a left chest design..having some issues...mesh counts???

[Sbrem]

Be patient Mark, it will come. I also would not underbase this, my order would be Maroon, Gray, White (dark to light, why step on the white?) off the press and onto the belt. 156 should be fine. If you print jagged to the naked eye but your films look sharp to the naked eye, I would check the screens for proper mesh bridging... I like my squeegees a little stiffer than 70, but everyone develops their own touch on a manual.

Steve

[3Deep]

Whatcha talkin bout steve!!!! I like my single duro 70's

Darryl

[screenxpress]

Looking at those pics, my thoughts are the problem is from not sheering/clearing the ink where ink is building up on the screen back that then gets squished into the other colors.  As soon as you have ink accumulated on the bottom, you're on a downhill slide until you clean off the back (and I just hate having to do that!!). 

Build-up can be caused by any one of a number of things from technique to mesh size, to squeegee angle, to pressure, to consistency, to off-contact. 

Marc has a manual Chameleon (I think) press which I'll assume is a back clamper so I'll suggest this to try. 

I'm leaning towards inconsistent off-contact (since 'clearing the screen' was mentioned) allowing the screen to lay on the garment completely and build up ink around the image on the screen lift.  If that's happening, what I do to maintain consistent off-contact (back clamp Workhorse) is to tape a 12 inch piece of a cut-up yardstick (usually 1/8 inch) across the bottom of the screen at the back and at the front where it will set on the shirt and front and back edges of the platten when pulled down.  Then no amount of stroke pressure or arm flex can alter the 1/8 off-contact during the stroke and should sheer the ink clean and eliminate buildup.   

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

(to answer your question above I have an 8/8 chameleon with side air clamps set up in a one car garage hahah..with an 8ft dryer..and an MSP3140 exposure unit..needless to say I have zero room other than standing in one spot to print but I made it work)...Check it out..had to put it in PDF again..the site isnt accepting the jpegs..anyway...job completed. Much better...not great but definitely better and acceptable. I did loose money on this one..like a hundred bucks or so because when i felt the 156's weren't working for me I bought three 200's and three 230's and some 70 durometer 6" squeeges (the 4"'s i bought were not cutting it for me.). I used the 200 for the white and 230's for the maroon and grey. I tried different print squences as suggested. I did white last and, though it came out good, I decided to go a different sequence. When the white was last it covered up the grey inner oval to much to where the grey looked thin...I hit the white twice (flashing in between) and looked good but wanted more grey showing. So I went with maroon, white, grey and it worked best to me. And I also realized on the grey, I barely had to apply ANY pressure to the squeege....really I was amazed..its like I was barely giving any kind of down force to where it made me think I wasnt even touching the shirt with the mesh. It does suck I had to make the screens 3 times though...so I cleaned and burned 9 screens for a 3 color job. I did all 156's first..didnt like it..figured i screwed up the exposing..so I cleaned them all and did it again...still wasnt satisfied...so I put the job on hold while i ordered the three 200's and the three 230's thinking im covered for ANY combination of screen I needed because a deadline was looming.....coated all six new screens..and went with one 200 and two 230's and it was the right combination. I dropped the shirts off this morning on the guys back porch on my way to work this morning.

Thanks everyone for your insight. I don't know what the deal was..I printed more complex things than this before with zero problems....its like everything was working against me on this one and it was just bizarre..a simple job like this and it busted my butt...like every approach was wrong...made me feel inadequate.

[Sbrem]

Whatcha talkin bout steve!!!! I like my single duro 70's

Darryl

Maybe I'm thinking about 60. I was never comfortable with too floppy a blade. I don't push a squeegee very often anymore (but I will this weekend, sponsors for little league teams). For me, a stiffer blade and a light touch, just enough to shear the ink, gave me the best result. However, I've printed with bulletnosed squeegees too, pretty weird...

Steve

[Denis Kolar]

Glad it worked out...... and , you did not loose any money, you just invested in in better screens

Now you need to get some Newmans and you'll be allright

[inkman996]

From the sound of it your white needed to be choked back. If the white was covering up some of the grey that is bad, going on ash to start with you could have choked the white and the grey as well. Having a slight gap between the grey and white would not be noticeable but it would have been crisp. Your right tho grey inks are pretty smooth and loose easy to print. Another angle to printing that job could have been a solid grey with the white and maroon as a top coat, crazy sounding but things like that actually work well.

[screenxpress]

Looks really nice.

[Grumpy Ole Artist]

A couple things to consider...As you gain experience, you will doubtless become more aware of deficiencies in customers' logos, as they apply to screen printing. We are, after all, the "retarded third cousin" to offset printing. Sometimes, you have to "dumb it down" a bit...Every time you force ink through a screen you get a little image "spread"...Positive details ( Be they halftone dots or an outline) get bigger, negative details which are too fine, will tend to "choke" as the surrounding background shape "spreads" during printing, basically filling in, and obscuring. You will develop an eye for these deficencies and preemptively correct them at the art stage...the oval that was giving you grief could easily have been made slightly bolder, thereby eliminating some of your headaches. Re: mesh selection.... Definitely an arcane art, lots of factors to take into consideration. Basically,  the viscosity of the ink dictates my mesh choices....Rule of thumb, White ink is thickest, Black is thinnest....this varies somewhat, dependant upon the ink brand(s) you are using. Also a factor in choosing the "correct" mesh is the color of the substrate. (Red/Royal/Kelly shirts need a little more "laydown" (Coarser mesh) to maintain color fidelity than Pink/Columbia/Mint Green) When it comes to detailed printing, a hard/sharp squeegee is your friend! Print order...Now there's another arcane bit of business...EVERY graphic will present it's own special little challenges. You will need to factor in the relative amount of a particular color in a designs' various elements...(The less of a particular color in a design, the earlier in the print sequence, it should appear.) Mitigating against this is the fact that darker inks withstand "picking up" on subsequent screens better than light inks. So you kinda have to "average out" those two opposing factors to get a print order/mesh selection that works. Confused? Me too! Relax, it's only a tee shirt! LOL!

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

thanks...good info....well the print came out good but now the contract guy that gave me the job is concerend I put the image too high on th eleft chest. I put the center of the logo 4" from center of chest and about 2" from the top end of platen. I put my shirt on the platen to where the bottom part of the collar (brim?) is off the platen...like the bottom stiching is my stopping point in sliding the shirt on the platen. Funny thing is I printed one...and put it on in front of him and his partner and they all agreed it was perfectly fine. Then yesterday I'm talking to him and I asked how did the client like the shirts? HE said he doesnt know yet because he hasent heard back but im afraid the left chest image was too high. I said "I put on the sample shirt in fron of you and your partner so you can see and you both collectively agreed it was perfect..NOW you are telling you think its too high!?!?!?? Needless to say I was kind of frustrated by that.

[3Deep]

A left chest print is going to fit everyone different anyways, some people like a higher print some like a lower print,  I try to hit it halfway of both and let it roll.  The only customers that I have that fuss about left chest print placement are women!!!!!!.

Darryl

[dave58]

Glad it worked out...... and , you did not loose any money, you just invested in in better screens

Ditto....what he said

[Frog]

"Check it out..had to put it in PDF again..the site isnt accepting the jpegs."

I have to assume that you didn't lower the resolution to 72, and the file was then too large.
Here it is, and all I did was opened your pdf, and exported it as a 72dpi jpg.

[inkman996]

The top two images does look a touch on the high side, not terrible nor unacceptable but a tad high.

[Frog]

I use this as my placement guide, and have for many years.

All of these measurements are from where the collar opening lines up on the board.