(Automatic Newbie) 3 Color on darks?

[Phatgi]

I know this is a simple print for most, but I am new into automatics and would like to learn the best way to print this on an automatic. I am just looking to see how others would recommend printing this job and what would be the best way? Also I still have a lot of manual inks from union and such. I would like to know what inks would be recommended. I have done other jobs on the automatic and I tend to get a lot of build up on the underside of the screen if I do wet on wet. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

[Gilligan]

Underbase it all (some might suggest some sort of halftoned base, we would probably do solid).  Then print (depending on the WOW abilities of the ink) Purple, Green and Yellow last (for us our Yellow is kind of tacky).  I don't recall the others, I think they aren't too bad for WoW.

If you have a 2nd flash available it wouldn't hurt, but probably not needed.

We use Union Ultrasoft inks mostly, but that may be changing.  The yellow is I believe Maxopaque Golden Yellow (which is why it doesn't print WoW well... but can be PFP w/o the UB if need be).

[Gilligan]

Forgot to mention.

Use high mesh counts for your top colors to keep your ink deposit low and it will print WoW with less pickup.

[Inkworks]

Make sure your inks are okay for wet-on-wet printing, not all are and will give you mucho grief if you try to use them as such.

156 underbase and 180-200 top colors would work, with experience you can go much fine if you want.

[3Deep]

Question, what do you mean by manual inks from union, if I'm not correct you can use those inks on an auto as well as on your manual just stir them up which you should do anyway manual or auto.  I would really like to say the learning curve is not that big going from manual to auto, but for some it might be, you just have to learn speed, angle's and squeegee duro and print pressure, mesh counts that work best on your auto. 

[Gilligan]

Darryl is right... we recently stepped into the auto world.

Biggest trick to it is that manual is kind of more forgiving in that you can quickly try subtle differences from piece to piece to find what is working for a print vs an automatic.  Or add a clearing pass or something if need be.

[Phatgi]

Well, what i was getting at on the inks is that on my manual I would have just uesd maxopaque inks and flashed between colors because it has to go around again anyways. Now it different on the auto because the purpose of the auto is to go around one time and be done. I printend on an auto 10yrs ago and we used a mixing system for the inks. Iv'e been out for quite a while and it just seems that alot of inks don't flow as well as the ones when we mixed them in house. I know that Wilflex is better inks for the auto and the union max opaques will gell up under the screens if WOW. Whats a good underbase white? I really thought that was gonna be the best way to do this job. I just want to be producing top quality work not cheap!

[CSPGarrett]

You can also reduce your high opacity inks a little bit with reducer.  We have done this before for WOW jobs with QCM XOLB inks and they printed great (I wouldn't due this all the time, but we are building up our ink arsenal).  It was a the XOLB cardinal, its pretty thick but the reducer made it nice and smooth, also didn't pickup much if at all compared to other inks we were running that claimed to be WOW.

[ZooCity]

UB  150
Flash
Cool
Purple 270
Green 225
Flash
Cool
Yellow  180

Notice the top colors don't touch, this should make it smooth for WOW printing..with the correct inks as has already been mentioned.

Could it be all WOW after the base?  Sure, but this is a guaranteed one time around with no production issues.   There's a chance that pickup could be an issue on the green in particular.  One thing we might do is setup this way, try it WOW and if it's a hassle flip the second flash on.  You have to balance your time tweaking a run to get it to go WOW v. just turning the flash on and getting it done.  Learn, experiment, test, absolutely but don't let it drag a whole day down.

If the shirt was dischargeable we would use a discharge UB, flash it and definitely all WOW from there on out.   DC base is a walk in the park for us with WOW printing whereas we seem to fight with plasti bases a little more.  We're still pretty new to auto printing, only a couple years of it under our belt.

[Gilligan]

We are still loving Meteor White from Galaxy Inks.

We use it for all 100% cotton jobs, after that it goes to One Stroke.

[TCT]

If it is going on a American Apparel like the mock up and you are able, 3 color discharge would knock that thing out in no time!

[Phatgi]

UB  150
Flash
Cool
Purple 270
Green 225
Flash
Cool
Yellow  180

Notice the top colors don't touch, this should make it smooth for WOW printing..with the correct inks as has already been mentioned.

Could it be all WOW after the base?  Sure, but this is a guaranteed one time around with no production issues.   There's a chance that pickup could be an issue on the green in particular.  One thing we might do is setup this way, try it WOW and if it's a hassle flip the second flash on.  You have to balance your time tweaking a run to get it to go WOW v. just turning the flash on and getting it done.  Learn, experiment, test, absolutely but don't let it drag a whole day down.

If the shirt was dischargeable we would use a discharge UB, flash it and definitely all WOW from there on out.   DC base is a walk in the park for us with WOW printing whereas we seem to fight with plasti bases a little more.  We're still pretty new to auto printing, only a couple years of it under our belt.

Are these wilflex  inks or what kind that you are suggesting?

[ebscreen]

UB  150
Flash
Cool
Purple 270
Green 225
Flash
Cool
Yellow  180

I always find it super interesting which colors people recognize having issues with stepping on etc. I know a lot of people have issues
with yellows but for some reason we don't. That purple would give us the stinkeye though and I'd put it last and on a lower mesh.
I can't think that we do that much different in terms of mechanics so I'd chalk it up to the inks for stuff like that. FWIW our yellow
is a pre-mix, our purple would be Wilflex epic amazing base.

[Croft]

UB  150
Flash
Cool
Purple 270
Green 225
Flash
Cool
Yellow  180

Same here
I would do

white UB 110-150 mesh double stroke because of lemon yellow
spot
yellow
green
spot
purple

I only have a 6 colour and don't use cool down spots very often , only run into problems on large runs , would probably average 35-40 doz an hour on our air Sportsman

I always find it super interesting which colors people recognize having issues with stepping on etc. I know a lot of people have issues
with yellows but for some reason we don't. That purple would give us the stinkeye though and I'd put it last and on a lower mesh.
I can't think that we do that much different in terms of mechanics so I'd chalk it up to the inks for stuff like that. FWIW our yellow
is a pre-mix, our purple would be Wilflex epic amazing base.

[ZooCity]

Any good WOW ink is what I would suggest.  We do use Wilflex, everything is mixed in house with PCs + Amazing Base.

On that purple v. yellow getting stepped on....we've been wondering about whether or not the Amazing base is what we should be running.  We don't buy pre-mixes really as we can mix cheaper with stronger pigmentation if desired in house but I'm curious if the Wilflex inks out of the can outperform our Amazing base mixes. 

The big reason I would put yellow last is that I would run it on the 180 which is going to put down more ink than the 225 or 270.  I don't think we ever run wow with lower than 225 mesh counts and even 225 can be pushing too much ink on some setups. 

Yellow has traditionally been a bitch pigment for us with WOW pickup.  It likes to "peak" when stepped on and suffers dearly from opacity loss due to pickup.  Looking at this art again I might try the yellow first since there is relatively little of it.   But we do OK with purples, at least most of them that aren't super loaded with pigment, i.e. purps with tons of say a fluoro red pig would be an issue.  This one looks fine for WOW from the pic.