Auto press off contact

[Joe Clarke]

first: CONGRATULATIONS to you and your growing family!
second: are you still working on the problem of clearing the mesh?
Joe

[tonypep]

Joe call me 843-554-3840 no cell rec here. I have that contact info for you

[cvreeland]

I have my floods set so that they are just short of touching the mesh.

Increase your flood pressure until you can just feel the flood bar slightly pushing into the mesh, when you run your hand underneath. maybe 1/16 of an inch, or so. You really need the flood bar to load the stencil with ink, rather than just plowing it over top. That way, all the squeegee has to do is shear it off instead of both driving it in & shearing it off. I've found this makes all the difference in the world with getting ink to clear w/o too much squeegee pressure.

If you get too much flood pressure, you'll know, because your images will smear because ink is hanging blow the gasket, & your stencils will wear out at the margins, but you've got a little leeway, here.

[blue moon]

I have my floods set so that they are just short of touching the mesh.

Increase your flood pressure until you can just feel the flood bar slightly pushing into the mesh, when you run your hand underneath. maybe 1/16 of an inch, or so. You really need the flood bar to load the stencil with ink, rather than just plowing it over top. That way, all the squeegee has to do is shear it off instead of both driving it in & shearing it off. I've found this makes all the difference in the world with getting ink to clear w/o too much squeegee pressure.

If you get too much flood pressure, you'll know, because your images will smear because ink is hanging blow the gasket, & your stencils will wear out at the margins, but you've got a little leeway, here.

DITTO!!!

hard flood, soft stroke. Also make sure you have the right ink! There is some crap out there. What are you using?

pierre

[chubsetc]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I have been very busy getting caught up on some embroidery and small manual jobs that need to get out the door, 12- 24 piece jobs with multiple locations ans prints like pant legs that I don't have the pallets for the auto yet.

Pierre-  I am primarily using Union for all my inks, if my whites have been too firm I have modified them with some reducer to get them flowing more.  I have also used softhand with my colors to get them a little looser.

Joe- I am getting to the auto in the next few days but any help in the process from any of you is welcomed.  As I have been manually printing for over 10 years it is a new day with auto printing.  I am trying to get started right as well as limit the sloppy factors that will keep me inefficient and my quality low.  I am striving to print the right way and not just get things out the door.

As for the hard flood, on my first few print runs with the auto I was getting some smudging from having my flood stroke too hard, I backed the flood up so that it does not touch the mesh (just a hair above it) and I definately cannot see the image in the screen before the print stroke.  That will be the first change I make when I get going.

I have a few nice sized jobs that need to be done in the next week so I will finally get back to the auto.  I will update when I get going.

[blue moon]

I could not get some of the Union stuff to clear if my life depended on it. Which ink in particular?

pierre

[3Deep]

I could not get some of the Union stuff to clear if my life depended on it. Which ink in particular?

pierre
Right there with ya on some union inks, I have to stroke twice or pretty firm to clear in one pass, and the union red and flesh inks are tacky as hell.

Darryl

[cvreeland]

Here's what I tell my printers -- if the ink seems too thick, it is. If you can't get it through the mesh, adding a little reducer until it does is no big deal. Most plastisol ships more viscous than it needs to be, and modifiers are readily available.

[ScreenFoo]

Here's what I tell my printers -- if the ink seems too thick, it is. If you can't get it through the mesh, adding a little reducer until it does is no big deal. Most plastisol ships more viscous than it needs to be, and modifiers are readily available.

Beat me to it--I'd throw halftone base in there as an excellent 'modifier' to try for inks that are too thick--especially if you're trying to hold dots. 

I don't know if Unions QC or transportation has been a little iffy lately, but I've had more than a couple gallons of maxo over the last year or two that were thick enough to require modification.  The last few gallons I've gotten in have been great straight out of the bucket though. 

[chubsetc]

I could not get some of the Union stuff to clear if my life depended on it. Which ink in particular?

pierre

My 50/50 white is Diamond White, And the Cotton white I use is Maxopaque Bright Cotton.  I've been modifying both.   

I've been modifying everything that has had problems clearing, but unfortunately its almost all my inks, so I figured it was my technique.  I will have quite a bit of time with the press in the next week to play with settings.

[alan802]

I like a halftone base or the wow base for modifying our inks if they don't print well.  I just don't like curable reducer for some reason.

[JBLUE]

I like a halftone base or the wow base for modifying our inks if they don't print well.  I just don't like curable reducer for some reason.

Make that three of us. Halftone base is pretty sweet.

[chubsetc]

To update, I did a simple 1 color black print on a steel blue today and was able to finally clear the screen pretty well with 1 stroke.  I lowered the floodbar so I could slightly feel it on the underside of the image, added a bit of reducer and went to town.  I used a 180 mesh screen, squeegee pressure at 40 psi, 70 duro blade at about 12 degrees.  Seems like many of you guys are printing with less pressure than that but that was much better than the 50+ I had been printing with and double stroking.

The screen wasn't totally clear so I'm not sure how it would have looked on a white shirt but I did a few tests on yellow that looked good.

Now I'm sure playing with the squeegee/flood speed helps too.  We'll see where I'm at when I start using some white bases in the next few days.

[Inkworks]

Squeegee angle is a big factor too. When you print manually you automatically compensate squeegee angle to get the right feel on the print stroke, you don't get that feedback on an auto and the only clues you have is how well the screen is cleared both in and out of the image.