I finished the 1,200 golf towels...questions and comments.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

Would like to point out before I begin I have never printed with waterbase ink and i am a novice at best in screen printing in general and I appreciate the help you guys and gals gave me when I had questions about the water based process.

So Saturday morning at 10am I began to print 1,200 golf towels, 2 color design (grey and maroon) and I finished up last night (tuesday) around 8pm. it took me forever. At first I could only get about 70 to 80 per mix of paint...around 80 the ink started getting to thick to back flood and not much ink in screen and I was fighting the ink thru the mesh..so I had to mix more.

I used Union UniDye ink with a catalyst. I have an 8ft infra red dryer.
I used a 124 mesh for both colors. The grey (which was a mix) was kind of thick. The maroon was much thinner.
I used the 3 inch masking tape made for screen printing. After every round of printing I would remove all the tape and clean out the screen and go mix more paint and start the process all over again....to print 80 and clean up and mix and start again was a 2 hour process (which sucked I know)

By around number 300  I began to save the ink in the screen when I would go to clean up...before I was ditching the ink during clean up...well now I started saving the ink leftover in a cup and once I mixed the new ink I put it in the screen with the saved ink...this got me up to around 120 towels per run.

By around number 600 I was doing all of that then started using a squirt bottle of water...by the time I hit 50 or so I would then start doing a couple of squirts of water in the inks...this got me up to about 150 to 160 prints per round and made the ink look like it would seep into the towel much better.

All in all it took FOREVER becuase I was learning as I went along...but the last 300 or so I was knocking them out to the point to where I had to wait on the towel to go down the conveyor belt before I could put the next one on.

Things that worked against me:

My first time using waterbased inks
The towels..they were SUPER cheap...really really nappy....and they were thin..and the fibers were long than a usual "tight" looking golf towel....really really cheap.
My 8ft dryer I know was not good for waterbased..no forced air going thru it.

Questions:

I think I had my dryer set too high...and I say this because when I would print on the towel it would look good like the ink really seeped into the towel...but when it came out the dryer the ink was not as uniform as it was when I took it off the pallet..like the ink was "cracky" looking..like a distressed look.....I feel one reason was the towels were cheap like I said...really loose long fibers.....and the heat from my dryer "dried out" the ink too much...they would hit 280 to 310 degrees in the dryer....was this too high to have the dryer set?

But there were a few that after the dryer they still looked PERFECT...no cracking at all....I dont know what I did different on those few..I didnt change my process at all...but they came out perfect.....I'm afraid the cleint will see these few perfect ones and comapre them to the ones that have the cracked ditressed look.

I guess my MAIN question is the dryer and crack distressed look...was it from having the heat too high? becuase how they looked off the pallet compared to how they looked out of the dryer was night and day.

on a final note the cure time for the catalyst is listed as 72 hours but I did a wash test after 48 hrs and it passed

[tonypep]

My guess is the catalyst is the culprit for the cracking. You could have used discharge inks without a catalyst and you wouldn't of had the cracking and shelf life issues. You would not need to use an activator. That said it's still tricky the first time and that dryer may have required two passes for full cure.

[Im-Magic]

I now do fully sublimated Golf Towels on Microfibre. Unlimited colours perfect prints and no drama.

[RICK STEFANICK]

the catalyst really took away the reason for using waterbased ink in the first place.(hand)... anyway im glad it all worked out for you. get tonys cell number he loves to field calls 25/7..and is the resident waterbase expert. he can give you a wealth of info.

[DCSP John]

Dude... sign me up for this print run!! Sounds awesome!!  Seriously though... good on ya' man. a tough job for sure.
Time for some Icy Hot on the wrist and forearms.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

well the customer doesn't like them.....so this was considered a "FAIL" on my part....some came out great, while others had the distressed look,..I explained that its a towel (cheap one at that)...its not like a tshirt...you arent going to have a perfectly clean print 100% of the time...then he wanted an explanation why some came out real crisp looking and others didn't. I had no answer for him..i did absolutely nothing different on any batch of towels......bottom line some just look better than others.

So now they want a discount. So I consider it a loss. Sucks too becuase i literally busted my ass to meet their deadline...my hands and fingers are literally swollen and my back still hurts...3 days straight it took me..I even took time off my real job to meet the deadline.

I think I should have used a lower mesh count..i used a 124..i should have went with a 100 mesh..would have gotten a better print consistantly I guess..I dunno...im pretty deflated over it.

