# ways to clean/bleach out a smear



## kbupp (Aug 11, 2010)

Hello- wondering if there is a way to bleach out some of the smear that occurred while the heat press was lifted and the transfer paper moved and smeared the design on the polyester shirt. I wanted to take a little bleach to the part that smeared to see if I could get it out? but that didn't seem to work? any suggestions or how to get it out? or is there just now way. Thank you


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

It is not possible because it is dyed into the shirt. Basically, the shirt is ruined when that happens. A good way to keep that from happening would be to moderately spray tack the image onto the shirt. You could also use heat tape but the tape could leave a residue on the fabric.


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## rawbhaze (Jan 29, 2011)

Going on the assumption that the garment is polyester, you are not able to spot treat an area. You may be able to remove or significantly reduce the image to a ghost by using a color stripper that contains thiourea dioxide. You will have to use it at a boil and keep it that way for about 20mins or so. Use a stainless steel pot and never use that pot for cooking food.

The bleach that you applied damaged the polyester fibers. Assuming that all you used was a "dab", it's not likely to be anything significant. You need to treat the same area with hydrogen peroxide in order to neutralize the bleach. Bleach ceases working when dry but is not dead. As soon as it contacts liquid, or even high humidity, it will activate again.

If the garment is made of nylon or a poly/cotton blend then there are other options.


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

Unfortunately, when there are misprints, smudges and ghosting on sublimated garments - there's nothing you can do. This shirt is now your test/practice shirt. 
Light tacky spray is good to keep the transfer from shifting as was mentioned above; or you can hold it in place with teflon sheet placed over it.


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

D.Evo. said:


> Unfortunately, when there are misprints, smudges and ghosting on sublimated garments - there's nothing you can do. This shirt is now your test/practice shirt.
> Light tacky spray is good to keep the transfer from shifting as was mentioned above; or you can hold it in place with teflon sheet placed over it.


I used to have the ghosting problem all the time when I was first using my epson 3000. I managed to solve it by putting the freshly printed image under the heat press for a minute or two to completely dry the ink. Then I would use Conde Pro Spray to tack the image to the shirt and then put a teflon sheet over top that. It solved my problem most of the time.

Once I bought a Ricoh gx7000, no more ghosting, but that could be that the Ricoh uses Gel ink and prints out dried ink on the image, whereas the Epson image had to be dried under the heat press before pressing. I personally thought that the epson was laying to much ink on the paper, but that could have just been in my head.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

weprintdotorg said:


> It is not possible because it is dyed into the shirt. Basically, the shirt is ruined when that happens. A good way to keep that from happening would be to moderately spray tack the image onto the shirt. You could also use heat tape but the tape could leave a residue on the fabric.


There is also "tacky" sub paper available as well. Also, some papers are less prone to getting a static charge from your heat press (which causes the lifting and subsequent ghosting). I'm in a very dry desert and used to have paper problems on occasion, so I stick to my Starline Pacific sub paper, it doesn't lift with Artanium inks, not sure what other brands this paper sells under, or who the OEM is for the paper.



Michael


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Mike has it dead on - it you are not using tacky paper you will risk these type of issues. Never had a single mistake since using tacky paper.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

On-line Jerseys said:


> Mike has it dead on - it you are not using tacky paper you will risk these type of issues. Never had a single mistake since using tacky paper.


Tacky paper also lets you place the transfer on the shirt off of the press, and then it holds in place while you set it on the press. 

Comes in handy when you are waiting for the current shirt in the press to finish and prepare another shirt ahead of time.

Spray tack you can hold the transfer as well, but involves an additional step for its application.


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

I personally have not had good luck with any tacky paper that I have tried. I use a Ricoh GX7000. Any paper you could recommend?


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

weprintdotorg said:


> I personally have not had good luck with any tacky paper that I have tried. I use a Ricoh GX7000. Any paper you could recommend?


Tex Print Thermo Tack is one brand, but only available in rolls I believe. The last time I bought it was a different brand (see link below) and last I looked that vendor removed it from their site as they mentioned they got threatened with patent infringment on the product.

http://mydyeshop.com/


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

That is the website where I ordered the paper. It works good in the epson with Artainium inks but the quality is not the same when I put it in the preferred Ricoh Printer. Oh Well... guess I will stick with the glue.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

mgparrish said:


> Tacky paper also lets you place the transfer on the shirt off of the press, and then it holds in place while you set it on the press.
> 
> Comes in handy when you are waiting for the current shirt in the press to finish and prepare another shirt ahead of time.
> 
> Spray tack you can hold the transfer as well, but involves an additional step for its application.


