Smoothing Screen/Heat Press Smoothing

[ericheartsu]

I'm in the middle of printing a job on a royal poly spandex tee. It's a 3 color print:

156-Barrier Gray
flash
Roller Screen/Smoothing screen
272-Green
flash
156-Mustang White

and our prints are still coming out kind of rough feeling. The smoothing screen is helping, but not by much. I was wondering if anyone can give me any tips, to really knock out the filbration, or on how to post smooth with a heat press? I'm picking up a used one this afternoon, just to try this out.

[tpitman]

How thin is that gray underbase? For me, that's always what determines the smoothness, although some shirts seem worse than others. Thin ink or too high a mesh count won't put down a dense enough barrier to keep the fibers from sticking up. I generally use a 156 but get different results with different inks. A dry second stroke also helps on a manual press.
As for heat pressing after the fact, place a piece of brown kraft paper over the print and press for about 5 seconds at 350.

[ericheartsu]

the underbase is pretty thick but prints smooth. it's straight from the bucket, with no added anything.

it's a 156 white mesh i believe

[dave58]

Got a heat press?......teflon sheet + heat press....will fix it in a pinch.

[3Deep]

Is your ink clearing your screens good? might try a different squeegee duro or angle of printing, but a heat press will help,buuttt will leave you with a shiny print maybe...

Darryl

[Prosperi-Tees]

Use butcher paper if you are going to heat press them.

[DannyGruninger]

My guess, and you've probably already realized this but whenever we print a grey base it flashes in at least half the time that white does. Anytime we slightly over flash a grey base we run into a not so smooth sand paper texture to the print. Like I said you've probably dialed the flash in with that ink but just a suggestion. Our grey base we use flashes in under 1 second which is quite a bit faster then our white.

[ericheartsu]

My guess, and you've probably already realized this but whenever we print a grey base it flashes in at least half the time that white does. Anytime we slightly over flash a grey base we run into a not so smooth sand paper texture to the print. Like I said you've probably dialed the flash in with that ink but just a suggestion. Our grey base we use flashes in under 1 second which is quite a bit faster then our white.

our press is a bit older, and we have to hit the print twice to clear it. We are still trying to dial that in, but it adds quite some time to the print. We use zero dwell time, but we try and move it as fast as we can. We are using an old IR flash, but hopefully this month or early next month we'll be upgrading to a brand new quartz flash

[Frog]

Got a heat press?......teflon sheet + heat press....will fix it in a pinch.

I think that Teflon sheets add a sheen and slight pattern (many have a noticeable "weave") In fact, Stahls used to say to use them to simulate a screen printed effect (I never quite saw it that way)
I use the craft paper. For me, the finish is smoother and more matte.

[Inkworks]

Is that Wilflex's barrier grey underbase? If so cutting it with some regular white may help, that stuff comes so thick it's almost unprintable.

[ZooCity]

Yeah the WFX Performance Underbase Grey is just about unprintable out of the bucket.  Also too dark as a UB in my opinion.  We cut it with Perf White and add 1% QEC viscosity buster.  Pre warm that ink and keep the shop temp up as high as is tolerable!  It makes a world of difference.  I bet if you can lay down a smooth UB with not too much ink but enough to matt down you'll see the problems disappear.