Short bodied white ink \ fleece problems

[mk162]

We are having a b!tch of a time with white inks.  Especially hoodies.  We are trying to find the right balance of off contact and pressure and it's still a pain.

We increase our off contact by 1/16 over t-shirt off contact of an inch when we do hoodies and we usually end up with a little ink sticking to the open mesh.  It's been such a long time since I've printed that I am not good at troubleshooting and the new press is kicking my @ss.

[farmboygraphics]

S-Mesh and One Stroke ELT

[Homer]

S-Mesh and One Stroke ELT

same

[mk162]

S-Mesh and One Stroke ELT

same

OK, what mesh?  I use 150s or 153s for most of my UB's

[tbarnes]

135-48 S mesh from Murakami (nittoku mesh) works pretty well for a base screen. It is a thin thread mesh that results in a nice open area and ink deposit.

Then go with something higher for the final white. Depends what you are looking to get. You can use another 135 but that will be a super heavy print, 180-48 S mesh will give you a nice ink deposit and a slightly smoother finish, 225-40 S mesh will give you a softer/smoother finished product but it is more expensive and will not have as much ink deposit.

In addition to your off contact and pressure, play around with squeegee durometer and angle. Those variables will matter as well.

[mk162]

We usually use a regular mesh 155 for highlights. I have a ton of them floating around and there is no sense in killing good screens.

On our old press we just ran the same angle and everything....I think we are at 10 degrees roughly.  We never change it honestly unless we really need to lay down a lot more ink.

[chubsetc]

Learned about the double bevel squeegee here many years ago and it solved all of my screen clearing problems.  Haven’t printed without them since.