printed my first job on the auto- came out horrible

[Sbrem]

If it makes you feel any better, my first job on an auto was a 6 color front, 6 color back on dark shirts with two flashes.  400 pieces, and about 100 of them weren't passable.  I drove 6 hours to deliver, then drove 8 hours back stopping at two suppliers to pick up f'ed up shirts, came back to the shop, printed the replacements and drove 6 hours back to deliver them.  It gets better quickly.  Took me about two weeks to get somewhat comfortable printing on an auto...and even to this day, I find it more difficult than manual printing.  But thats mainly because mine is out of whack right now.

What, no couriers? Damn, that's a lot of driving...

[BBB]

Sorry your having such trouble..most of the people hear are right. You should have underbased. I set the machine up quite a bit, but usually James ran it. Im pretty sure turning the controls on top clockwise lower, or increase squegee presssure. Must have had a lot of ink on bottom sending them around 4 times ..  and all that flashing would make those pallets hot enough to semi cure the ink on contact .Donnie Miller runs the same machine..maybe he can help  more than me. But not UB was the problem and printed and flashed too much. Your agjustable squegee works just like a manual, straight up, less ink put down, more angle, more ink. Slower speed will put more ink down. sorry you had problems, but try something easier on next job. You'll get it.. 

[BBB]

email me Ill give you my hm phone   

[Scobey Peterman]

A few items that were suggested to me when I started on an auto...................

Make sure you boards are at least 150 degrees.  It all works better when boards are warm.

Then on the other hand, be sure your shirt has time to cool after flashing. You might want to have an empty station after the flash.  Sometimes I add a small fan to help cool the print.

One day you will look back at this and say "What was I thinking".


Good luck

[Shanarchy]

Sorry your having such trouble..most of the people hear are right. You should have underbased. I set the machine up quite a bit, but usually James ran it. Im pretty sure turning the controls on top clockwise lower, or increase squegee presssure. Must have had a lot of ink on bottom sending them around 4 times ..  and all that flashing would make those pallets hot enough to semi cure the ink on contact .Donnie Miller runs the same machine..maybe he can help  more than me. But not UB was the problem and printed and flashed too much. Your agjustable squegee works just like a manual, straight up, less ink put down, more angle, more ink. Slower speed will put more ink down. sorry you had problems, but try something easier on next job. You'll get it.. 

Hi Bill!

Great to see you on here. How has everything been? Do you remember about what kind of angle you would keep your squeegee and flood bars at?

you can e-mail me at mackie_shane@yahoo.com

The more I think about it the more I think the lack of underbase killed me on this one.

Live and learn.

[BBB]

I think that your right. Flashing that much got those pallets pretty hot. I'm doin fine, (not worrying about a job due tomorrow)lol. You'll get it right, just start out on something easier, and dont try black with no UB. Angle of squegee varies job and screen to job and screen. Thats why its adjustable. Like I said, use your manual experience to guide you. I rember trying more upright, the better. Just watch the flood bar doesnt push thru the screen...Nothing to do about this job, but at least watch it the first few shirts, and if you have problems, fix them or go to manual, before 150 are done...will write you on email. Nice to hear from you

[Printhouse]

I would love to see a manual to auto thread!  I have been so busy I have not even been able to move my javlin into place yet.  Hopefully I will have some downtime this week to start setting things up.

[RichardGreaves]

Screen printing ink is designed to stay put - this is why you can turn a bucket upside down, and the ink won't pour. Slow shearing force doesn't help the ink spread across the shirt to produce a uniform deposit.

Many drug induced printers, grasp for a chemical additive that reduces viscosity - BUT that defeats what the ink designer was aiming at because the ink will penetrate the shirt and you won't get a film or coating.

Fast blade speed, low off-contact, high mesh tension and a blade that stands up to the resistant forces (thick ink and mesh tension).

[Northland]

Screen printing ink is designed to stay put - this is why you can turn a bucket upside down, and the ink won't pour. Slow shearing force doesn't help the ink spread across the shirt to produce a uniform deposit.

Many drug inducer printers grasp for a chemical additive that reduces viscosity - BUT that defeats what the ink designer was aiming at because the ink will penetrate the shirt and you won't get a film or coating.

