"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
Hello....We are fairly new to discharge printing, as we mainly print plastisol. We haven't yet worked out all the kinks. We were working with Gildan 90%cotton 10%polyester Antique cherry red t-shirt garments. our formula was 95% binder, drips of yellow and a tiny black ink to produce the off white look they were asking for, a minute amount of water, to keep it fluid and activator. Our trouble was with keeping the fine lines, the subtext, if you will, of the print clear. Every 8-10 shirts, even with keeping the holes flooded between prints, and printing at a pretty fast pace ( for a manual printer) there were certain areas of the finer details (the tittles over the i's and the tails on the capital B's, as well as build up towards the tops of the stems of the larger letters) kept clogging. It got so bad that it was easier to take down the screen, wash it out and start all over. The discharge screen was a 125 mesh. For the water based print which accompanied this order on a few other shirts (which was a red ink on oxford and dark heather), was rather runny and not bold enough to our liking (SOMEWHAT TRANSLUCENT, STILL LOOKED GOOD, BUT...), however, print after print on the waterbased, the tittles and tails did not dry up and we used a 110 mesh screen. My question is this... is there an ULTIMATE recipe for the best discharge AND the best water based prints? What am I doing wrong so the screen does not dry out? Too much activator? Screen mesh? zero off contact vs. slight off contact? If there is anyone who can decipher my issue and let me know what they think, I'll be in their debt. Thanks!
this and opacity is why I prefer Magna Super White over the others. Its runny already and the brightest discharge white I have ever seen.
that's the trade off, the ZF is the one that works best, but it also is worst smelling one on the market. That white is so blinging, but it stinks up the whole block around here. Just decide whats more important to ya. A awesome print and taking 5 years off of your life, or a dull NF print and living 5 more years!
The Magna ULF series bases are for use with Activator M (the NF activator). The AB AW bases are for use with the standard ZFS activator. I have had really good results with the NF activator, but haven't tested the ZFS system. My neighbors would pitch a fit! I have been impressed with the washability too. Sourceone (Nazdar) is still offering an introductory pigment set and a gallon of the base of your choice for less than $100. A great way to try out the Magna line regardless of base type. The NF system has been great for me as I could never swing the ZFS in my print setting. But remember that the Activator M won't ship on anything other than a truck delivery, no Fedex or UPS even if it would go ground. Will call all the way for me.