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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: balloonguy on May 28, 2021, 10:20:59 AM
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I have tried 3 different mist type glues, 1 web type spray adhesive and water base pallet adhesive. I seem to have more trouble than I should printing hoodies. I have a couple of ideas in mind. I think maybe I have too much squeegee pressure. I have to print white ink at 50+ psi to clear the screen. Could that be my problem? I'm in FL. Could humidity be causing my issue?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I am tired of messing up what should be simple prints!
Thanks-
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we use 384 SPRAYWAY SUPER FLASH ADHESIVE on our hoodies...
web spray dosent work well with heat.
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Unless the heat breaking down the wrong adhesive turns out to be your issue, as for the pressure needed to clear the white, what mesh are you using? Could too fine of a mesh be adding to the need for increased pressure?
Also, in the old days, when I was starting out, Union's advice was to base it down a bit (though counterintuitive for opacity) if that's what it took to clear the screen.
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web glue, One Stroke inks. S mesh..... Web glue works well for us, the mist stuff was ok too but man, you do not want to breath that in, plus it gets on everything.
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We don't use mist on fleece , have no problem with Albatross dry web. We have also used our roller in head one on difficult fleece jobs to make it compact and smooth that may help.
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Unless the heat breaking down the wrong adhesive turns out to be your issue, as for the pressure needed to clear the white, what mesh are you using? Could too fine of a mesh be adding to the need for increased pressure?
Also, in the old days, when I was starting out, Union's advice was to base it down a bit (though counterintuitive for opacity) if that's what it took to clear the screen.
I use all different meshes according to the job. My press is one of the first diamondbacks and I have never been able to get it to print white without double stroke and a lot of pressure. I am not sure why. I can take the same screen over to the manual and print with very little effort... I have to double stroke most inks at what I would call high pressure (30+psi).
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Web glue and I always do a flash followed by roller squeegee before printing anything on the hoodie. It somewhat pre-shrinks the hoodie and the roller really flattens that fleece down to the pallet. Adds some extra time to production, but the results are worth it IMO.
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All good info. I will buy a roller soon. I think I need bigger press too!
have a great weekend.
Matt
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Unless the heat breaking down the wrong adhesive turns out to be your issue, as for the pressure needed to clear the white, what mesh are you using? Could too fine of a mesh be adding to the need for increased pressure?
Also, in the old days, when I was starting out, Union's advice was to base it down a bit (though counterintuitive for opacity) if that's what it took to clear the screen.
I use all different meshes according to the job. My press is one of the first diamondbacks and I have never been able to get it to print white without double stroke and a lot of pressure. I am not sure why. I can take the same screen over to the manual and print with very little effort... I have to double stroke most inks at what I would call high pressure (30+psi).
We have a diamondback also - 50 psi and 2 strokes normally. Always been that way for us. Even though we were told it shouldn't be..LOL
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Unless the heat breaking down the wrong adhesive turns out to be your issue, as for the pressure needed to clear the white, what mesh are you using? Could too fine of a mesh be adding to the need for increased pressure?
Also, in the old days, when I was starting out, Union's advice was to base it down a bit (though counterintuitive for opacity) if that's what it took to clear the screen.
I use all different meshes according to the job. My press is one of the first diamondbacks and I have never been able to get it to print white without double stroke and a lot of pressure. I am not sure why. I can take the same screen over to the manual and print with very little effort... I have to double stroke most inks at what I would call high pressure (30+psi).
I'm glad I'm not the only one! I know it is something with the press because I can print on the manual or my neighbors brown (electra print - I think) with no problems and 20 psi...
We have a diamondback also - 50 psi and 2 strokes normally. Always been that way for us. Even though we were told it shouldn't be..LOL
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Make sure you are not over flashing? Some hoodies tend to shrink a little when over flashed.
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Make sure you are not over flashing? Some hoodies tend to shrink a little when over flashed.
THIS!
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Make sure you are not over flashing? Some hoodies tend to shrink a little when over flashed.
This could also add to an increase in residual board heat that gets right back to possible breakdown of web spray adhesive.
This job can be a freakin' tightrope walk sometimes.
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The only time we ever have a fleece shift on the table, and this applies to a lot of synthetics shirts as well is because of heat. Before we print hoodies we make sure the machine and tables are fully warmed up and we have the flash adjusted to the bare minimum to make sure only the ink flashes and the garment does not shrink. When we print like that tho its hit the go button and never stop, no taking a 30 second break to chat nothing. The flash is set so low that a couple extra seconds can be enough cooling time to not flash the next shirt.
Once in a blue moon we get in some weird garments for like the cross fit people, really flimsy all synthetic and shrink like hell. Those we always run dry under the flash first before printing.
50PSI sounds a hell of a lot of pressure just to clear the screen. Not sure how that correlates ti the DB, maybe table deflection?
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It's a pain but if we're printing high end hoodies (we're in Under Armour country) we'll throw them through the dryer to pre shrink them or if it's a large order we'll pre-flash them for higher color counts or if registration is tight. Same deal with tri-blends from time to time.
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If you have an extra flash available, preflash the garment, that should help with registration. Then only flash high enough to dry the ink and allow plenty of cool down before the next screens.
We preflash most dark hoodies with big prints.
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CCI top mist has been the only thing we’ve found that works well with hoods for us for tack and can actually maintain somewhat decent speed.
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All these are good pointers. I personally use cci thick bond for a base layer and web tac the rest of the run. Also putting a little Finesse or reducer in your white will def help with getting in through the screen with one stroke. But what is your off contact like? Depending on what brand and style hoodie your running the hoodie could be to thick for the off contact settings your running with. The screen needs to snap off the garment. Our typical mesh for hoodie underlays depending on detail are 110s 135s
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Doing a roller screen before printing has helped us a ton. We've been getting fleece jobs in the 60 - 120 piece range, which isn't enough for me to justify using web spray and needing to replace the pallet tape, especially not every week or multiple times a week. We have been getting awesome results using the waterbased textac glue, combined with the roller, and scrubbing the pallets every 2 or 3 rotations. Would much rather spend the time scrubbing than replacing pallet tape. Trying to limit hoodie jobs to one flash total, because we run into way more issues trying to flash the ink twice. Haven't experimented much with the flash - roll - underbase, but will try this next, as I could see it really helping to pre-shrink the hoodies with poly cotton prior to printing.
Also off contact is generally raised 1mm from your standard t-shirt off contact.
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Unless the heat breaking down the wrong adhesive turns out to be your issue, as for the pressure needed to clear the white, what mesh are you using? Could too fine of a mesh be adding to the need for increased pressure?
Also, in the old days, when I was starting out, Union's advice was to base it down a bit (though counterintuitive for opacity) if that's what it took to clear the screen.
I use all different meshes according to the job. My press is one of the first diamondbacks and I have never been able to get it to print white without double stroke and a lot of pressure. I am not sure why. I can take the same screen over to the manual and print with very little effort... I have to double stroke most inks at what I would call high pressure (30+psi).
same here... always have to double stroke the white. We have tried everything throughout the years not to. Diamondback here too. When we first got it, they said 30-40 psi...no way in hell.LOL
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Have you tried printing through 158 thin thread for an underbase? Can clear quick white through that 1 hit, no problem. PSI 45-50, soft squeegee on a roq (aluminum pallets)