How to get a softer hand?

[Underbase37]

I read somewhere on here gasoline works awesome

Only if your doing kids apparel.
Murphy37

[tonypep]

I read somewhere on here gasoline works awesome

Wait what?

[screenxpress]

I dunno.

I think the fire marshal will be able to tell 

[mooseman]

When I saw this topic I jumped into it looking for some revelation but alas no new news. Soft hand "plastic ink" has got to be the second holy grail especially  in manual screen printing. Like everything in this business you have to get a lot of little elements to all go your way to get good results.
Mesh count, tension, ink temperature, brand, color , off contact, speed , pressure, flash time / temp, shirt material variations from one platen to the next and on and on all contribute to the migration of good results.

In this case the bandages we use are additives and after process effort like a heat press to recover from the less than ideal results. Unfortunately if you simply look at the advice and response to the original question you get the idea that pretty much all of us suffer the same heart burn day to day and shirt to shirt. Think about it one of the most prolific manufacturers here recently offered a roller device to flatten and treat rough prints for autos and manuals.  Rough prints are simply a result of trying to apply a controlled colored stain to a bunch of shirts
I have only been in this crazy business for a few seconds compared to most here but I can tell you the three most important things I learned that bring the best results is the realization that you have to .......adapt........improvise........and use every trick you can to get good results and what works today may not work tomorrow.

mooseman

[mk162]

this is frustrating because I feel like we had our whites dialed in on the gauntlet, the setup on the rpm has been a lot rougher.

we used to have prints that felt like transfers, through 230 PFP too.  Now I am lucky to get decent UB coverage through a 155 with a double stroke.  It's insane.

As a bandaid, we've resorted to a smoothing screen.  It's like a roller screen, only I glued/taped a sheet of teflon to the back of a screen and I use clear base in the screen to lubricate it.

The most frustrating thing is when one job prints perfectly, and the next you can sand your calluses off your feet with it.

[Homer]

When I saw this topic I jumped into it looking for some revelation but alas no new news. Soft hand "plastic ink" has got to be the second holy grail especially  in manual screen printing. Like everything in this business you have to get a lot of little elements to all go your way to get good results.
Mesh count, tension, ink temperature, brand, color , off contact, speed , pressure, flash time / temp, shirt material variations from one platen to the next and on and on all contribute to the migration of good results.

In this case the bandages we use are additives and after process effort like a heat press to recover from the less than ideal results. Unfortunately if you simply look at the advice and response to the original question you get the idea that pretty much all of us suffer the same heart burn day to day and shirt to shirt. Think about it one of the most prolific manufacturers here recently offered a roller device to flatten and treat rough prints for autos and manuals.  Rough prints are simply a result of trying to apply a controlled colored stain to a bunch of shirts
I have only been in this crazy business for a few seconds compared to most here but I can tell you the three most important things I learned that bring the best results is the realization that you have to .......adapt........improvise........and use every trick you can to get good results and what works today may not work tomorrow.

mooseman

sooo you're saying use lotion or ?.......

We use a smoothing screen on every white base we print, it makes it really smooth and printing detail/halftones on top of it is a lot easier. I do not like additives, i'm not a chemist,but i think if you have to add something to your white, you are using the wrong ink for the job.

speaking of rough hand, we printed a bunch of matsui 301 wb the other day, I could sand drywall mud with that stuff.....

[mk162]

wait, so you won't add stuff to your ink, but you will flatten it...I am no chemist either, but I am pretty sure they don't recommend that.

Just bustin' your balls.  I agree about adding stuff to the ink UNLESS you are going to do the whole gallon, or not put it back with the other ink.

[mooseman]

When I saw this topic I jumped into it looking for some revelation but alas no new news. Soft hand "plastic ink" has got to be the second holy grail especially  in manual screen printing. Like everything in this business you have to get a lot of little elements to all go your way to get good results.
Mesh count, tension, ink temperature, brand, color , off contact, speed , pressure, flash time / temp, shirt material variations from one platen to the next and on and on all contribute to the migration of good results.

In this case the bandages we use are additives and after process effort like a heat press to recover from the less than ideal results. Unfortunately if you simply look at the advice and response to the original question you get the idea that pretty much all of us suffer the same heart burn day to day and shirt to shirt. Think about it one of the most prolific manufacturers here recently offered a roller device to flatten and treat rough prints for autos and manuals.  Rough prints are simply a result of trying to apply a controlled colored stain to a bunch of shirts
I have only been in this crazy business for a few seconds compared to most here but I can tell you the three most important things I learned that bring the best results is the realization that you have to .......adapt........improvise........and use every trick you can to get good results and what works today may not work tomorrow.

mooseman

sooo you're saying use lotion or ?.......

We use a smoothing screen on every white base we print, it makes it really smooth and printing detail/halftones on top of it is a lot easier. I do not like additives, i'm not a chemist,but i think if you have to add something to your white, you are using the wrong ink for the job.

speaking of rough hand, we printed a bunch of matsui 301 wb the other day, I could sand drywall mud with that stuff.....

no not really because I always remember something my mommy told me many years ago. She could be wrong but I am too unsure to test the theory
mooseman

[Homer]

wait, so you won't add stuff to your ink, but you will flatten it...I am no chemist either, but I am pretty sure they don't recommend that.

Just bustin' your balls.  I agree about adding stuff to the ink UNLESS you are going to do the whole gallon, or not put it back with the other ink.

nope..and yup...works like a champ...I had a few guys blow through here that worked at New Buff for a few years and gained a ton of knowledge...if you think the "big boys" don't have issues with stuff, you're sadly mistaken...we all have similar struggles.

[mk162]

We are using a smoothing screen occasionally as well.  I am hoping to move away from it.

[jvieira]

I had to revive this.

We haven't been screen printing for long but it's a pain we've always felt. Prints are not always smooth and tend to have too much of a hand to them, which I hate.

We're considering the purchase of a roller to solve part of the problem but I'm also wondering if a discharge underbase (+ plastisol ink on top) wouldn't help solve the issue?

Atm we take them to the heat press to offset this problem on some of the garments, especially on sweatshirts.