Getting a rough finish on shirts

bulldawgsp · February 11th, 2008, 06:52 PM

We have been having trouble with our white, gray, and gold inks not feeling smooth after we print the shirt. It feels really rough or sueded. I don't know how to solve this problem. Our darker inks don't do this. We use One Stroke Inks. We also thin it down with a curable reducer to thin it out because the Colormax series inks are very thick. We use 110 and 158 mesh screens and Satchum emulsion. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Greg hamrick · February 12th, 2008, 09:36 AM

If your not getting a good "shear", then small amounts of ink left in the screen will "lift" causing that rough feel. Reducer is not a good idea to solve the problem.
You can try a light stroke, flash, then another stroke to see if the ink shears better. Or, you can try to double coat the "Shirt-side" of the screen and not the squeegee side to see if a better shear comes from that.
Also look at how sharp your squeegees are. Shearing the ink, mainly white and other light colors that come very thick is going to be your biggest problem. Alot of printers don't pay attention to the edge of their rubber and don't even realize that the ink is just pushing across the screen and not being "cut-off". Also, make sure that your using the right durometer of rubber for the colors your using. Some inks work better with the right rubber.

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jr_sanford · February 12th, 2008, 02:32 PM

YES, a SHARP edge on your squeegee along with tight mesh - using as little Off-Contact as possible will allow you to use a "soft hand" shearing the ink (as Greg said) onto the substrate - thus, resulting in a smooth print.

One thing I might add, make sure your last coat of emulsion goes on the squeegee side, then dry your screens squeegee side UP. That will give you a nice smooth surface to pull your squeegee across.