Discharging hoodis or sweatshirts

[cbjamel]

Discharging Guru's can you discharge hoodies or sweatshirts if so I assume more cotton the better? Is one brand better than another for this. Black in color.

Thanks,
Shane

[nobrainsd]

I don't qualify as a guru, but I'm enjoying printing DC inks on hoodies. Will only use plastisol if I absolutely must. You are right that the cotton content is directly related to how well the garment will discharge. The type of dye used is also a big factor. I have had great success printing DC on Hanes Print Pro Fleece and Independent Trading Co fleece too. The ITC IND4000 fleece I just printed on has a really nice 100% cotton 32 singles face yarn so they printed very nicely and discharged great. I have also gotten good results when discharging heathers with some poly in the mix. Testing is imperative with blends and hard to discharge colors. But sticking with a 100% cotton face in colors other than purple, royal and some reds will make your initial foray into DC printing go much smoother.

These higher cotton content fleeces like the ITC and Hanes also have a tighter woven surface when compared to the basic 50/50 type of sweat that you may be used to. Really nice to have that tighter weave. It sure helps produce a nice tight detailed print.

[cbjamel]

Thanks for the info.
Shane

[JBLUE]

Yes you can discharge them. Even some 50/50s work depending on the color. Here is a pic of a IND4000 from Independent. Printing 1 color red Sericol over the pocket and all. No out of reg to worry about. This shows you how far off some of the pockets are sewn on sweats....lol The print was straight.Sorry about the pic. It was the only one I had on my phone.

[cbjamel]

Ok so if you are print with white as a base for 4cp plastisol how do you print it?
Print the discharge and flash it and then wet print the others as usual?

Thanks,
Shane

[ZooCity]

JBLUE - that's Sericol red out of the bucket?  Looks freaking great.  I can't quite get 100% happy with my reds with the Sericol and have hit a wall where I'll be adding CCI pigs to get it there.  I tend to under activate them to get what I want right now.

[JBLUE]

Red straight of the bucket on an IND4000. They have a 100% Coton print face. That is why I love them. 5% activator and 5% water. 180 S mesh on a Newman frame.

[tonypep]

Looks good J

[JBLUE]

Looks good J

Thanks Tony. It is your fault we are into this..........

[tonypep]

Sorry! Funny how so not so long ago people thought I was nuts. Static frames, lower tensions, no underbasing, halftoning on high mesh. Must of made guys like BH crazy!
Now you guys are the ones doing the great work(for less money).....congrats

[ScreenPrinter123]

Wait, you're not nuts?

[tonypep]

I said people thought I was nuts........didn't say the were wrong!

[brandon]

Nice print. And yeah, while he does have an amazing filed of experience under his belt and has traveled world wide with screen printing I have not read too much from him regarding water base inks. I know his shop in Mexico does a lot of water base production but maybe because it is radically different from plastisol printing it throws his articles off. I will not lie he has helped me in the past with wow printing and pressures and all things included but it was always plastisol. And I have seen guys who run auto shops who triple and quadruple hit screens just to clear the mesh with both statics and rollers. That is why this forum is awesome because so many of y'all do have experience and different perspectives of looking at things. There is always more than one way to skin a cat, I mean print a shirt!

[ScreenPrinter123]

Not to hi jack the thread but when you guys discharge hoodies/sweatshirts, do you all use a lower mesh count and double stroke (come on now, be honest).  Or are you sticking with the same mesh counts?  Also, what hoodies are you using -- most of my suppliers at best have 80/20 and the 50/50's I used  came out poor -- was using a 180s and double stroked it, but with a 75/95/75 --  the 65/95/65 seem to make a big difference so I have yet to try that.  So I don't know if it was the 50/50 issue or if I should definitely lower my mesh count to a 150S, 135S, or 110S and double stroke it?

Thanks

[JBLUE]

Its the 50/50. Before offering or even mention WB to a customer we test the garment. Some 50/50s work ok and others are a no go. Same with tri-blends. The only way you will know is to tes, test, and test again. Different percentages go different things. It is important to know the limitations ahead of time before trying it on an order.

That pic of the one we did below is an IND4000 from Independent. They are a 80/20 but have a 100% cotton print face on them. That did make a difference. We have gotten good results with the other 80/20's as well.

180 S mesh 1 hit. It had a lot of detail in the arrows. Aquasol HV with Diazo and hardened on the squeegee side.