What is clear base and should I use it???

[Appstro]

What is clear base and should I use it???

A friend of mine works for a big company that uses clear base on dark shirts and he says that white base is never used there. Admittedly he is in sales not in production... What works best?

[Underbase37]

There are so many clear bases out there for so many things without knowing what base is being use & without knowing what they are achieving with that base that's a tough one.

The short answer is bases kick butt. If you figure out when and what to use them for. I would try to talk to someone in production to talk to at that shop that can explain what they are using & what for.

Murphy37

[Rockers]

What is clear base and should I use it???

A friend of mine works for a big company that uses clear base on dark shirts and he says that white base is never used there. Admittedly he is in sales not in production... What works best?

That`s what my old boss back in London told me too. He used to work in some print shops in Texas back in the days and some of them used clear bases instead of white for underbasing on dark garments.
I tried it a few times but I never got the same result as with a white. Maybe I just used the wrong clear base;)

[Colin]

Whether or not you use a clear base, completely depends on how bright you want your prints to turn out.  I know plenty of shops that DO NOT CARE :)

I have never been happy with clear base results myself.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Would a mix of 50/50 clear/white give better results in hand on an underbase?

[Underbase37]

Would a mix of 50/50 clear/white give better results in hand on an underbase?

Just be careful not to kill the opacity.

Murphy37

[DannyGruninger]

Just a guess here but there's plenty of shops out there that are printing 100% discharge underbases instead of traditional plastisol whites. I could easily see someone in sales being told "clear discharge" is a clear ink that they use on darks for their underbases. Just a guess though as straight clear ink plastisol for an underbase has never done much for me. All of my whites get some amount of "clear base" but the type and amount varies.

[abchung]

May be they were using the theory of the following article.
http://www.printwearmag.com/article/screen-printing/grays-anatomy

I never get it to work because I find the color to be too dull for my liking.