. it kept my screen essentially even off contact from front to back. helped out a lot, worth a shot any ways.

The ink in the screen I think is from too hot a flash. Its the only time i've seen it happen to myself. try to keep your boards from getting to hot.

~Ryan

[alan802]

The ink bleeding is in the direction of the print stroke telling me that 1. Low tension screens and you're getting mesh lag 2. Perhaps double stroking which when doing that with low tension screens makes that gain in the print direction even worse  3. Stencil too thin .   I think it could be any or all of those to start, then taking a look at all of the other suggestions like off contact, squeegee sharpness, sq. durometer, etc.  I know that if you were to use a sharp squeegee blade, just enough pressure to shear the ink, proper stencil thickness and finally doing it through a properly tensioned screes with a single stroke that you'd not have anything like the first pics show up.  I didn't get a look at the other stuff but I'm sure others have suggested good info about it.

[CSPGarrett]

Check your off contact and screen tension. I see this most when the screens are low tension, even on the auto.