TSB
screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: ericheartsu on April 15, 2013, 03:50:09 PM
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I've done them once or twice but I'm hoping to get some advice on how to print split fountain designs?
Thanks in advance!
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Assuming that you are using this technique to achieve natural blends
First, obviously choose colors which look nice blended. Load your chosen color inks next to each other, run a few "warm up" prints to blend, and go to it!
The fewer colors, in the widest widths, the more you will be able to print before cleaning the "crap brown" out of the screen and starting again.
Here's my first one from almost forty years ago. Waterbase, btw, before I had even heard of Plastisol.
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Add the inks in the order you need them, print 5-10 shirts to get things mixing, sometimes I use a tooth pick to mix the inks where I want them to blend, add ink as needed, the added ink helps push the blend back into a tighter space. I've only done them on a manual, gotta print straight with good even pressure.
If it goes bad, scrape it all off and start over.
Storing the blended ink in a can for the next time and keeping the colors separated is the real tricky part :P
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Here's another more recent successful one, but the many colors required very frequent cleanings
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i'm guessing i should be using 230 or 305 mesh correct? Also is a thicker ink or a runnier ink better to achieve this?
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Thicker is better, easier to control on the screen.
If WB, use mustard bottles for each of your colors, makes adding the right amount to the right spot very easy.
Ink up in overlapping "triangles" of ink, tapering off into each other for a quicker blend.
On the manual, we use a railing that we clamp on, just a piece of wood with some silicone spray on it as a guide, to keep the squeegee tracking very straight and reduce the number of changeouts.
Avoid highly transparent inks, you want strong, richly pigmented colors here typically...sometimes transparent is good but it will result in more changeouts. Also avoid putting colors side by side that you know will mud up together.
Don't forget to add on a couple ink color changes to the bill!
Frog that pterodactyl print rules. I think that should be the new forum logo.
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Zoo, i know you said to use the mustard bottles for the waterbased. Would this work for discharge?
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Also, how should i charge for this?
thanks again!
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Also, how should i charge for this?
thanks again!
Well, it will probably take you at least twice as long to print the job, and you'll have a lot of waste "brown". We stopped doing them a long, long time ago, and just separate them now. Even if the customer wants to pay more for it, when we figure in how much yellow, red and blue or whatever inks we wasted, it's considerable, and usually scares them off doing that. I really don't remember the last time we did one...
Steve
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DC should be no problem in the bottles.
I charge color changes every so many pcs, depending on the art. Ink waste, we recycle all our plastisol into recycled light and dark buckets that are typically mixed up with adhesive crystals for tagless label transfers.
WB/DC waste could be an issue. It can also be a little freaky knowing if you are printing muddy prints or not, it will slow down your run a lot while you wait for shirts out the back of the dryer to confirm you're still okay with the ink in the screen. I would avoid going the split fountain route for orders over a certain qty and revert to sepping the job with a combo of overprinting and halftones. DC can do some amazing things when overprinted.
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DC should be no problem in the bottles.
I charge color changes every so many pcs, depending on the art. Ink waste, we recycle all our plastisol into recycled light and dark buckets that are typically mixed up with adhesive crystals for tagless label transfers.
WB/DC waste could be an issue. It can also be a little freaky knowing if you are printing muddy prints or not, it will slow down your run a lot while you wait for shirts out the back of the dryer to confirm you're still okay with the ink in the screen. I would avoid going the split fountain route for orders over a certain qty and revert to sepping the job with a combo of overprinting and halftones. DC can do some amazing things when overprinted.
I agree with this. It's for a long time friend/client, who is trying to make something cool, and save money/save us time in set up. But I do think you are right that there will be a certain amount that won't be great, and or get weird browning in some of the ink.
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One screen DC with a thickener agent often used in food products. Anyone care to guess? (re-visiting an old question)
Winged flood bars can help.
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Let's try again
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how often were you guys stopping to clean out the screen?
what mesh did you put that on?
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corn starch i bet.
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good guess but no
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tapioca powder.
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once this mystery powder is revealed, how does it get mixed in? after or before the activator? and does it help the colors from browning together?
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Before the activator with a blender, let sit for an hour to thicken. Used in foods many of us eat/drink daily. Helps keep the colors from "oveblending". Sorry gotta go stupid busy!
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Yeast of some sort I guessing or I'm missing the whole question LOL
Darryl
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either corn syrup or soy lecithin.
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Alll good but no.
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maybe gelatin?
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or maybe it's just flour?
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jello.
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These are all good guesses but no again. Hint: it comes from the ocean.
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agar
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sea salt? kelp>?
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Close enough. Sodium alginate(seaweed)
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Actually comes from brown algae. Probably very similar to Brad's guess of agar which is the gelatin type substance derived from red algae.
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sorry to drag this from the dead, but thanks to everyone we printed these really cool tees on Friday!
(http://distilleryimage11.ak.instagram.com/6b39e7c6d76411e283e322000a9f1948_7.jpg)
they look way brighter in person, but the print still came out great. We did this with 2 screens. 4 different discharge colors, and a white!
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Nice! I haven't listened to that band in awhile.
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Close enough. Sodium alginate(seaweed)
Got one here tonight searching S Mesh and ended up learning you can use seaweed as a thickener. Ok TSB, I dig it! Do any shops keep seaweed on hand still?
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Close enough. Sodium alginate(seaweed)
Got one here tonight searching S Mesh and ended up learning you can use seaweed as a thickener. Ok TSB, I dig it! Do any shops keep seaweed on hand still?
Only in my pantry to add to miso broth, LOL!
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haha, what frog said.
We just got some of Matsui's thickener in to use as needed to bring some parity to the viscosity of DC and WB inks on a run. Can't report on how it does with DC yet.
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Can't comment on the Matsui products however...... sodium algenate is a good consideration for WB/DC. Important to note to incorporate in to the base prior to pigment. BTW its fairly inexpensive based on marked up products.