teach me how to print a split fountain

[ericheartsu]

I've done them once or twice but I'm hoping to get some advice on how to print split fountain designs?

Thanks in advance!

[Frog]

Assuming that you are using this technique to achieve natural blends

First, obviously choose colors which look nice blended. Load your chosen color inks next to each other, run a few "warm up" prints to blend, and go to it!

The fewer colors, in the widest widths, the more you will be able to print before cleaning the "crap brown" out of the screen and starting again.

Here's my first one from almost forty years ago. Waterbase, btw, before I had even heard of Plastisol.

[Inkworks]

Add the inks in the order you need them, print 5-10 shirts to get things mixing, sometimes I use a tooth pick to mix the inks where I want them to blend, add ink as needed, the added ink helps push the blend back into a tighter space. I've only done them on a manual, gotta print straight with good even pressure.

If it goes bad, scrape it all off and start over.

Storing the blended ink in a can for the next time and keeping the colors separated is the real tricky part 

[Frog]

Here's another more recent successful one, but the many colors required very frequent cleanings

[ericheartsu]

i'm guessing i should be using 230 or 305 mesh correct? Also is a thicker ink or a runnier ink better to achieve this?

[ZooCity]

Thicker is better, easier to control on the screen. 

If WB, use mustard bottles for each of your colors, makes adding the right amount to the right spot very easy.

Ink up in overlapping "triangles" of ink, tapering off into each other for a quicker blend.

On the manual, we use a railing that we clamp on, just a piece of wood with some silicone spray on it as a guide, to keep the squeegee tracking very straight and reduce the number of changeouts.

Avoid highly transparent inks, you want strong, richly pigmented colors here typically...sometimes transparent is good but it will result in more changeouts.  Also avoid putting colors side by side that you know will mud up together.

Don't forget to add on a couple ink color changes to the bill!

Frog that pterodactyl print rules.  I think that should be the new forum logo.

[ericheartsu]

Zoo, i know you said to use the mustard bottles for the waterbased. Would this work for discharge?

[ericheartsu]

Also, how should i charge for this?

thanks again!

[Sbrem]

Also, how should i charge for this?

thanks again!

Well, it will probably take you at least twice as long to print the job, and you'll have a lot of waste "brown". We stopped doing them a long, long time ago, and just separate them now. Even if the customer wants to pay more for it, when we figure in how much yellow, red and blue or whatever inks we wasted, it's considerable, and usually scares them off doing that. I really don't remember the last time we did one...

Steve

[ZooCity]

DC should be no problem in the bottles.

I charge color changes every so many pcs, depending on the art.  Ink waste, we recycle all our plastisol into recycled light and dark buckets that are typically mixed up with adhesive crystals for tagless label transfers.

WB/DC waste could be an issue. It can also be a little freaky knowing if you are printing muddy prints or not, it will slow down your run a lot while you wait for shirts out the back of the dryer to confirm you're still okay with the ink in the screen.  I would avoid going the split fountain route for orders over a certain qty and revert to sepping the job with a combo of overprinting and halftones. DC can do some amazing things when overprinted. 

[ericheartsu]

DC should be no problem in the bottles.

I charge color changes every so many pcs, depending on the art.  Ink waste, we recycle all our plastisol into recycled light and dark buckets that are typically mixed up with adhesive crystals for tagless label transfers.

WB/DC waste could be an issue. It can also be a little freaky knowing if you are printing muddy prints or not, it will slow down your run a lot while you wait for shirts out the back of the dryer to confirm you're still okay with the ink in the screen.  I would avoid going the split fountain route for orders over a certain qty and revert to sepping the job with a combo of overprinting and halftones. DC can do some amazing things when overprinted.

I agree with this. It's for a long time friend/client, who is trying to make something cool, and save money/save us time in set up. But I do think you are right that there will be a certain amount that won't be great, and or get weird browning in some of the ink.

[tonypep]

One screen DC with a thickener agent often used in food products. Anyone care to guess? (re-visiting an old question)
Winged flood bars can help.

[tonypep]

Let's try again

[ericheartsu]

how often were you guys stopping to clean out the screen?

what mesh did you put that on?

[mk162]

corn starch i bet.