We use Beaver tacky paper and it is only tacky when heat is applied. Before heat is applied you would neve know it is tacky paper. The issue with most ghosting we had was fabric shrinking. Tacky resolves the issue 100%. Spray is a total mess.


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

Where can I buy the Beaver Tacky Paper and is it compatible with the Ricoh Printers?


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

On-line Jerseys said:


> We use Beaver tacky paper and it is only tacky when heat is applied. Before heat is applied you would neve know it is tacky paper. The issue with most ghosting we had was fabric shrinking. Tacky resolves the issue 100%. Spray is a total mess.


Never tried the beaver paper, I suppose it could be cut to size for those not able to print rolls. Not having issues with sizing changing when I press, just in the past had the sub paper actually lift up when the heat platen is raised.

But the person posting the orignal topic mentioned his ghosting was due to lifting the platen, so the Beaver paper might not solve his problem.


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

To the OP, sorry for hijacking your thread, but in order to solve your problem, use Tacky Paper or Conde Pro Spray and then put a teflon sheet on top of the image. That should solve your problem.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

weprintdotorg said:


> To the OP, sorry for hijacking your thread, but in order to solve your problem, use Tacky Paper or Conde Pro Spray and then put a teflon sheet on top of the image. That should solve your problem.


Actually your not off topic, while the question was regarding the problem after the fact, the suggestions are to prevent the problem in the first place. So you can sleep better tonight.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

mgparrish said:


> Never tried the beaver paper, I suppose it could be cut to size for those not able to print rolls. Not having issues with sizing changing when I press, just in the past had the sub paper actually lift up when the heat platen is raised.
> 
> But the person posting the orignal topic mentioned his ghosting was due to lifting the platen, so the Beaver paper might not solve his problem.


I used to think our ghosting was due to the paper lifting as well but truly it comes from fabric shrinking. With the Beaver Tacky the paper remains on the fabric and you peal it off which is very easy to do. Thus if it is by chance from lifting it would resolve the issue as well. 

Curious why do people put a teflon sheet on top of the paper before pressing? We have never done so and curious why others do it.


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## weprintdotorg (Mar 31, 2011)

I am not sure what printer you use, but when I first started Sublimation in 2003, we used an Epson 3000 and every time we printed a large graphic with a lot of ink density, the image would come out almost wet-like. We would then put the transfer under the heat press to dry for a minute or two. Because there was so much ink on the paper we had to use a teflon sheet over top the image or some of the ink would bleed through to the other side of the paper and would end up gassing onto our press. Then if you didn't put a teflon sheet over top the next image, the previous gassed image on the press would transfer to other shirts accidentally leaving a ghostly looking transfer on our expensive softlink shirts which were not fixable. Printers are definitely better quality today, than the previous versions, so it may not be much of an issue now days. 

That is why I still use a teflon sheet on my press and to be completely honest I use a piece of a baking sheet on top of the image then put the teflon sheet on top of that. That way if the image does gas out, it will gas out on the baking sheet and not on my teflon sheet, which can be a pain to clean if it gets gassed ink on it. Believe me, you won't know it's on there, until it is too late.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

weprintdotorg said:


> I am not sure what printer you use, but when I first started Sublimation in 2003, we used an Epson 3000 and every time we printed a large graphic with a lot of ink density, the image would come out almost wet-like. We would then put the transfer under the heat press to dry for a minute or two. Because there was so much ink on the paper we had to use a teflon sheet over top the image or some of the ink would bleed through to the other side of the paper and would end up gassing onto our press. Then if you didn't put a teflon sheet over top the next image, the previous gassed image on the press would transfer to other shirts accidentally leaving a ghostly looking transfer on our expensive softlink shirts which were not fixable. Printers are definitely better quality today, than the previous versions, so it may not be much of an issue now days.
> 
> That is why I still use a teflon sheet on my press and to be completely honest I use a piece of a baking sheet on top of the image then put the teflon sheet on top of that. That way if the image does gas out, it will gas out on the baking sheet and not on my teflon sheet, which can be a pain to clean if it gets gassed ink on it. Believe me, you won't know it's on there, until it is too late.


Makes sense - thx. Just an FYI - the tacky paper eliminates this issue. We used to have the opposite happen once in a while where if ink smear got on the back of a sheet it would blow through to the front. With tacky paper the ink does not go through either way from our experience.


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