Happy Accident With Foil! (Head scratching continues...)

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

We printed some Easter Give Away Promo Tees for our shop, part of which was a mostly failed attempt at multi-colored foil Cross, using Granite Base.  This specialty base is made by International Coatings, and we saw it demo'd at the recent DAX Kansas City Show--with RAVE reviews.  I was unfamiliar with the product and it was my first trial at printing and foiling purposefully uneven finished surfaces.

It is a Bumpy Print, on purpose...to facilitate random layers of foil printed at shorter to longer print times on each shirt, for a variegated effect.

Well that was a flop, but we attempted to salvage the experiment by pressing just one color of foil on the shirts. The results pressed @375 for 22 seconds, peeled cold, yielded a FLAWLESS foil imprint, which I have never seen before come out of our shop, print after print after print. NO ARTIFACTS.    ZERO.

Do you guys have foiled surfaces that are.....um..... PERFECT?  We don't.

In fact, we usually design our foil effects as "distressed" over straight plastisol tinted to a color similar to the foil, to minimize the visual impact of the flaws.

These particular shirts were just one pass of this Granite Base through 110 mesh which had about 10% black plastisol added for tint, butt registered inside a WB Discharged background pattern which was flashed before the "adhesive" was printed.

What might have happened here?

Any ideas would be appreciated. I doubt that I've accidentally solved our inconsistent foil adhesive issues, but that was the happy result of this misadventure.

Stan

[tonypep]

To achieve 100% solid foil vector you need a mirror smooth print application regardless of ink type try pfp

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Yes, PFP with straight plastisol has yielded our best results prior to Monday's accident. I also have, in stock, Wilflex Foil Adhesive, but we haven't tried it, because I've read that so many people just use plastisol.

I've even printed PFPFP for an adhesive, but that didn't work nearly as well as one pass of Granite Base.

Weird...

[Shawn (EIP)]

Had issues with foil adheasive but way better results with straight plastisol. Also helps to print a simular color underneath the foil.

[Homer]

I am running a 2 color foil, discharge and pastisol print right now, - 250 shirts, double sided.  We found that longer you heat press the foil, the better it turns out. We are at 300 for 30 seconds, light pressure. 110 mesh seems to be the best for us -so far. good find, we have to try that out.

sericol is friggen sa weeeet.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Sericol is sweet I just wish our rep would send a price list, been almost 2 weeks.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Sericol is sweet I just wish our rep would send a price list, been almost 2 weeks.

YOU TOO!!!???

I'm in the same boat. Not sure why it takes that long to get a quote.  You can get surgery estimates faster than 2 weeks! 

[ebscreen]

There was a fella on this or the other board that worked for Parmele Screen supply in LA
or thereabouts. They sell Sericol.

I tried their white. I didn't like it. Maybe I'll try the other colors though, WB pigments are
annoying. Unless CCI follows through....

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I am running a 2 color foil, discharge and pastisol print right now, - 250 shirts, double sided.  We found that longer you heat press the foil, the better it turns out. We are at 300 for 30 seconds, light pressure. 110 mesh seems to be the best for us -so far. good find, we have to try that out.

sericol is friggen sa weeeet.

Homer, are you PFP'ing your plastisol "adhesive"?

FYI.... the Granite Base is REALLY thick and stiff. It does "warm up" and the tinting plastisol reduces the viscosity somewhat. And the sales rep who has used it extensively says a little curable reducer is OK.

I'm anxious to try this again for a foil adhesive, on purpose this time, and see if it's repeatable.

[Prosperi-Tees]

There was a fella on this or the other board that worked for Parmele Screen supply in LA
or thereabouts. They sell Sericol.

I tried their white. I didn't like it. Maybe I'll try the other colors though, WB pigments are
annoying. Unless CCI follows through....

From the sample I seen from CCI the colors were ho-hum, Sericols were much cleaner/brighter.

[Homer]

nope, -two strokes on a 110 with foil adhesive. .works well for us. . although, we ran the fronts just fine with the sericol, flipped over to run the backs and I couldn't keep the screen open to save my life. 50/50 mix of base and HO white, 3% retarder, 5% agent. . .had to hit it with water once in a while -that made the print get funky and scorch, I used the matsui white and it almost never plugged. . .I may have my mix wrong, I gotta call Rick.

[screenxpress]

I am running a 2 color foil, discharge and pastisol print right now, - 250 shirts, double sided.  We found that longer you heat press the foil, the better it turns out. We are at 300 for 30 seconds, light pressure. 110 mesh seems to be the best for us -so far. good find, we have to try that out.

sericol is friggen sa weeeet.

Wait. 

Did I read this right? 

110 mesh?

I thought you only used your 110s to hold open the door.

I'm so disillusioned.... 

[Homer]

yeah pops. I broke down and used a 110 about a year ago for special needs printing. I still have some wooden ones we use as a fly swatter. . .and clean the gunk out of the dip tank.