School me on 1-hit whites...

[jvanick]

I'm trying to figure out the variables I should be messing with to get a good 1-hit white with plastisol... we've been struggling with this for pretty much ever, but now that we've got a lot of our other shop processes nailed, I'd like to start experimenting.

Any tips, help, ideas, would be greatly appreciated.

[Colin]

lower mesh counts/low thread diameter.

Good E.O.M.  you want to be able to feeeeeel the edge of your stencil.

Softer squeegee blade/beveled edge.  SHARP.  Use the lightest pressure possible.

Short bodied ink that shears easily.

Ink must be high opacity.

DO NOT PRINT BIG OPEN AREAS. 

No one can achieve a good one hit white with big solid areas.

Be open minded about what a good one hit white will look like.  Your opinion Vs. my opinion will probably be different.

[Dottonedan]

lower mesh counts/low thread diameter.

Good E.O.M.  you want to be able to feeeeeel the edge of your stencil.

Softer squeegee blade/beveled edge.  SHARP.  Use the lightest pressure possible.

Short bodied ink that shears easily.

Ink must be high opacity.

DO NOT PRINT BIG OPEN AREAS. 

No one can achieve a good one hit white with big solid areas.

Be open minded about what a good one hit white will look like.  Your opinion Vs. my opinion will probably be different.

Pretty much what I would say except that I don't know enough about the (Short bodied ink that shears easily.) part to tell anyone that. I don't know all the different inks so this is golden from Colin.
[/size]
[/size]If you don't have an EOM meter,  then on a 110 and lower, I suggest a 2/2 slow coats with a round edge and look for that glistening affect.  Thick stencils feeling the raised edges leaving a valley for the ink to fall into is key.

[jvanick]

so what's considered good EOM? 30%? 40%? More?

we've been trying to get one-hit whites with 150-48 S mesh... I wonder if I should coat up some of the 110's that we use for hoodie prints and try those?

[Frog]

Purists may not like it, but a little puff has been a standard trick for years, and in fact, is added by a lot of ink manufacturers.

[Screened Gear]

One hits whites are possible. Ok now that I said that, one hit whites are dialed in over a run, the way Colin said (good post Colin). I don't think doing them is a good everyday setup. I have a few jobs I do one hits on and it is 93 to 100 percent white. Now is that acceptable. Maybe but another hit of white would make it 100% white consistently without any fine dialing in prerun time to get the job set up.

Why do you want a one hit white...
One hit whites are good because they save time and money. Time by not having to set up another screen and money by not having two layers of costly? white ink on every shirt. If you have to change the screen to a lower mesh and softer squeegees then your adding cost to do the one hit white by putting down more ink. If you lay down more ink softly then you are also making a thicker not so smooth print. This gives you a lesser quality print in some cases. So is the one hit worth it. I would rather do two hits and have a consistent print.

The shops that have it dialed in can save money and time, but its really only worth it on the larger orders.

[jvanick]

I'm looking at it more as a technique for when we're dealing with less than opaque top colors, think lemon yellow... my thinking is that if I work to achieve the one-hit-white, it'll make everything else go better.. 

if I could get better white base, I would not have to pfpf the white and then put the yellow on top to make it look good.

[TCT]

Try a 150LX...

[Rob Coleman]

I would add that as far as cost of the ink -- I challenge that you can use LESS ink with PFP through a finer mesh that trying to one hit through a much coarser.   

Just a thought! 

[mooseman]

When an ink company can truly develop a REAL one hit white it will be a game changer for this industry...until then we all get to make the best of what we can obtain with our choice of brand and technique.
 Until then printing "successful , acceptable white will be the offspring of science and art that is the foundation of this business.
mooseman

[JBLUE]

I would add that as far as cost of the ink -- I challenge that you can use LESS ink with PFP through a finer mesh that trying to one hit through a much coarser.   

Just a thought! 

Not only do you save on less ink like Ron says but the setup is faster than sitting there trying to dial in a print that will not compare to a two screened white no matter what you do. The one hit white is like Santa. There are lots of fakes out there and people that believe he exist. In reality he does not and neither does an effective one hit white. People have just lowered their standards of good quality to accept a one hit as good enough.

[jvanick]

I agree with all of the above... just trying to find a solution to avoid the pfpf base issue that I mentioned above.

Alex: I'll grab a few 150LX panels next time I order from Shurloc and try them out... any other suggestions for mesh to try?

*and yes I know that I should be trying discharge underbase... i'm just scared to hell of that as much of this stuff is for church groups/runs/events where I know that kids and people will be wearing them same day, regardless if I put a wash-first sticker on or not.

[TCT]

The 150LX is as low as we go, aside from speciality screens. The 150LX is fragile, but damn nice!

[Maxie]

We print 1000s of T shirts, with one hit (one screen two strokes) on a MHM with Wilflex Tiger White and I wouldn't enter them in a competition but our customers are happy.      These are orders of around 40 shirts that we print front and back one color, definitely doesn't pay to make two screens.

[Doug S]

The only 1 hit I've ever accomplished is through an 80 s mesh.  The print had sharp edges and it stood off of the shirt it looked like 1/8 of an inch because of an extremely thick eom using chromablue with a 1/1 coating "which by the way, you better do your best to have it skin over quickly after coating or you will have some drippage".  I was using legacy white and it was absolutely 100% opaque.  I was printing with a 55/90/55 durometer squeegee. 

Truthfully it used more ink any day than a typical pfp.

I know that with some finessing I could probably pull it off with a 150/48 I just have to remember to add that extra coat of emulsion.  I put more effort into the 1 hits on smaller runs like 50 and under to avoid revolving but most of the time I still have to.