How I feel trying to use dischage and understand it

[JBLUE]

You will want to test different percentages of discharge agent on the garments. Too much or not enough will change the brightness. I know people have beaten the " you need a good scale accurate scale" horse but it is true. Document the percentages accurately so that you can establish baselines to work with on future jobs. It will help you with consistency on reorders as well. Just being a little off goes a long way.

[tonypep]

Every bucket of ink here has the formula (PMS or custom)on the bucket therefore accurate scales are needed. We have one for discharge, one for plastisol. Discharge formulas are mine and we have just under 100. Anyone can mix colors. Also we do tonal discharge and it requires accuracy of at least .5 gram. Ours measure in tenths of grams

[ebscreen]

I'll throw in that the smaller the amount of ink you're mixing, the more accurate your scale must be.
Especially true with PC's as opposed to finish systems.

[GraphicDisorder]

You will want to test different percentages of discharge agent on the garments. Too much or not enough will change the brightness. I know people have beaten the " you need a good scale accurate scale" horse but it is true. Document the percentages accurately so that you can establish baselines to work with on future jobs. It will help you with consistency on reorders as well. Just being a little off goes a long way.

We pretty much only run Gildan's here, at least 99% id say is Gildan 2000 and id say 90% of that is black.  That's our market at least currently.  So it should be fairly easy to figure that out for now if I in fact decide to deal with it. 

Some of these scale comments are awesome!  I never once said I don't need a scale, I said I don't need one until I am sure I am going to use discharge.  But on the other hand, not having one for the 5 test shirts we tried (which came out super similar to what 2 big time printers sent me) has been well worth the entertainment.  Maybe ill continue to go rouge...

[Inkworks]

  Maybe ill continue to go rouge...

Rouge = french for red.

Rogue = shows an undesirable variation from a standard


...just saying

[ebscreen]

If the sample shirts you received look anything like the picture you posted then something is wrong with the samples.

The picture posted is 70 base/30 white correct? (or thereabouts seeing as you don't have a scale) That mix
is usually used for UB (actually 80/20) and will give a tannish color as seen in your pic, depending on garment. Reverse the base/white,
print correctly, and you should have a truly bright white whose hand and overall appearance will be far more desirable than plastisol
to %99 of clients.

Get a scale. It's like a carpenter not having a hammer.

[GraphicDisorder]

If the sample shirts you received look anything like the picture you posted then something is wrong with the samples.

The picture posted is 70 base/30 white correct? (or thereabouts seeing as you don't have a scale) That mix
is usually used for UB (actually 80/20) and will give a tannish color as seen in your pic, depending on garment. Reverse the base/white,
print correctly, and you should have a truly bright white whose hand and overall appearance will be far more desirable than plastisol
to %99 of clients.

Get a scale. It's like a carpenter not having a hammer.

The samples I posted (as noted when posted), were our second try which was 70/30 then variations of that, first try was white with activator only which no picture was posted since I forgot to take a picture and the shirt is at home since we washed it, and it looks similar to the samples I received from Alan and Nick.  Yes the sample pictures posted here were more natural/tarnished color which I expected.  But it was slightly different than I expected as well and I also expected brighter white out of the straight white (not posted), as I have made clear my expectations were probably too high.  After getting the samples from Nick and Alan ive confirmed that.  My white print looked similar to their white prints I clearly had the expectations too high for how bright it would be since I am sure they do know what they are doing. 

Reality is right now I don't need a scale since it is likely we will not do any more discharge at least not until we hire another person. We don't have any extra time for the extra steps required to do discharge as illustrated by the fact it took us like 3 months to try this twice, but I got a good set of samples and I already know I am close.  Just a matter of tweaking it when time is right if ever. 

[Gilligan]

  Maybe ill continue to go rouge...

Rouge = french for red.

Rogue = shows an undesirable variation from a standard


...just saying

His keyboard just can't keep up.  I've been working on an over clocked keyboard that can handle his typing speed but so far it's only resulted in some melted keys (more than normal that is).

[Nick Bane]

If the sample shirts you received look anything like the picture you posted then something is wrong with the samples.

The picture posted is 70 base/30 white correct? (or thereabouts seeing as you don't have a scale) That mix
is usually used for UB (actually 80/20) and will give a tannish color as seen in your pic, depending on garment. Reverse the base/white,
print correctly, and you should have a truly bright white whose hand and overall appearance will be far more desirable than plastisol
to %99 of clients.

Get a scale. It's like a carpenter not having a hammer.

The samples I posted (as noted when posted), were our second try which was 70/30 then variations of that, first try was white with activator only which no picture was posted since I forgot to take a picture and the shirt is at home since we washed it, and it looks similar to the samples I received from Alan and Nick.  Yes the sample pictures posted here were more natural/tarnished color which I expected.  But it was slightly different than I expected as well and I also expected brighter white out of the straight white (not posted), as I have made clear my expectations were probably too high.  After getting the samples from Nick and Alan ive confirmed that.  My white print looked similar to their white prints I clearly had the expectations too high for how bright it would be since I am sure they do know what they are doing. 

