How to print around a seam?

[Prince Art]

We have a job coming up later this using LAT's "football jersey" style tees. They have a horizontal seam across chest & high back. Artwork needs to print above & below the seam, but not touch it. My thought is to create a template on the pallet with 2 pieces of cardstock/foamboard/???, leaving a small channel between the two. That way, the seam can be placed consistently into the channel, and the print will always land in the right place.

I'm planning on attaching the cartstock/whatever on top of taped pallets with tack (mist spray or waterbased spreadable), then another layer of pallet tape on top, with waterbased tack for the shirts.

These are dark shirts, and will be flashed. Run is about 1600 prints. One concern is that the template will start to lift after a lot of flashing.

SO THE QUESTIONS ARE:
-Is this how you'd do it, or do you have a better way?
-What material do you think would work best to use for the templates?

Thanks!

[tonypep]

"Lasers"

[Prince Art]

"Lasers"

Yeah, thought of that, but we don't have 'em. Was actually wondering if I could rig something basic in that regard just for this print. It would sure make setup & takedown go faster.

[Colin]

Art work permitting, use lasers like Tony said.

Yes, any card stock material you pick will start to buckle under heat.  Even with massive amounts of glue laydown.

The product is just not made to stay flat under high heat.

They only thing I haven't done is pre-shrink/dry out the thick cardstock/chip board before hand... but I assume it will warp some with the moisture loss.

[tonypep]

Or you could use pallet rubber if you have some laying around

[blue moon]

"Lasers"

Yeah, thought of that, but we don't have 'em. Was actually wondering if I could rig something basic in that regard just for this print. It would sure make setup & takedown go faster.

use foam and lasers.
https://www.harborfreight.com/laser-marker-93242.html

pierre

[3Deep]

I've got some of those harborfreight laser's hooked up on my press, and big thanks to Pierre for the instruction's on how to convert them to electric, they are a little hard to under the shop light but hey they get the job done.

[Prince Art]

use foam and lasers.
https://www.harborfreight.com/laser-marker-93242.html

pierre

Lasers= DONE. Picked up some of these over lunch, and they work perfectly.

Any recommendations on foam?

[blue moon]

use foam and lasers.
https://www.harborfreight.com/laser-marker-93242.html

pierre

Lasers= DONE. Picked up some of these over lunch, and they work perfectly.

Any recommendations on foam?

get some extra batteries! ones that come with it will only last an hour or two. . .
sorry, can legally disclose foam info as we paid Rick Roth for the details. Reach out to him. We paid $100 and he told us where to get it and even sent us a sample. . .

pierre

[Prince Art]

Will do on the batteries. And that is nice quality over the zipper. I'll keep the Rick Roth suggestion in mind. We're just printing on either side of a horizontal seam on this one though, not printing over it. With the lasers taking care of placement, I'll try this with nothing underneath - but still want to have a plan in place in case the squeegee hitting the bump creates problems.

[blue moon]

Will do on the batteries. And that is nice quality over the zipper. I'll keep the Rick Roth suggestion in mind. We're just printing on either side of a horizontal seam on this one though, not printing over it. With the lasers taking care of placement, I'll try this with nothing underneath - but still want to have a plan in place in case the squeegee hitting the bump creates problems.

it will depend on how close you need to get to the seams. If you are more than an inch away, you should be able to pull it off. Ultimately, if you can print over the seam, than the distance does not matter, right?
Also, keep in mind that the seams will not be evenly spaced, some due to size of the garment and some due to the manufacturing deficiencies. We've run into that before!

pierre

[mk162]

you should be fine with the lasers.  We also will sometimes use hardboard(pegboard without the holes) for building up a platen.

[Prince Art]

Art has a 1.5" gap to allow for the seam, so a margin of ~0.75" above & beneath.

Hardboard could work. I've also used luann in the past. One nice thing about either is it's quick & easy to use more of the same as shims under the screens so that off contact stays the same w/o adjustment. ...It's just that the new press is an 8/10, and this will have to be done for youth & adult shirts - I was looking for something cheap, as well as fast & easy to cut, since this will likely be a one-time use. But hopefully, buildup prove to be unnecessary. (New pallets are rubber topped, so that will probably make them a little more forgiving.)

[Frog]

I've also always liked the idea of reinforcing the stencil where the extra pressure is being put with a strip of tape. Especially on longer runs.

[1964GN]

I've got some of those harborfreight laser's hooked up on my press, and big thanks to Pierre for the instruction's on how to convert them to electric, they are a little hard to under the shop light but hey they get the job done.

How did you do it? I picked up a couple of those last month for the embroidery machine and would love to be able to plug them in. It's cheaper to buy a new one than to buy batteries for it LOL