Author Topic: What do you do with 180 Mesh  (Read 1255 times)

Offline Maxie

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What do you do with 180 Mesh
« on: August 12, 2019, 07:25:40 AM »
Up to now I've used 4 mesh counts.
135-055
150 -045
230-040
305-040
I've just added
180- 045
Now  I can either try and use the 180 instead of the 150 or I can use the 180 instead of the 230.
Printing on polyester sportsware I often use base and top colors 150, I find the 230 doesn't give enough coverage.
Same on polo shirts.
Normally on cotton we underbase with a 150 and top colors use 230.
I'd like to hear what others are doing with these mesh counts.
Maxie Garb.
T Max Designs.
Silk Screen Printers
www.tmax.co.il


Offline farmboygraphics

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2019, 07:50:05 AM »
180 is the work horse here. Although I'm finding the 150 holds really nice detail. I've kinda shunned over the years and compared it in my head to 110, but 1 and 1 on S-Mesh makes a really nice screen.
Tees and Coffee

Offline Nation03

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2019, 08:02:27 AM »
Definitely not for everyone, but lately the only meshes I use are 150-S and 180-S. Usually 150 for all white/base prints and 180 for the tops or if I'm doing a dark color on light shirts I'll just use 180s. With air print heads I like how easy ink clears from these mesh counts. 60% of my screens can be 150s and the other 40% can be split between 180 and 225s and that's pretty much all I need at least with my current setup.

Offline Colin

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2019, 08:55:45 AM »
I used the 180s for spot color work over a white base, occasionally it would be used for a base white.

Lays down a great amount of ink for spot color work.  But lays down to much for WOW printing.  If I needed a color to print WOW, I used a 225s.
Been in the industry since 1996.  5+ years with QCM Inks.  Been a part of shops of all sizes and abilities both as a printer and as an Artist/separator.  I am now the Ink and Chemical Product Manager at Ryonet.

Offline mk162

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2019, 08:58:06 AM »
180s is our most used mesh around here.  We use for UB and spot colors.  We will break out a 150s if we really need to crank up the base for say lemon yellow or a color that doesn't have much opacity on a dark color.  For most uses the 180s is great.  If we want a really thin base we go up to a 225s.

We overprint with a standard 230 WOW in most cases, even a top white.

Offline mimosatexas

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2019, 09:14:48 AM »
i really like 135S for base white.  havent been able to move up from that and get the vibrance i want, and ive tried changing basically all the other big variables.

We use 180S, typically for top spot colors over a base, or base whites with halftones.

I actually think we could get away with 3 mesh counts: 135S, 225S, and 300T (we would probably run a 310S or 330S if we had them).  the 180S seems kind of like a middle ground mesh that doesnt really excel at anything in our shop. we stock and use them basically when we dont have enough of another count prepped and it can act as a middle ground for whites or colors.

Offline ZooCity

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2019, 08:28:44 PM »
I used the 180s for spot color work over a white base, occasionally it would be used for a base white.

Lays down a great amount of ink for spot color work.  But lays down to much for WOW printing.  If I needed a color to print WOW, I used a 225s.

This.  Fantastic if you run a lot of plasti spot colors that get flashed. 

180/48 didn't make the final cut in our simplified screen system but I always thought it was excellent for this purpose.   Stable at higher ten then some of it's cousins. 

Offline BrazosDesigns

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2019, 08:29:54 PM »
This is what I use:
150S -for 50/50 low bleed ink and poly inks
180S -for cotton white inks
225S -for single top colors
230 regular for top colors that are WOW

Now that I'm liking the ICC Cool White (flex cure low cure white) and its kinda runny, I'm starting to move to use that on the 180S.

Offline RICK STEFANICK

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Re: What do you do with 180 Mesh
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2019, 03:55:11 PM »
We do nothing with 180 mesh.
Specializing in shop assessment's, flow and efficiency