Clearing Screens Versus Dot Gain

[andyandtobie]

Alan, jvanck, and mimosatexas, thanks a ton for your input.  Interesting that you guys are all in agreement, and I'm definitely listening.  I actually ran 225S on all colors before and had problems with too much ink, but I was using regular yellow squeegees at that time.  Maybe I need to try 225S again with the triple-duro rubber and a flatter angle.  When I used 225S before, my problem seemed to be that in areas of solid color, the ink would pull up on the back of the following screen, giving it that nasty peanut-butter texture look. 

I'm coating everything 1/1 with the sharp edge, with the intent to reduce EOM.  The only time I've had luck with thick stencils was when I was trying to get some 159 white to lay down, and I'm pretty sure that gallon was defective, as others were having problems with 159 around that time.  The next gallon of white I bought was the Phoenix, which seems fairly cooperative, though I don't have experience with other products to compare to.  Still seems a little rough to me, but I know that's probably some slight error in my technique rather than the ink.  I have liked how I get a nice matte finish with the Phoenix.

I know you're supposed to avoid changing the viscosity (warm ink isn't a problem, it's always warm in the room where I print).  But, I am tempted to start throwing large percentages of softee base into the mix and see if that helps.  I haven't tried that yet, either. 

I was wondering if I was missing some big, obvious thing, but it looks like it's the usual scenario- try tweaking all the variables until things fall into place.  Thanks, guys!

[Printficient]

There is one thing that I haven't seen mentioned.  Inks print differently on a flashed underlay then directly on the shirt.  Since you are manually printing I would wager that you are not getting a consistently repeatable underlay.  Therefore any adjustments on eom or print techniques would be attuned to spitting in the wind.  This is nothing against you or any other printer.  I would do a couple of things.  1. I would adjust in the art to compensate for the amount of dot gain you think you have and go 10 - 15 % further.  2. I would do what I could to make the prints as uniform as possible.  On that note I probably would not flood before printing so as to get as close as possible to a consistent ink deposit.  A flooded screen does not offer the screen as consistent of a deposit of ink as a non flooded screen does.  If you use angle, speed and pressure consistently then you will find a repeatable print.  Once you have this then you will need to readjust the art based on these parameters.  Simply putting air in your tires does not give you the best performance that you can get.  Consistency and proper air pressure coupled together does.

[andyandtobie]

Sonny, those are some great thoughts and I really appreciate them.  I have wondered if wrestling with flashes could be part of the problem.  And I hadn't even thought about not flooding.  We started out with waterbased, so flooding is habitual at this point.  I can see that while an automatic floods, it also does it consistently, and of course prints consistently as well.  But if I don't flood, I'll have to "pick up" the ink with the back of the squeegee for the next print, and isn't that going to cause problems due to all the ink on the back side trailing behind the print stroke?  As for dot gain compensation, that makes me wonder if I'm overlooking something.  Currently, I just separate my art "as is" with no compensation.  If I adjust to assume there is some dot gain, then increase pressure to clear the screen, thereby intentionally creating the dot gain that I already planned for, I wonder if that would help.  Interesting! 

[Printficient]

With regards to not flooding, what you do is pick up your bead of ink and deposit it above your art so that you push it for your stroke.