# DISCHARGE ink drying in screen after 1 shirt!!! WTF?



## kaneda7777 (Jul 19, 2008)

Hi everyone hope you are all well.

I just got some Discharge White waterbased ink today....

Now its my first time doing it and the first thing i noticed was that the ink was reallly really think and i had an activator gel instead of powder...

Anyways i mixed in 10 percent activator to the ammount of ink i needed for a 4 shirt job and got printing.

The 1st shirt printed well and i cured it to check out what the feel was like...

The feel was bout 30% better than when just using waterbased white and prob 30 % brighter as well.... is this normal..

So after curing the shirt which took bout 2 minutes. id say 3 since i was examing the feel of the shirt after curing... i then went back to do my second shirt....

I had keep the image area flooded but after doing my print stroke the squeegee dragged over the image area and i instantly knew that the ink
had dried in the screen....


Am i doing something wrong?

is there anyway to fix this??

Any suggestions would be awesome
thanks everyone


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## kaneda7777 (Jul 19, 2008)

Is it possible i need a thicker gasket?? or is that irrelevant


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## InkedApparel (Mar 18, 2009)

dont let the discharge sit in the screen while curing the first print...print while curing....if its only a 4 shirt order ..print all 4 as fast as possible ..then cure.......sorry buts that the best advice I can give as I to have the same problem with the discharge drying in the screen...I print ..and have someone else curing....

Inked


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

kaneda7777 said:


> Hi everyone hope you are all well.
> 
> I just got some Discharge White waterbased ink today....
> 
> ...


If it's Discharge White Waterbased, the ink will dry in the screen pretty fast. If you used a catalyst to help dry the ink during curing, it will dry even faster.

Tips: Spray mist of water after flooding on the screen, this will buy you some time between prints, however your ink will eventually become watered down and less effective.

Don't use catalyst if you are heat curing.

Try using non-pigmented discharge base, then print white waterbased on top of that with another screen. 

Non pigmented discharge should not clog the screen for a period good length of time.


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## InkedApparel (Mar 18, 2009)

> Try using non-pigmented discharge base, then print white waterbased on top of that with another screen.


will this change the hand of the print?

Inked


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

InkedApparel said:


> will this change the hand of the print?
> 
> Inked


No it will not. (Using discharge will always cause a slight rough hand after the print which is caused by the chemicals in it, but once you wash the garment, it washes away and created a soft print just like discharge with pigment. )

Think of pigment as food coloring, it just adds color.


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## kaneda7777 (Jul 19, 2008)

hi again 

Ok i printed as fast as i could and i did 3 shirts before it started to dry in screen.

that was Without misting the screen.

How many squirts do you do just one right?

Thanks again


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## Radiator (May 30, 2009)

I began screen printing with water based inks.... you really need to be fast when your printing. You need to keep the ink moving through the screen or it will begin to dry. Anytime there is water involved in an ink I prepare by clearing a large 'drying' area to set the shirts during the run. When I finish a print I immediately set the shirt aside and begin on a new one. I never let ink just sit in the screen for more that a minute. By doing this I've been fairly successful and now with water based inks I've completed runs of over 50 shirts. I'm moving into plastisol inks now and its deffinately different. I hope things work out well for you!


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

*Re: DISCHARGE ink drying in screen after 1 shirt!!!*



kaneda7777 said:


> Ok i printed as fast as i could and i did 3 shirts before it started to dry in screen.
> 
> that was Without misting the screen.


Think like the ink. Do things that slow water evaporation.


Flood the image area of the screen.
Reduce the heat in the room
Increase the relative humidity in the room.
Add an evaporation retarder to the ink. Retarders bond with water and slow evaporation & drying time, before the resins can get to 320 degrees F and cure. Glycol mixtures or oils are common basic ingredients.
If you add water to ink it will take longer to dry, dilute the pigment ratio & reduce viscosity.
Every print starts starts a cycle. It shouldn't matter how many shirts you printed, just the conditions since you printed last.

?? thicker gasket? If by gasket you mean the stencil, it should have little effect on the print except to control the image. Use mesh to control ink deposit. Thicker mesh means more ink deposit - slowing your drying & curing.


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

We use low mesh screens for white (110), and use Matsui Softener up to 10%. Always keep a water spray bottle handy.


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## Rusty44 (Apr 28, 2008)

I believe Speedball has a retarder now, haven't used it. I print with waterbased inks and the first time I tried white, was the last. Dried in the screen so fast. Luckly I only print my own designs, so there are ways around that for me. I believe I saw it on Dharma Trading's website. 

Good luck.
Sandra


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## kaneda7777 (Jul 19, 2008)

thanks for all the ideas. 

I cleared a drying area and that has really helped

I bought a fine mist spray bottle as well im just not sure how to use it do i 

FLOOD SCREEN and then add a little mist?

or mist then flood?


Thanks Again


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

I usually mist the ink, mix it around, then do a few hard pulls to clear the screen on a scrap shirt. If you mist the image, you will most likely make the ink run outside of the image area creating a smudge that requires several pulls on a scrap shirt to get the excess ink off of the back of the screen, or just wipe down the back of the screen.


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## drscotty14 (Mar 23, 2011)

i use ryonet white discharge waterbased. when i mist the screen with water, some mist goes through the image area and lands on my shirt or platten and the next shirts get a weird splatter looking effect. is the a certain way to mist the screen without contaminating everything else?


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## Hegemone (Oct 18, 2011)

Mist the screen after you do the super thick cover-the-image-area-to-keep-it-from-drying-out stroke. Water never touches the image area that way and get mixed during the flood stroke.


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## drscotty14 (Mar 23, 2011)

do you ever mist the underside of the screen (shirt side)? is the water retarder worth it to buy?


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## Hegemone (Oct 18, 2011)

I suggest watching ryonets videos on printing water based and discharge they send out the DVD with their ink and some of it is on YouTube. It addresses your concerns better then I can. My apologies.


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