Fast blade speed, low off-contact, high mesh tension and a blade that stands up to the resistant forces (thick ink and mesh tension).

Thanks... I'll be trying a faster blade speed. I've been guilty of reducing ink and also of double stroking to get the mesh cleared.

[Donnie]

Give me a call Shane.... (580-748-0601) No need to reinvent the wheel. We've all been there and I made a few calls myself along the way. 

[alan802]

I don't know how in the hell I missed this thread, just now saw it.  I would have loved to have been involved with this when it was relevant.  I wish there was a horizon here in town that I could go look at to get a good feel of the angles, speed, pressure and all that stuff so I could also help you out.

Pink on black, even the most opaque pink I've ever seen wouldn't have looked good pfp without a good base.  I would probably go lower on the underbase than most are suggesting, just because of the poor opacity in most pink inks, maybe 110-137.  And I've been slowly speeding up our print speeds lately and we are printing 3-4 times faster today than we were a month ago.  And it doesn't make sense, but the ink deposit is much better at those faster speeds as well.

[Donnie]

Set your flood bars at 0 angle and your squeegee at 15 degrees. Dial the food bar depth to where the bar makes a slight noise on the screen when you drag it across the screen. Don't mess with the pressure gauge on the front of the head. It won't hurt if you do but a much better way to increase or decrease the squeegee pressure is to dial it up up or down. A good point to start at is around 15 on the bar. If you are printing half tones, this may be a bit much.

[Homer]

so you guys are saying MORE ink deposit with a faster print stroke? we have always thought faster print stroke = less ink deposit and less dot gain. I have to try this out Monday. Or tomorrow if I can't wait. I am switching back to Quick white and that is pretty thick compared to the xenon white we were using, I will have to play around with squeegies again, I hate like hell to add some reducer to it. This squeegie from Pierre seems to be badass so far.

[alan802]

so you guys are saying MORE ink deposit with a faster print stroke? we have always thought faster print stroke = less ink deposit and less dot gain. I have to try this out Monday. Or tomorrow if I can't wait. I am switching back to Quick white and that is pretty thick compared to the xenon white we were using, I will have to play around with squeegies again, I hate like hell to add some reducer to it. This squeegie from Pierre seems to be badass so far.

I don't think anyone would really argue that slower print speed will deposit more ink, but I think that when printing plastisol it's more about getting the best ink deposit and not the most ink deposited.  Depending on the ink your printing with, it is possible to get a "better" ink deposit by speeding up the stroke and ejecting (shearing) the ink ONTO the shirt instead of pushing the ink through the stencil and INTO the shirt  So with a good white ink, like quick white, I think you'll find that giving a hard flood and filling the stencil with ink, then using a faster print stroke will yield you a better ink deposit, more opaque, smoother, etc. than using a slower print stroke.

I was encouraged to try this technique by Bill Hood a while back and I've slowly increased our print speed and have noticed a better overall ink deposit.  I've known for a long time the goal is to print plastisol ink on top of the shirt and not into the shirt, but for whatever reason, I was stuck in the thought process of printing slow to deposit more ink and get enough opacity for the top colors to pop. 

I will warn you that this technique may not work using a thick thread, low percentage open area mesh count, and a really thick, long bodied ink.  It takes the right combo of ink and mesh count to get that perfect shear or ejection of ink onto the shirt.  Your squeegee angle will be very upright, and will act as a tool to basically cut the ink from the stencil.

[RichardGreaves]

Not necessarily MORE ink, but all the ink 'metered' by the mesh + stencil thickness. Speed helps the ink flow easily but the mesh thickness determines ink deposit. Granted, because shirts are porous, ink can go INTO the shirt and even print the platen. This is a waste of money.

Wetting, is the ability of a liquid to spread across the surface of a shirt to produce a uniform, continuous film or clear the mesh. If the ink doesn't flow easily, it won't clean out of the mesh - that's why we double stroke. That's why it takes a few strokes to get ink flowing after we let rest for a while.

The straighter the blade, the better it can resist hydroplaning or floating on top, rather than scraping the ink across the mesh.  No blade contact with the inside of the screen, no transfer of ink through the holes in the mesh.