First - 7 color simpro

[Screened Gear]

So I had a rush for a guy and it turned out to be a 7 color simulated process job on charcoal grey shirts. I am new to this many colors and this much wet on wet printing. I have done alot of up to 6 colors manually but nothing even close on the auto. The print is not that impressive for 7 colors. (white UB, flash, grey, green, flesh, red, black, detail white) The only issue I was having was a really sticky green. I had to modify inks that I had to get the job done so I didn't have a good wow ink to use. It was mixed with union mixo inks and then softhand base about one third ink to base. The green transferred to the back of the other screens and then would stick and some of the screens would get stuck for a second. I checked my flash times and I was fine. I was using Rutland LB street fighter white for the underbase and it was fully flashed and not sticky before the green went down. I am not sure if the underbase was too hot and made the green ink sticky or if it was just a sticky ink. I had to keep printing since I had to get the shirts done for this morning. It wasn’t so sticky it would pull the shirt off so I just kept printing. (I did use plenty of waterbase adhesive.) Any help would be nice. Remember I am still learning.

[Homer]

looks damn cool from here. tight screens help, I just switched to rollers and I noticed a huge difference in wow printing. too much pressure, too much ink, wrong mesh, too much off contact. . . all can add up to that dreaded pop sound.

[3Deep]

Even with that it does not help, some inks just suck at wow printing...Nice print by the way

[JBLUE]

It also depends on image size or surface area of the ink. As long as it does not affect the final look of the print you just run with it. Like the others said screen choice will eliminate the majority of that.

[jsheridan]

Looks good bro!!

the reason for the pop is the green has a lot of yellow in it. Yellow is a sticky pigment and when flashed, has a high after tack property to it. Flash it longer and it stays sticky longer as the tack is related to the temp of the ink surface. You can minimize the pop by printing it last or by using the highest mesh and hard squeegee you can for that color. for a sim process job you should be using all high mesh (280+) for your colors with fast almost vertical squeegee stroke and a 150-200 for your base white.

[Screened Gear]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I feel like it could have been alot better. Don't get me wrong I am happy with how it turned out. I don't think I will be as afraid of the next 7 color job after doing this one. I think with the right wow inks and spending more time getting my underbase to print better I could make this job much better.

The top colors ran on all 305 statics at 20 or better tension. The underbase and detail white was run on 230 statics with 20 or better tension. I am going to be getting some EZ frames this next month to try out and see how they are. I will also be getting a wilflex MX ink mixing kit. Anything else you can think of I will need?

[JBLUE]

Fulltime printer so you go go sell more. Nice job by the way Jon!

[Screened Gear]

Fulltime printer so you go go sell more. Nice job by the way Jon!

It will come with time. I just got someone trained at cleaning screens, folding and boxing shirts and doing all the odd jobs. It has given me time to finish the shop and start doing a little marketing. A printer is next.

[blue moon]

looking GOOD!

Glad to see everything worked out!

pierre

[JBLUE]

Fulltime printer so you go go sell more. Nice job by the way Jon!

It will come with time. I just got someone trained at cleaning screens, folding and boxing shirts and doing all the odd jobs. It has given me time to finish the shop and start doing a little marketing. A printer is next.

Who sepped it?

[Screened Gear]

looking GOOD!

Glad to see everything worked out!

pierre

Thanks Pierre. I took my time and your pointers help alot to get me started. I still think I need to mess with it more to get more ink down. I just feel like the colors need to pop more. I spent alot of time trying to get my top color to put down more ink. I was thinking about it today and I bet I should have spend more time working on getting a better whiter underbase print. I would love to stand next to you when you adjust your press for a job. I think I am ajusting the wrong things and wasting alot of time. I honestly don't see that much differance when changing flood angles and squeegee angles. I think my height ajustment (choppers) is still down too far making me print way to hard. This would explain not getting enough ink down??? Maybe even the green sticking so bad???

[blue moon]

Fulltime printer so you go go sell more. Nice job by the way Jon!

It will come with time. I just got someone trained at cleaning screens, folding and boxing shirts and doing all the odd jobs. It has given me time to finish the shop and start doing a little marketing. A printer is next.

Who sepped it?

I am guessing Jon is answering this now and I am gonna try to beat him!!!!

Netseps (M Coudray)

pierre

[Screened Gear]

Fulltime printer so you go go sell more. Nice job by the way Jon!

It will come with time. I just got someone trained at cleaning screens, folding and boxing shirts and doing all the odd jobs. It has given me time to finish the shop and start doing a little marketing. A printer is next.

Who sepped it?

I am guessing Jon is answering this now and I am gonna try to beat him!!!!

Netseps (M Coudray)

pierre

Hey that was a secret. Yes that is who did them. I really went with them for a few reason. One the simple price structure. (first one a month $95, 2-5 $75 and over 5 is $50. No matter the design or colors needed) It makes it easy to price jobs. I was also referred to them by a few guys that have never had a problem with the separations. Seeing that I am new to this process knowing the seps are right helps. The last one is fast turn times. I got them in less than 24 hours with all the info I needed: PSD file with spot channels, directions to sep it, LPI and angle to use, print order, flash location, inks to use, screens to use. I am sure this stuff is always the same for each job but it was nice to have it all in one package. They also followed up with me today to find out how it went.

[Dottonedan]

This brings up a good subject. Sep pricing.


I thought about that price structure, but the truth is, 80% of all my customers only send in 1 job a month or less. Most of my business is taken up by the 15-20% that send in more than once a month.

I have also found that most all of my customers see value in knowing that I charge based on Image difficulty. It's more efficient and fair in terms of price. You get charged for what it's worth. This means, an easy 7 color job can cost 60.00 one day and a more difficult 7 color can cost 120.00 another day. My customers send me an image to quote on each time.  Often times, those who don't do seps at all think a Job is difficult when in reality, it's a 20 min. Job.  It goes the other way also.

I find it difficult to charge $95.00 to 80% of my customers when i know some of them are a 20 min. Job
For your job pictured, I probably would have charged 60.00-80.00. In addition, I would have knocked the color count on this one down to 6 color Max and possibly 5 but that is always left up to the customer. I ask, does your customer want to get the best print ( by sometimes using more colors) or do they want to get a lesser costing shirt and have us take it down to 6 or 5?

This is not a knock on the others seps. Just a comparison. The quality of the sepa is obviously good enough.

On the other hand, I have heard from customers on a few occasions that they have asked that I provide a consistane structure. The numbers of customers that have asked for this has been about 2 in over 10 years, so I don't hear that it's an important factor for the majority.

[Dottonedan]

Sorry for the off topic. It got me excited.

It's a very good print. My first reply was going to complain that you lost your sim virginity to someone else other than me. I wanted to be your first.