Miami screen supply ink

[alan802]

Like I said, I love printing with it. But when I have to see my crew re-running and order through the dryer because they aren't 100% sure of the cure, I get a little pissed. I know most shops around here could care less and would deliver, but you wouldn't believe how many times people have come to us to "re-cure" their order from another printer because they were under cured. I don't want to turn into that guy to save a few bucks on the cost of an ink. There must be a reducer added to it to make it so creamy, it's really nice on press, but that high cure temp and longer dwell is questionable to me. Quick white, which is what we switched from for this, flashed fast, cured up great 320 for 12 seconds you could stretch the crap out of it with no cracking, not with this, it needs the high temp and longer time, then it's nice and solid. Alan has a monster dryer so it probably doesn't affect him on that end.

We've never changed our temps on the dryer.  It's set so the ink hits 320 in the last heat chamber and it flashes as fast as the other whites we've used. But I'm using the regular superior and smooth, not the non phthalate.

I am going to test sonny's new white next week so stay tuned. I don't know what xenon is putting in their white to cure so quickly and be so bleed resistant but I can't wait to try it out.

[Shanarchy]

I'm nervous to try the Miami white I just got in now. I got i the non ph. I'll let you all know what my experience is. I got a gallon of smooth and a gallon of superior. Trying to find the perfect white ink for both the manual and auto. My dryer isn't very long, so I can't afford a back log there.

 

[islandtees]

I have the Miami white and find it cures just as fast as any other white. It flashes as fast if not faster than most whites I use on the auto.

[Shanarchy]

I have the Miami white and find it cures just as fast as any other white. It flashes as fast if not faster than most whites I use on the auto.

Are you using the regular or Non Pthylate version?

[islandtees]

I have the Miami white and find it cures just as fast as any other white. It flashes as fast if not faster than most whites I use on the auto.

Are you using the regular or Non Pthylate version?

Regular

[screenprintguy]

Maybe it's something in the non pthalate version, but it defiantly needs more heat for a full cure.

[mk162]

the new xenon ink is good, but they need to take the gloss out.  Sonny said it's something they put in to make it have the athletic look.  For regular printing though, i don't like it.

[alan802]

I'm nervous to try the Miami white I just got in now. I got i the non ph. I'll let you all know what my experience is. I got a gallon of smooth and a gallon of superior. Trying to find the perfect white ink for both the manual and auto. My dryer isn't very long, so I can't afford a back log there.

 

There are more members here using it than any other ink so I think you'll be fine.  Pretty much everyone I know that's tried it likes it or loves it.  I've used 50 different white inks over the last few years and it's really the best ink for the price, and I can't think of an ink that outperforms it overall.  Some inks do a few things better but overall, it doesn't really have any serious weaknesses.

[inkman996]

Been using the non PH since last summer have not had any cure issues what so ever. And I do check our cures often. As for flash time the thing is once the palettes are hot, bulbs are at peak heat the flash time on any white we use is faster than the print head except for really narrow left chests.

Just got in a five gallon of their black to test out, I am always picky about black inks, I cannot stand wilfex's so hopefully Miami's performs as well or better than wilflex's at a fraction of the cost.

[screenprintguy]

Mike, what is your dwell time/ temp that you are curing at? Gas or electric dryer, length of chamber? How is it holding up in a stretch test. Just curious. The last batch we printed pfp running through our heatwave set at 380 degrees, temp of ink staying steady at 360 degrees for 30 seconds, still cracked at stretch test. Had to crank the dryer up to 400 slow the belt down a little more and let the ink dwell at almost 400 degrees for 20 seconds or so to have it not crack. Like I said, I love the coverage of the ink, and the way it prints, its the curing that's been buggin me out.

[inkman996]

Mike, what is your dwell time/ temp that you are curing at? Gas or electric dryer, length of chamber? How is it holding up in a stretch test. Just curious. The last batch we printed pfp running through our heatwave set at 380 degrees, temp of ink staying steady at 360 degrees for 30 seconds, still cracked at stretch test. Had to crank the dryer up to 400 slow the belt down a little more and let the ink dwell at almost 400 degrees for 20 seconds or so to have it not crack. Like I said, I love the coverage of the ink, and the way it prints, its the curing that's been buggin me out.

We have electric so really hard to compare. Stretching is something we do on basically every job, its not to test cure but to give us a red flag that something is wrong. I have always slowed the belt by two units on the dial when we print white, they come out of the oven piping steaming hot. Pretty often I take test prints home and toss them in the home wash a couple few times. Only thing I can think of is that we always extra cure our white prints and switching to Miamis ink we are still over curing enough to avoid issues. Maybe if we were more dialed in and switched we might have seen a difference.

[alan802]

Mike, what is your dwell time/ temp that you are curing at? Gas or electric dryer, length of chamber? How is it holding up in a stretch test. Just curious. The last batch we printed pfp running through our heatwave set at 380 degrees, temp of ink staying steady at 360 degrees for 30 seconds, still cracked at stretch test. Had to crank the dryer up to 400 slow the belt down a little more and let the ink dwell at almost 400 degrees for 20 seconds or so to have it not crack. Like I said, I love the coverage of the ink, and the way it prints, its the curing that's been buggin me out.

Are you testing with a donut probe?  360 degrees for 30 seconds is way beyond what our ink is getting to.  Our temp probe reaches 320-330 at the last chamber of our dryer and it's sitting down in the ink.  It's not at 320 or so but for a few seconds.  The shirts read 290 with the built in laser temp gauge at the end of the dryer about 6" out of the dryer.  I've heard of people over-curing ink and having cracking issues.  We stretch a lot and it's just something we do to make sure the dryer is running, but not done to test for a full cure.  Sometimes, with our old dryer, you don't notice it's not working and if your people at the end of the dryer are so unobservant to notice shirts aren't hot, you can get in trouble.

[inkman996]

BTW when i say we are over curing I don't mean to the point of boiling the ink, we just make sure we err on the side of caution and go a bit hotter than required for white inks.

[ZooCity]

I gotta ask- is it worth the savings and performance increases jumping around with plastisol white ink brands? 

I've just religiously used WFX Epic Quick for awhile now.  Yes, I would love to pay a more reasonable price for ink, WFX pricing is insane, but I feel like I'm buying consistency that no one else is offering.  I don't have to test and compare inks over and over, or triple check settings, I just crack open each bucket, warm it up and print it. 

I'm horrified by the thought of having to recall an order b/c someone shipped me a mis-formulated batch of ink.  It's not worth the risk to me as it can cost you your reputation and your clientele that was affected in addition to the out of pocket costs.  One, just one, recalled job wrecks all the savings and, if a mfg is screwing up with formulation, chance are they are at the point where they will unscrupulously dodge around taking fault and using their insurance to at least pay you out for the recall.  I got burned hard once by this, never again. 

Not insinuating that miami ink is not properly formulated.  Just noticed the wildly varying curing needs in this thread.  It's probably just the difference in how shops measure cure and temp (donut probes read waaay low compared to surface temp readouts and there are probably as many brands/models of rayguns in use as there are print shops) but it could also be a red flag that, batch to batch, the ink is not the same.

[ebscreen]

Have you tried Rutland StreetFighter?

We went from Quick to it, and while not quite as nice as quick (flashes a little slower, is a little
stiffer initially) I can deal with it for almost half the price.

I'd try the Miami, but we're a  long way from Florida.