DC Halftones

[tonypep]

Todays "Rock Star". 55 line 230 mesh 5 screens no base no flash

[larryk]

Very nice... as usual. But what is the secret, besides flooding the screen, to keep that ink from drying in all those halftones.... especially 55lpi.

[tonypep]

No secret, we actually had to stop for 20 min to re-output the white film/screen. Just leave everything flooded, run a scrap, then good shirts. No fans though!

[siestasol]

Very nice print. Do you overprint the "colors"? Do you use the white plate like an undebase in some parts or its just a tight registration?
Thanks for posting, and for the printwear article.

[ZooCity]

Very nice... as usual. But what is the secret, besides flooding the screen, to keep that ink from drying in all those halftones.... especially 55lpi.

Larry we run Sericol Texcharge through 330tpi at 60lpi here with no dry in.  The main thing is to follow good printing procedure, i.e., keep it moving!  We also keep wb ink "fed"- thin out with plain water at 6-10%, mist as needed and, in extreme cases or over long runs will pull ink, stir in water and replace.

Spreading ink here mentioned that they leave their wb/dc screens open, just like plastisol for breaks.  So long as you clear the screen 100% there's nothing in there to dry up.  I haven't become that brave yet though.

[larryk]

I think I'll try that water thing..... thanks for the hint!

[GaryG]

No base to flash, many colors- that's excellent!
Did you settle on any single Brand of ink for the colors yet
after recently testing manufacturers?
Thanks~

[Spreading Ink]

One of the reasons we don't generally leave screens flooded for a long period of time is from doing all over prints.   When you have a screen with 43 x 40 inches of waterbase or discharge in the screen flooded there is a lot of surface area of the ink open to the air and we find it will start to dry out and haze some over breaks etc...   Easier to just to insure the screen is cleared well and come back at it with a couple of test prints after break on a rag and go!  Your mileage may vary - it is generally really low humidity where we are and that may makes things a bit different for us than others.

[Spreading Ink]

Hey Tony - why 55 LPI on a 230 mesh?  It would seem you would have trouble holding some of the lower tones with moire with these numbers?

[tonypep]

I try to not get technical with this aspect of TPI vs LPI we just know it works for us. We learned to de-bunk traditional theory years ago. With regards to the white it is a traditional hi-white. Nothing special there. If you're able to zoom image you should be able to see whats going on. Real busy so sorry for the short posts

[tonypep]

This was 65/305 3 screen DC/HT. Print order WB black/DC white/crush gray. No Flash. Circa 2002 when we first started playing around with this

[Admiral]

are you guys doing 2 passes of the squeegee typically?

[tonypep]

For HTs yes