[tonypep]

Mark, at least you're being upfront about the shortcomings. Fortunately you are doing so in the right place where only constructive comments are allowed (for the most part!). Lets take a look at some points. First manually printing this many towels will yield inconsistent results even with seasoned printers, regardless of pre-press factors. You did right by reaching out to vendors and suppliers but I would have given different recommendations. Second, with regards to the towels in question; always get a sample(s) when quoting an unfamiliar substrate and then test. Purchasing based on price can get you into trouble. There are many other options that could have landed a more printable fabric. Could you have lost the job based on price? Perhaps, but look where you are now. Sometimes losing a job is better than the possible loss of a customer.
Lastly, these things happen to all of us at times don't kick yourself too hard. Keep asking questions here and elsewhere and you will you will minimize these situations. Notice I didn't say eliminate!
Keep on pluggin.....tp

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

Mark, at least you're being upfront about the shortcomings. Fortunately you are doing so in the right place where only constructive comments are allowed (for the most part!). Lets take a look at some points. First manually printing this many towels will yield inconsistent results even with seasoned printers, regardless of pre-press factors. You did right by reaching out to vendors and suppliers but I would have given different recommendations. Second, with regards to the towels in question; always get a sample(s) when quoting an unfamiliar substrate and then test. Purchasing based on price can get you into trouble. There are many other options that could have landed a more printable fabric. Could you have lost the job based on price? Perhaps, but look where you are now. Sometimes losing a job is better than the possible loss of a customer.
Lastly, these things happen to all of us at times don't kick yourself too hard. Keep asking questions here and elsewhere and you will you will minimize these situations. Notice I didn't say eliminate!
Keep on pluggin.....tp

I did not purchase the towels..it was a contract job...and the people that contracted me to do it didn't even look at the towels...everything was in a rush..they had 3 boxes delivered to their house..then i picked them up. I opened the boxes at my shop and seen waht I was dealing with...but I never second guessed it because 1 - i never printed towels much less seen a golf towel before and 2 - i never used water base inks. As time went on, when you look at 1200 golf towels in a row you start to see things like how cheap they are...they were NOT quality golf towels...and i realized a low quality towel will give you a low quality print sometimes....they were so cheap, if you hold them up you practically see right thru them...thin and really really "nappy"...a lot had runs in the threads...but I went with it because there wasnt any time for me to QC all 1200 before printing began...I QC'ed when I laid it on the pallet and i just began noticing things but I didnt stop. It was a weekend..they needed them done on tuesday..there was literally no option then to just keep moving forward...it was out of my hands so to speak. I am NOT putting it off on the quality of the towel but after all said and done I feel it played a major factor in the quality of the print. Theses were not tight, close fiber, quality towels...they were like cheap motel wash cloth kind of quality towel....thats the best example I can give you....a cheap motel wash cloth 11" x 18" is what i was dealing with. I am convinced it wasnt "all me" for the poor quality prints on the ones THEY say arent as good as others. My inexperince could be a factor but wasnt the ONLY factor, ya know?

And the guy that contracted me (who is one of my very best friends that has the embroider biz side of things) is talking about giving a discount...I asked him "well did the main customer see them yet and complain?" He said "No...but its a personal friend and I cant explain why some look better than others"..I told him "You are over thinking it..its a cheap towel...a free hand out..they will not be inspecting all 1200 when they hand them out....and if u want to give a discount DONT give it across the board....you go thru them and pick the ones you dont like and discount those....but NOT the entire 1200.....and I wouldnt discount anything unless they complained...Give them to the company and tell them 'Look..they are towels...some will look better than others...and once washed they all will look the same anyway."

So we will see...he is supposed to be swinging by my work today to pick the remaining 600 up.

[killergraphics]

Try the Teeter tooter

I do it on towels in a 110 with based down plastisol ink.

vid just to show TT Stroke

old vid and it was only Wed.

Teeter tooter

[RICK STEFANICK]

mark,things like this have happened to all of us in this business one time or another. it is what it is. you did your best man with what you knew. those things are tough even on a auto. we print them with 83-110 baggy screens and zero off contact with waterbase ink. its the only way to get the saturation.totally against all taught fundamentals but thats how the big towel guys run them.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

mark,things like this have happened to all of us in this business one time or another. it is what it is. you did your best man with what you knew. those things are tough even on a auto. we print them with 83-110 baggy screens and zero off contact with waterbase ink. its the only way to get the saturation.totally against all taught fundamentals but thats how the big towel guys run them.

yeah..i think i used the wrong mesh....should have went with a 80 to 100 mesh..and I did have zero off contact. Now I know better..I had to go thru it to understand it...now that I understand it, if I get to do another run at it I have it down now.