Reality is right now I don't need a scale since it is likely we will not do any more discharge at least not until we hire another person. We don't have any extra time for the extra steps required to do discharge as illustrated by the fact it took us like 3 months to try this twice, but I got a good set of samples and I already know I am close.  Just a matter of tweaking it when time is right if ever.

Glad you got the samples i sent, and it sounds like what i was thinking was right.  some people just wont go for the discharge, no matter how nice and soft it feels, because the white just cant get as bright white like a good plastisol.  some jobs, and some customers, are going to be ok with it, and once you get the hang of it, it certainly becomes easier and faster to print, but there will still be customers that just want that bright, thick, heavy, super bright white that you can only get from plastisol.  we have one customer that specifically states, they want heavy thick, thicker the better, white plastisol prints because, in their opinion, thicker ink is better.

anyway, glad you got the shirts and hope they help you gettin things figured out if and when you do decide to give it a shot.

[tonypep]

For a softer bright white try a DCUB with hig mesh white plastisol.

[GraphicDisorder]

  Maybe ill continue to go rouge...

Rouge = french for red.

Rogue = shows an undesirable variation from a standard


...just saying

His keyboard just can't keep up.  I've been working on an over clocked keyboard that can handle his typing speed but so far it's only resulted in some melted keys (more than normal that is).

My space bar has a dent, seriously.

[GraphicDisorder]

If the sample shirts you received look anything like the picture you posted then something is wrong with the samples.

The picture posted is 70 base/30 white correct? (or thereabouts seeing as you don't have a scale) That mix
is usually used for UB (actually 80/20) and will give a tannish color as seen in your pic, depending on garment. Reverse the base/white,
print correctly, and you should have a truly bright white whose hand and overall appearance will be far more desirable than plastisol
to %99 of clients.

Get a scale. It's like a carpenter not having a hammer.

The samples I posted (as noted when posted), were our second try which was 70/30 then variations of that, first try was white with activator only which no picture was posted since I forgot to take a picture and the shirt is at home since we washed it, and it looks similar to the samples I received from Alan and Nick.  Yes the sample pictures posted here were more natural/tarnished color which I expected.  But it was slightly different than I expected as well and I also expected brighter white out of the straight white (not posted), as I have made clear my expectations were probably too high.  After getting the samples from Nick and Alan ive confirmed that.  My white print looked similar to their white prints I clearly had the expectations too high for how bright it would be since I am sure they do know what they are doing. 

Reality is right now I don't need a scale since it is likely we will not do any more discharge at least not until we hire another person. We don't have any extra time for the extra steps required to do discharge as illustrated by the fact it took us like 3 months to try this twice, but I got a good set of samples and I already know I am close.  Just a matter of tweaking it when time is right if ever.

Glad you got the samples i sent, and it sounds like what i was thinking was right.  some people just wont go for the discharge, no matter how nice and soft it feels, because the white just cant get as bright white like a good plastisol.  some jobs, and some customers, are going to be ok with it, and once you get the hang of it, it certainly becomes easier and faster to print, but there will still be customers that just want that bright, thick, heavy, super bright white that you can only get from plastisol.  we have one customer that specifically states, they want heavy thick, thicker the better, white plastisol prints because, in their opinion, thicker ink is better.

anyway, glad you got the shirts and hope they help you gettin things figured out if and when you do decide to give it a shot.

Thanks again for sending them, thanks again to Alan as well.  Super helpful!

Yes we have customers that are both ways.  Some will not stand for it not being as bright, I can tell you that right now.  No way no how regardless how it feels.  Then we have some that I know would eat it up.  So we will get into it at some point I am sure.  Right now we are balls out just to get our work done let alone take time for a new process.  I hope we continue to grow like last year and we can hire a couple more people and then we can start working on this more seriously.

[tonypep]

Rouge=Shelly
Rogue=Brandt
Sorry couldn't resist

[GraphicDisorder]

Rouge=Shelly
Rogue=Brandt
Sorry couldn't resist

Red ginger locks.

BTW these guys would have a stroke if they seen Shelly coating and carrying unexposed screens in open light.  I think of them every time when she does it.  We break all the rules!

[tonypep]

Believe me we do also. A lot of what I do I would never recommend to anyone else.
We just know how to make old school meets new school work. Dave (Bimridder) never got the chance to come by last weekend but when he's back in town he'll get the picture. And Rick has threatened to come by; I would enjoy that as well.
In the end, we all do what we believe works best for us. And when unsure come here for (usually) sound advice.