New Member Introduction and Advice Needed

[jonbravado]

Hey guys - This is John with Meridian.   I've been reading the TSB for over a year but am just now posting for the first time.  This is a killer place to learn - thanks for all your insight.  This is a great place to hang out on the web.  A lot of you guys pump out amazing work.

Our backstory - been doing this for about 17 years - We are a mid-sized shop with an auto and two manuals - we do mostly end-user work, not contract - and are blessed to be busy.  Got a great staff and are dead set of challenging them with new gear and new techniques.

We've been doing mainly plastisol the whole time, and have it down pretty well.  Having a great artist is a big help.
We are branching out into water/dc and other ink systems and i need some advice.

A layup question for you discharge guys:  Black shirt 100% cotton - white and orange imprint - would you use discharge white for an underbase, flash, then overlay the plastisol orange ink?  or would you just use discharge base, flash, then overlay orange and a top white?  I am looking for the best possible result of DC ub/plastisol top coat.

Thanks for the help!

[jvanick]

Welcome on board... lots of great info and great people here.

I'm not a discharge expert, so I'll let somebody else respond with better info, however, it's my understanding that plastisol doesn't like to stick to white discharge, and that if you're going to try that you want like a 20% white discharge to 80% discharge base mix.

Also, unless you have really good ventilation around your flash, you don't really want to be flashing discharge, as it'll kick up bad fumes for you and your employees to breath.

[ericheartsu]

Welcome! this has been a super great education for me on this board, hopefully it will work the same for you!

If we were printing this job, we'd do this as straight discharge. 166 mesh for the white, and 200 For the orange print. This would be easier than doing an underbase.

If an UB is required, you want to make sure it's mixed 80% clear, 20% white. I've been told and learned once to never print on White DC.

I'm sure more people will chime in with more technical answers.

[mimosatexas]

You will save a lot of time by just using discharge white and discharge orange, and the print will overall feel better and breathe better.

If you are set on using plastisol on top of DC, do a mix of 80/20 clear/white DC for the base.

[jonbravado]

Awesome, thanks guys - I've noticed the orange plastisol wanting to stick to the top layer of pigment a bit (which will wash out a bit) - we conducted scratch/pull/wash tests and it held up fine - the orange is still there nicely.  But i have my doubts long term - I lose sleep over the thought of prints that won't hold up.   We need to just dive in to the pigment system and do all discharge on simple prints like this.  For all you guys doing DC underbase with sim pro plastisol on top - i assume the visible white in the print is another printed top white?

We have shuttle flashes with fans, we set them up on the opposite side of the press and have great ventilation - also  the Ryonet (CCI) discharge doesn't stink.  I've heard awful things about discharge, but this stuff ain't bad at all.  We don't print it in heads setup near fans as it dries out too quickly.  So far, no problems with the fumes/stink - but I make our guys be careful with the stuff anyhow.  Thanks again for the help!

I'll try to post some pics and actually contribute to this great place.

J

[jvanick]

We have shuttle flashes with fans, we set them up on the opposite side of the press and have great ventilation - also  the Ryonet (CCI) discharge doesn't stink.  I've heard awful things about discharge, but this stuff ain't bad at all.  We don't print it in heads setup near fans as it dries out too quickly.  So far, no problems with the fumes/stink - but I make our guys be careful with the stuff anyhow.  Thanks again for the help!

I'd still be somewhat concerned with the formaldehyde and zink getting airborne... just because it doesn't stink doesn't mean you're not breathing it.

[blue moon]

80/20 for ubase and print white plastisol on top. flash the ubase as little as possible, just a fraction of what you'd normally do.

or go DC only!

pierre

[Sbrem]

Hi Jon, welcome to the board, a really good group here, always helpful, and pretty funny too. All good advice so far, it's always best to ask someone who knows.

Steve

[Get Shirts]

We ran that exact combo today, all discharge, came out great and MUCH easier than basing the print.

[jonbravado]

is anyone using the CCI pigments?  we like CCI base and white so far.  Seems easy(ish) to match colors from the outside.  I think I'll order a set today to start messing around.