Author Topic: Ink not printing?  (Read 2850 times)

Offline 3Deep

  • !!!
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 5330
Ink not printing?
« on: November 17, 2014, 11:48:38 AM »
Bear with me here fellers got a crazy problem and will try to explain, last Friday we are printing a simple two color print purple on a white base easy job so I thought. Screens are 137 mesh ct so we're doing 78 pcs  I P/F/P the underbase carefully not to over cook, we get down to the last for shirts and the purple starts to print very light pastel looking.  No problem, I wipe the bottom of the screen and hit it again same thing, ok I wipe it again and flash the already pastel purple print and reprint same thing, so I skip that shirt and go onto the next and yes it prints the pastel purple again only on one side, now mine you I've run all the shirts the same way except for these 4 want print correct.  I ended up taking a small soft squeegee about 60 duro and hand printing that spot on the press and it covered fine, after I did the run I went back and printed that color by itself with out the underbase and it printed fine.  I know it had some thing to with the underbase but why these four shirts and not the rest? any of you had this happen and figured how the cause.

darryl
Life is like Kool-Aid, gotta add sugar/hardwork to make it sweet!!


Offline ericheartsu

  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 3540
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2014, 12:00:23 PM »
Bear with me here fellers got a crazy problem and will try to explain, last Friday we are printing a simple two color print purple on a white base easy job so I thought. Screens are 137 mesh ct so we're doing 78 pcs  I P/F/P the underbase carefully not to over cook, we get down to the last for shirts and the purple starts to print very light pastel looking.  No problem, I wipe the bottom of the screen and hit it again same thing, ok I wipe it again and flash the already pastel purple print and reprint same thing, so I skip that shirt and go onto the next and yes it prints the pastel purple again only on one side, now mine you I've run all the shirts the same way except for these 4 want print correct.  I ended up taking a small soft squeegee about 60 duro and hand printing that spot on the press and it covered fine, after I did the run I went back and printed that color by itself with out the underbase and it printed fine.  I know it had some thing to with the underbase but why these four shirts and not the rest? any of you had this happen and figured how the cause.

darryl

could the base be to hot that it was starting to cure the purple? and maybe it was blocking up the screen?
Night Owls
Waterbased screen printing and promo products.
www.nightowlsprint.com 281.741.7285

Offline ScreenPrinter123

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 863
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2014, 12:23:30 PM »
Did the underbase maybe not fully gel?  That could cause what you are describing.  This happened to us once when our quartz flash decided to just stop coming on for the set time and it took me a little while to figure it out until I touched the underbase with my finger.  We reset the flash and we were back in business.

Offline ebscreen

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4281
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2014, 12:27:02 PM »
Yep, that's happened to us before too.

Offline Frog

  • Administrator
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13980
  • Docendo discimus
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2014, 01:00:23 PM »
But, if I understand what he says, these same shirts printed fine when the purple was put down manually.  Wouldn't the same blending with the still-wet white still occur?
That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

Offline blue moon

  • Administrator
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6366
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2014, 01:05:14 PM »
ubase not cured!
could have been a draft or bad bulb or something else. . .

pierre
Yes, we've won our share of awards, and yes, I've tested stuff and read the scientific papers, but ultimately take everything I say with more than just a grain of salt! So if you are looking for trouble, just do as I say or even better, do something I said years ago!

Offline ebscreen

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4281
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2014, 01:17:55 PM »
But, if I understand what he says, these same shirts printed fine when the purple was put down manually.  Wouldn't the same blending with the still-wet white still occur?

My thoughts too, but stranger things have happened. This is screen printing, after all.

Offline bimmridder

  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1886
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2014, 01:43:07 PM »
Let me toss out another possibility. Uneven ink deposit on underbase?
Barth Gimble

Printing  (not well) for 35 years. Strong in licensed sports apparel. Plastisol printer. Located in Cedar Rapids, IA

Offline Frog

  • Administrator
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13980
  • Docendo discimus
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2014, 02:53:58 PM »
Let me toss out another possibility. Uneven ink deposit on underbase?

On only four shirts?
That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

Offline 3Deep

  • !!!
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 5330
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2014, 03:07:11 PM »
I have no answer, very weird how it did that on the last four shirts, I was thinking the same thing underbase not flashed good, also underbase over flashed, but when I use that soft squeegee and hand printed it, it printed fine @ebscreen your right chit happens and I might never know why it did what it did.  Heck you can push a rock thru 137 mesh LOL
Life is like Kool-Aid, gotta add sugar/hardwork to make it sweet!!

Offline bimmridder

  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1886
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2014, 03:10:16 PM »
Didn't read close enough. I saw the "hand printing " part and assumed.....
Barth Gimble

Printing  (not well) for 35 years. Strong in licensed sports apparel. Plastisol printer. Located in Cedar Rapids, IA

Online Homer

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 3208
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2014, 03:26:28 PM »
D - did one of the choppers blow out on the squeegie? loosing all pressure on that one side?
...keep doing what you're doing, you'll only get what you've got...

Offline mimosatexas

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4221
  • contributor
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #12 on: November 17, 2014, 04:14:09 PM »
have you successfully printed using the same parameters but a different screen in that head since it happened?

Offline 3Deep

  • !!!
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 5330
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2014, 05:27:30 PM »
I didn't think about a chopper giving up the ghost, but I don't think that's it :-\, stranger things have happen before.
Life is like Kool-Aid, gotta add sugar/hardwork to make it sweet!!

Offline rmonks

  • !!!
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 457
Re: Ink not printing?
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2014, 05:38:17 PM »
The guy I sold my Javelin to told me to come by his shop one day to look at a modification he had made to his Flashback. What he had done was take a thin sheet of heat resistant material like bakelite or asbestos this was about the thickness of a nickel and the size of the area over the reflectors on the back side of the flash tubes and this solved the problem of the ink curing in the screens.