Shrinking Jerzees Crewnecks?

[Stinkhorn Press]

Help me out here, user error or bad garment?

Manually printing gold ink on green crew necks - PFP.

printed about 40 shirts and crewnecks combined.
the last 5 crewnecks were printed last. The flash dryer was probably a bit too low and the dwell time a slight bit longer than everything prior (positioning larger sizes). The platens weren't super sticky but should have been fine.
one was a 3XL and 4 were 4XL. They shrank dramatically under the flash (NOT out of register in a direction - but towards the center by as much as an inch+).
the rest of the crews were perfectly fine and unshrunk.

Jerzees 562s. 50/50 basic name brand middle weight crew.


They shouldn't be shrinking even if we did have a little too much heat too close, right? What gives?

[Frog]

Yes they and most crews shrink. Many run them down the tunnel or spin them under the flash before running to let them get a little bit of that out of their system!

Combine that tendency with their less than cooperative relationship with stickum, and you see the result.

In my career, I have seen plenty of shirts like your example though given, a full inch is quite a lot of shrinkage. In fact, probably not since George Costanza went swimming has that much occurred!

[aauusa]

i do not think it is shrinkage.  I believe the pallet was hot after the initial run and the shirts simply broke loose from the tac.  I know it is hard to believe and you could print a shirt right afterwards and not have the same issue as the crew necks.  But I have seen it with printing tees then switch to crews without doing a really of tac.

although I did like the george reference. 

[Frog]

i do not think it is shrinkage.  I believe the pallet was hot after the initial run and the shirts simply broke loose from the tac.  I know it is hard to believe and you could print a shirt right afterwards and not have the same issue as the crew necks.  But I have seen it with printing tees then switch to crews without doing a really of tac.

although I did like the george reference.

That brings up another issue.
If indeed, the actual shrinkage itself was negligible,and it was just the stickum giving way, it means that the shirt was stretched that inch when placed on the board.

[Stinkhorn Press]

I know there are many times it first appears to be "shrinking" when thing fall out of register - and that picture isn't a good proof, but these were shrinking.
When swung back from the flash to the printer, the first print image was lower at the top and higher at the bottom, both a considerable amount.

[Frog]

At any rate, preheating/shrinking, and good stickum should solve it, and no, I don't notice more of this when I run Jerzees, over Hanes, or the occasional Port

[Inkworks]

The extra bonus of it all is the high price of hoodies and sweatshirts to go along with the shrunken double images... I think I've got 6-7 from a job earlier this year myself....  hurts way more than wasting a G.U.C.

[Frog]

If it makes you feel any better, about an hour ago I screwed up a $10 polo! (That was on a run of only 8, sheesh!)