Shopping for new go to white ink.

[alan802]

Tidy from Rutland with a hair of process base is unbelievable.  Will print at 30"/sec easily and is as opaque as any white I've printed with in the last 2 years, which is about 50 of them.  Still give props to SF, Miami Smooth and Superior, with Epic Sprint in the mix although our Sprint is quickly getting difficult to print and needs major mixing before it's time to print.  For poly stuff, Rutland Super Poly all the way.

As for pricing, I about lost my food when I got a quote for a 5er of Tidy from one supplier, then kindly asked another supplier for his best deal on it and got it for $100 less.  It never hurts to ask your guys for their best price, all they can do is say no...or yes.  I've got some really good suppliers right now that even though we don't buy a ton of stuff, they'll usually do back flips for us.  I had my guy from Reece drive 100 miles to drop off two gallons of Rutland DC white a few Fridays ago because I couldn't wait a day for delivery, slight miscalculation on my part and he just loaded the ink up in his car and drove 1.5 hours within 15 minutes of my first email to him telling him about my situation.  I hope most of you have at least one supplier who will work hard for your biz.

[screenprintguy]

I'm with you Alan on that, "difference" in price, wait, DRASTIC difference in price. I won't back the buss up on anyone, but we were up to 385 per 5er for quick, somone on the board here, can't remember told me that was an insane price. Just so happened to have another supplier of Wilflex come through a few months later after we were in the trying stages and quoted me exactly 110 bucks per 5er less than the other distributor. We really have been happy with the SF so even though 60 bucks more for quick at the lesser priced distributor isn't a big deal, I think we will hang with the SF for a while. It really is working great for us. I find it matts down fibers better, at least for us, more opaque, short bodied, brighter too. Like I said though that's our experience. I might have mentioned one before, the other big wilflex dealer sent us a gallon of Epic, Echo white to test, and it was reaaaally nice, same price range as the quick.

[ScreenPrinter123]

Mike, you tried the superior?  In our testing it blows sf out the water with regard to opacity, though sf may flash a little quicker.

[screenprintguy]

We went through a 5er of supierior, it is a hreat printing white, but it flashed slow, and cracked unless we cured it close to 400. Big thing also was lack of documentation as to what's actually in it , vs likw polyone and Rutland with plenty of msds on thier products. We did also test some arctic white from spot color supply, it was nice all around, but the majority vote for now was on the sf. I'm supposed to be getting a sample of SPA Bight white, they say it's nicer than all the mentioned whites, we'll see.

[TCT]

I am with Alan on this one. We use tidy-whitey for top coats ect. and Miami for everything else. I will have to try your trick with some added base Alan, does that help keep it from climbing up the squeegee?

I do have to say we have used about 60% less white in the last year with the amount of DC we have been doing....

Alan, can I ask what your 5er of tidy costs? I will have to look up my last invoice, but I want to say it was like three bills... But we do no busines with the local Rutland supplier so I guess I don't know if they give us good pricing or not.

[alan802]

I am with Alan on this one. We use tidy-whitey for top coats ect. and Miami for everything else. I will have to try your trick with some added base Alan, does that help keep it from climbing up the squeegee?

I do have to say we have used about 60% less white in the last year with the amount of DC we have been doing....

Alan, can I ask what your 5er of tidy costs? I will have to look up my last invoice, but I want to say it was like three bills... But we do no busines with the local Rutland supplier so I guess I don't know if they give us good pricing or not.

Make sure it's "process" or "halftone" base and yes, add just enough to get the ink to slump a little better and not climb the blade.  I've been keeping a mixing paddle and drill next to the ink and we are now stirring our ink several times a day vigorously and it also makes a big difference in printability.  If you're not mixing or stirring your ink on a regular basis and with some authority, especially the white inks, you should start because it makes it print so much better.

We are getting the Tidy at $285/5.  At that price it's certainly worth it and makes it a better value than the SF or Miami whites.  At 385/5...not quite as attractive but still a great performing white, just not worth it then compared to the SF or Miami stuff.  I can't believe those inks are under 200/5 since they are that good, there has to be a reason it's so cheap and that usually ends up biting us screen printers in the arse, but those white inks could be the exception.

[dirkdiggler]

just finished 2 jobs testing Solar white, its the creamiest, most short bodied, fastest, easiest to print white I have ever tried.  Its low bleed and around 200 for a 5er.  I will be ordering a 5 when my quick runs out.

[Zelko-4-EVA]

we were using Solar white for years...  they stopped packaging it in 30g drums so we had to switch.

[JBLUE]

There is no magic white that will make a 1 white ink shop. If you want to get the best print you can on every job you will have to have a couple of them to be able to work on the different fabrics from cotton to tri blends. They each have different fiber matte down properties and opacities for a reason.

[Prosperi-Tees]

There is no magic white that will make a 1 white ink shop. If you want to get the best print you can on every job you will have to have a couple of them to be able to work on the different fabrics from cotton to tri blends. They each have different fiber matte down properties and opacities for a reason.

This is true, SF doesn't work as well on ringspun garments as it does on say a g2000

[screenprintguy]

Matt at SPA just told me adding some wilflex Finesse base, 10-30% depending on what you are doing with your particular run. He said it will actually lower the cure temp a bit, and make it a lot softer, plus flatter surface for under base , as long as the percentage mixed in is on the lower side that it really won't effect your opacity till you get over 30%. Might give that a try. So far though, using the SF on American apparel under basing then topping with 7 colors sim process it's been a lot cleaner of a final print then we got with quick. It is a bit creamer/thinner. To each their own, everyone has their faves. I really think all of the mentioned products are good products it's just a preference thing.

[Homer]

just finished 2 jobs testing Solar white, its the creamiest, most short bodied, fastest, easiest to print white I have ever tried.  Its low bleed and around 200 for a 5er.  I will be ordering a 5 when my quick runs out.

I'm telling ya man, that stuff is awesome! we tried it based on good words from Zelko and boom. new white in the house. it's almost too good to be true. price is spot on, available right at nazdar, prints awesome through 230 loose mesh like we have, low 20's....all around awesome ink...(for cotton)

[screenprintguy]

Anyone tried any of this brand yet? Pricing looks really good.

http://www.onscreensupply.com/ink/ecoSolarWhite.html

[Frog]

Dirkdiggler posted about Solar just a few posts up. Mentioned an even better price than your link.

[Homer]

Dirkdiggler posted about Solar just a few posts up. Mentioned an even better price than your link.

looks like 2 different solar white's there ribbet. Atleast I think so, wilflex solar white was the one (I think) DD was referring to...that's the ticket right there...good stuff.