Printing above and on the pocket

[3Deep]

We have a fairly large order that needs a print above and on the pocket, I'm wanting to run this on the auto and no we have no pocket or sleeve pallets for the auto only the manual press, I got laser alignment for the auto which will help with placement.  Anyone done this or do I just need to print the separate?  Oh and the print so far is a one color orange on navy hopeing to double stroke with no flashing one time around

[Doug S]

Above the pocket is no problem with the laser system and regular pallets but unless someone here has printed on the pocket without the sleeve or pocket pallets, I haven't found a way.

[zanegun08]

I would just set a laser vertically for the center of the pocket, and another laser horizontal to the edge of the top of the pocket.

Make sure you just leave enough space above the top of the pocket and the bottom of the image and load it like a normal shirt and line the pocket up to the lasers.

If you are going on 100% cotton, an Orange Discharge print on Navy would likely look much better than a no flashed double stroke plastisol.  You could look into plasticharge though harder to get really bright colors, kind of more pastel and you need high opacity ink.  But a lower mesh with thicker emulsion you can probably get passable results with plastisol if just small text and not heavy coverage.

But just because you can cut corners, for a fairly large order why not just print a base, the pocket if enough space between the bottom of the image and top of the pocket won't really effect much.  Adding a base to get a great looking product vs trying to make a passable one shouldn't even really be a question.

Do the job right once, especially for a larger order.  I'd still vote discharge on 100% cotton but that's just me and I don't know the customer or the artwork, but that would be a better product in my opinion and wouldn't need a base, win / win.

[3Deep]

@Zane already though about discharge but don't know yet if the shirts will be 100% cotton and yes a base would be great, but I was thinking about the the shirt moving on me, I guess I could spray a little glue inside the pocket, this is going to be a long slow job no matter what   thanks

[Homer]

DTF an option on the pocket?

[zanegun08]

I read the line wrong "print above and on the pocket", my brain took out the "and on"

To do this properly it would be two locations.  If the image is small and not really heavy coverage then this is where a transfer can come in handy as could be a one step process.

But this is two locations, and I would bill it as two locations as to print it properly with consistently good results would take two prints.

What I may present to a client who is trying to save money is a left and right chest, where the left chest, is above the pocket and right chest you wouldn't have to bother with the pocket, since that could be done in one location.

With discharge, I'm sure you could hit a little spray adhesive in the pocket and smooth it out with your hand to decrease movement. If doing discharge printing these manually for a small little print on a pocket isn't really much slower considering the lower labor of a single operator vs two, and it's not gonna break your back for a little image on a pocket, so you could potentially print the first print above the pocket on the auto, and second on a manual sleeve pallet.

But just do it right, two locations and charge accordingly.

[3Deep]

@ Homer naw they want screen printing so transfers is out, @ Zane yep I was trying to figure out how to cut a corner and get faster but printing the above the pocket on the auto first then the pocket on the manual since I have pocket pallets for it is what we'll do, I want a nice clean job not a rushed mess like I was thinking about LOL.

[tonypep]

I read the line wrong "print above and on the pocket", my brain took out the "and on"

To do this properly it would be two locations.  If the image is small and not really heavy coverage then this is where a transfer can come in handy as could be a one step process.

But this is two locations, and I would bill it as two locations as to print it properly with consistently good results would take two prints.

What I may present to a client who is trying to save money is a left and right chest, where the left chest, is above the pocket and right chest you wouldn't have to bother with the pocket, since that could be done in one location.

With discharge, I'm sure you could hit a little spray adhesive in the pocket and smooth it out with your hand to decrease movement. If doing discharge printing these manually for a small little print on a pocket isn't really much slower considering the lower labor of a single operator vs two, and it's not gonna break your back for a little image on a pocket, so you could potentially print the first print above the pocket on the auto, and second on a manual sleeve pallet.

But just do it right, two locations and charge accordingly.

[spencer_L&KC]

We have a fairly large order that needs a print above and on the pocket, I'm wanting to run this on the auto and no we have no pocket or sleeve pallets for the auto only the manual press, I got laser alignment for the auto which will help with placement.  Anyone done this or do I just need to print the separate?  Oh and the print so far is a one color orange on navy hopeing to double stroke with no flashing one time around

Above the pocket is no problem with the laser system and regular pallets but unless someone here has printed on the pocket without the sleeve or pocket pallets, I haven't found a way.

I have found a way to print on pockets without a pocket pallet. It does take a 4"-5" wide sleeve pallet though. We made a pocket insert that is sticky on both sides. It is basically a thin metal shim, the size of the inside of the pocket. We used a small sheet of thin aluminum shim material, very thin, but still rigid. Then we took some of that PMI dual sided pallet tape, you know the clear stuff that is supposed to replace pallet adhesive? So you cut your aluminum to the dimensions of the pocket and round off or angle off the bottom corners, to make inserting it into the pocket easier. After your insert is cut and fits well in the pocket, not real tight though, just enough to where it is wide enough to get close to the sides of the pocket, and enough to stick out of the pocket to use as a handle to insert and removed. Then cover the area of the shim that fits in the pocket in the dual sided pallet tape.

Now take your shirt and load it onto the sleeve pallet, with the top of the pocket on the very end. I find a 4" wide pallet works great for most pocket sizes. Register your art to the spot on the pocket you want to print on. Ok after your shirt is loaded onto the pallet, top of the pocket towards you and bottom of the pocket facing outward, insert the shim into the pocket. The pallet adhesive on the sleeve pallet will hold the shirt down, and the dual sided sticky shim will hold the pocket down, all without adding hardly any thickness. After a few prints and the dual sided tape gets some lint built up, inserting and removing becomes quite easy and holds the pocket down great. We have an Anatol dual sleeve pallet for our Thunder and multiple shims. So we can do two pockets at a time. We have done every pocket job this way and it does work really well.

Really wish I had some pics for video of how this works, but hopefully my description of it makes sense. It takes a slight bit of finesse to get it down, but when you do, its pretty easy and doesn't really add much time compared to a pocket pallet setup. We will probably get a legit pocket pallet at some point, but we do not get a ton of pocket print jobs and this works great for us.