Bad Prints Gallery

[inkman996]

Alan hard to tell by that pic,but it looks to me like mesh and they had wet ink on the palette as they slid the next vest on. If so that is just pure laziness, they do not want to take the time to print them correctly, in our case we use a piece of paper in between each print keeps ink from smearing between prints. If more than one color that requires tack then we use the flash between colors to keep the ink dry, when I do these on the auto I do one revolution of prints and one of just flash to cure what's on the palette.

[alan802]

Yeah, they just slid the vest off and the wet ink on the pallets transferred to the garment.  On the manual press I put a pellon between the vest and pallet but on the auto, I put the screen before a flash and flash the print, without scorching of course, so that the ink doesn't get on the garment.

[3Deep]

Alan, was that on the outside of the shirt or inside?

[mk162]

I was hoping nobobdy would see those.  I was in a rush to get them out.  J/K

Actually, is that the inside of the mesh?  I take it you can see it from the outside.  I HATE printing those things for that reason.  I up-sell people to the tighter mesh.  Prints better and looks nicer.

[ebscreen]

We can't flash the ultra loose weave stuff long enough to tack the ink without scorching the material,
so we use temp pallet paper that we replace every 3rd or 4th (per pallet) print or so. Built into
the pricing so that the more expensive tighter weave actually works out to about the same.

I sometimes wish autos came with 3 unloading/loading stations for a flash in between.

[alan802]

Alan, was that on the outside of the shirt or inside?

Inside.  We have all done this but I think we would all spray them out and figure out a way to stop it from happening.

[alan802]

We can't flash the ultra loose weave stuff long enough to tack the ink without scorching the material,
so we use temp pallet paper that we replace every 3rd or 4th (per pallet) print or so. Built into
the pricing so that the more expensive tighter weave actually works out to about the same.

I sometimes wish autos came with 3 unloading/loading stations for a flash in between.

I had to dial in our flash to keep from scorching them while gelling the ink enough to keep it from transferring.  I have it written down in my notebook, but I think we were around 40% bulb intensity for 3 seconds and 30% standby intensity for another 2 seconds.

[mk162]

I actually did some and didn't have a problem with them transferring.  If you are really careful about how you load and unload, you are OK.  It also wasn't a ton of them, so I didn't have much chance for a ton of buildup.

[inkman996]

Sanmar now sells a pinnie that is awesome no holes for the ink to pass through and still reversible etc. yet some people still prefer them large as hell port holes ugh, like I said take your time do it right the first time and charge accordingly its not all that bad.

[mk162]

why do it right the first time?  You can do it again and gain twice the experience!

[Printwizard]

Alan, there is a lot of people struggle with the high vis vests, low mesh counts, pushing too much ink through and not cleaning the pallets back.  My thoughts regarding quality of kids tees.  Adults will pay 40 for themselves but struggle to pay 14 for their kids tees, work back the retail margin, wholesaler, manufacturing and once again the printer is squeezed to print kids shirts much cheaper than adults because they have less perceived retail value.  Quality is a relevant and moveable variable in my factory, maybe because we have soo much work we can afford to loose it, although we don't.  But remember all shops also operate in different markets and manage their customers diffently to what is their own normal.  I have customers who happily run 500 tees and pay $5 a 6 col print, and they come to us for quality and pay accordingly, cash on collection and they refer others on.  We also have customers who openly get a dozen quotes to go with the cheapest price sacrificing quality happily on both print and garment, just purely buying on price and they may get their 6 col at $1.50.  Likewise we find different shirts print different quality, so a fine gauge combed Bangladesh cotton which is flat, soft, no dust, and a great surface will print much nicer than a Gildan coarse guage combed cotton tee that has fluff and dust, and about 5% have fabric flaws, snubs, holes or worse.  I think we now pay less attention when printing on lesser quality shirts.  I also allow lower quality with rude customers who I don't like, or those that average five months to pay for their jobs.  I know it's bad to be complacent, but I think that after doing this for so long that maybe you can easily allow yourself to run stuff that is not going to be entered into print awards.  Part of me knows this is wrong as we get most of our work on referral and word of mouth, but we have varying levels of acceptability in our shop.  Some customers have A1 grade quality and service and zero defect policy, others are punch+crunch.  There were earlier times when we were all low end, and times and a separate business which is now integrated which was very high end, but now we are much more settled and i am comfortable that some customers are just here for price, while others are happy to reject anything less than perfect and happy to pay accordingly.  Either end could walk away to another shop that just does work for their kind, we just happen to output both.  Sometimes it can be awkward to admit we do some stuff, but then again the customer may come in and say 17,000pcs and budget is .35c for two colour, needed next week.  They get a 35 cent print as opposed to a sixty cent print.  If I say no someone else will take their money and maybe give them an even worse print.  At the budget point those customers have differing expectations at each end of the spectrum.  We say imagine the triangle, Quality, Service, Price.  Pick the two attributes that suit you the most.  A customer can only have two out of the three points on that triangle, yet our business can alter production to suit.

[sweetts]

Alan, there is a lot of people struggle with the high vis vests, low mesh counts, pushing too much ink through and not cleaning the pallets back.  My thoughts regarding quality of kids tees.  Adults will pay 40 for themselves but struggle to pay 14 for their kids tees, work back the retail margin, wholesaler, manufacturing and once again the printer is squeezed to print kids shirts much cheaper than adults because they have less perceived retail value.  Quality is a relevant and moveable variable in my factory, maybe because we have soo much work we can afford to loose it, although we don't.  But remember all shops also operate in different markets and manage their customers diffently to what is their own normal.  I have customers who happily run 500 tees and pay $5 a 6 col print, and they come to us for quality and pay accordingly, cash on collection and they refer others on.  We also have customers who openly get a dozen quotes to go with the cheapest price sacrificing quality happily on both print and garment, just purely buying on price and they may get their 6 col at $1.50.  Likewise we find different shirts print different quality, so a fine gauge combed Bangladesh cotton which is flat, soft, no dust, and a great surface will print much nicer than a Gildan coarse guage combed cotton tee that has fluff and dust, and about 5% have fabric flaws, snubs, holes or worse.  I think we now pay less attention when printing on lesser quality shirts.  I also allow lower quality with rude customers who I don't like, or those that average five months to pay for their jobs.  I know it's bad to be complacent, but I think that after doing this for so long that maybe you can easily allow yourself to run stuff that is not going to be entered into print awards.  Part of me knows this is wrong as we get most of our work on referral and word of mouth, but we have varying levels of acceptability in our shop.  Some customers have A1 grade quality and service and zero defect policy, others are punch+crunch.  There were earlier times when we were all low end, and times and a separate business which is now integrated which was very high end, but now we are much more settled and i am comfortable that some customers are just here for price, while others are happy to reject anything less than perfect and happy to pay accordingly.  Either end could walk away to another shop that just does work for their kind, we just happen to output both.  Sometimes it can be awkward to admit we do some stuff, but then again the customer may come in and say 17,000pcs and budget is .35c for two colour, needed next week.  They get a 35 cent print as opposed to a sixty cent print.  If I say no someone else will take their money and maybe give them an even worse print.  At the budget point those customers have differing expectations at each end of the spectrum.  We say imagine the triangle, Quality, Service, Price.  Pick the two attributes that suit you the most.  A customer can only have two out of the three points on that triangle, yet our business can alter production to suit.

Well said. You get what you pay for.

Sent  from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)