Made a rookie mistake last week....

[Screened Gear]

Here's a true brain fart that has happened in the past:

print film
burn screen
wash out
dry
tape off screen
align on press
ink screen
test print
lift screen

print is mirrored backwards!! lol yes there was text in the design too to add insult to stupidity.

When I started I was always spending a lot of time making sure that the film was the right way on the mesh before exposing. When you’re tired and just trying to get them done you can make a lot of mistakes. That's why all of my film has a small square with Good and bad on it. It is placed in the top right corner of the film. This way when I put the film on the screen it is always on my side of the table and you can read GOOD. I was going to change it to say FILM and PRESS, since I use the film to line up the screen on press. I have never made a mistake since and cut a ton of time when putting film on. I also have the same reg marks on all my jobs. I use a template and just drop the art in to it and then print it out. See Below. (the bottom of the film has the 2 targets and a center line.)

Maybe this will help someone.


Thank you,

Jon

[Donnie]

As tempting as it is to run the easy or the bulk of the order first, I've trained myself to run the pita stuff first. You'll thank yourself later.

That is the way I always do it except for fleece. I use glue for tees and spray tac for fleece. If you go fleece first, your boards get all Sasquatchy and makes glueing a bitch.

[Sbrem]

Or most people smoke their profits...thus leading to more rookie mistakes...and cheeto stains.

I'm not really a Cheetos kind of guy...

[BeerCityInc]

Everytime i think im getting better, i get smacked in the face with printing a board, walking with a newly shot screen and bang it on the corner of something, not put enough tac down cuz i think there is enough and boom  10 shirts look like crap, I mean christ if i didnt roll with the punches I would have been out a while ago. Good think I have Sam from polamar on quick dial cuz without him i would have jumped off a cliff a while ago.

I ran this 5 color front 1 color back a couple people had the the ink just fall off after one wash, its only happend on a couple but one that is too many.

[Frog]

I ran this 5 color front 1 color back a couple people had the the ink just fall off after one wash, its only happend on a couple but one that is too many.

When I first started running my new layout a few years back, I had some shirts with that problem, but was immediately able to retrieve almost all of the shirts that had not made it to the laundry yet. Out of 144, a few dozen or so had been laundered, two or three had washed out,  I re-cured the whole job, re-ran the three and a couple of extras, and then discovered the problem;
When the shop door was left ajar past a specific point, on a cold, breezy day, temps could momentarily drop in the dryer. Problem since solved.

This illustrates why I need my clients to not "settle", and encourage them to report any problem they have. Even random checking  missed this intermittent issue.

[Gilligan]

Andy, what was your solution to the problem... I have concerns about the same sort of thinking happening.

I wish I had a good quick temp gauge that would monitor tunnel ambient heat so I could always look and see if it's fluctuating or a panel has gone out since I have 3 panels and only a temp probe in 1 of them.  Best I do right now (which is in no way practical) is feel each panel on start up and shut down (latter one being most important) to make sure they were all working when I cured the shirts.

[Frog]

I make sure that the shop door is closed!
In general, an open door only affects my flash, but, as I found out, the right breeze, the right ambient temperatures (or in this case, "right" means "wrong"), and my conveyor can be affected as well.
The dryer constantly cycles on and off, usually set at a panel temp between 1000-1100 that is well within a safe range for my belt speeds and panel height(s), but, as I found out, an not handle sudden drafts.
I suppose, an buzzer alarm if it were to drop below for more than a few seconds would be useful, but I'd hate to hear it as often as I see the existing light go on.

[Gilligan]

How could that be wired up?

I bought a candy/meat temp with an alarm when I was trying to cure under the flash but that works of conductive heat and doesn't even recognize the heat put out by IR panels.  I did have a small bit of success wrapping the probe with a bit of tape... though that was just a proof of concept and not a very good idea in general.

[ebscreen]

Most PID controllers (if your dryer uses an LCD screen it has a PID) have the availability of
wiring and programming "alarms". Many even have a built in chirper. They cost about $30 plus
associated SSR's.

You can also use the alarm function to turn off the belt once the dryer has cooled down enough,
but that's a separate issue.

[Gilligan]

Hmm... I have an LED readout for my temps.  Chaparral, I'll upload pics later.

but again, my temp probe is just in ONE panel.  So if the other two panels (worst case scenario) goes out I have no clue because the first panel still is working fine at 900 degrees.

[inkman996]

Screen opener would have saved the screen for you Donnie trust me, it will take anything off the mesh including the emulsion. Best way to use it is spray it on both sides wait a half minute tops and use a rag from both sides to wipe at the same time. And there has been times I was out of screen opener and used a few dabs of dehazer to loosen a stubborn stencil.

[Gilligan]

Screen opener would have saved the screen for you Donnie trust me, it will take anything off the mesh including the emulsion. Best way to use it is spray it on both sides wait a half minute tops and use a rag from both sides to wipe at the same time. And there has been times I was out of screen opener and used a few dabs of dehazer to loosen a stubborn stencil.

Speaking of... I have been using screen opener as a final step after PW4 (Press Wash) when cleaning ink out of screens that I want to store.

Is that over kill?  Is that not recommended?  Is it a good thing to do so I can store the screens with no ink setting up in the mesh (plastisol).

[Frog]

If you are talking about aerosol screen opener, I haven't had it my shop in close to eight years. Although some still use it as an emergency tool during a run, it was never meant to be a cleaner! That's what we have press wash for. Why aren't your screens clean from that?

[Gilligan]

That's the stuff.

They are basically clean.  Not like after screen opener though.   That stuff gets them "like new".

PW4 just gets them relatively clean but still streaky and "stained" looking in the open mesh.

[Evo]

Bout a month ago I pulled the squeegee out of a screen when cleaning up. Scraped it off right into the open bucket on the ink cart.

Of course the squeegee was fully loaded with black ink, and the open bucket was full of white ink...